Serial Killers: 177

Halloween II (2009) is a slasher flick from filmmaker Rob Zombie. As a young patient at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, Michael Myers receives a gift from his mother Deborah – a white horse figurine. Flash forward fifteen years and we find Laurie Strode in shock after shooting an older Michael. Sheriff Lee Brackett comes across Laurie and brings her to the hospital, while the paramedics transport Annie Brackett and Dr. Sam Loomis, both survivors of Michael’s attacks. Michael’s body is en route in another ambulance, but when the driver gets into an accident, Michael awakens and makes his escape, killing ...

Friday the 13th (2009) is a slasher film, helmed by director Marcus Nispel and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. On this ominous date in June of 1980, a young Jason Voorhees witnesses his mother’s beheading at the hands of a camp counselor, who was trying to escape Mrs. Voorhees’s murderous rampage around Camp Crystal Lake. Nearly three decades later, five friends—Wade, Richie, Amanda, Mike, and Whitney—arrive for a camping trip at Crystal Lake with hopes of stumbling upon a hidden marijuana crop in the ...

The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) is a Swedish-Danish-German crime thriller film directed by Daniel Alfredson and based on the novel of the same name by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It serves as a sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and follows Lisbeth Salander, who returns to Sweden after a year abroad. She reconnects with her ex-girlfriend Miriam Wu and allows her to stay in her old apartment. Later, Salander confronts her former abusive guardian Nils Bjurman after hacking into his email. She discovers that he has made an appointment with a ...

The Swedish-Danish crime thriller film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), was directed by Niels Arden Oplev and produced by Søren Stærmose. It is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. In December 2002, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of independent magazine Millennium, is sentenced to three months in prison after losing a libel case involving unproven allegations against billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerström. To investigate Blomkvist’s background, Henrik Vanger, patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, hires Lisbeth ...

Written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, The Collector (2009) is an American horror film directed by Dunstan. When Larry and Gena Wharton come home, they are shocked to find a large trunk upstairs and what lies inside. Suddenly, they are attacked by an unknown intruder. Meanwhile, Arkin O’Brien, a former convict, works for the Chase family as a handyman. As he finishes work for the day, he reunites with his wife who owes money to loan sharks and needs it paid off before midnight. In order to protect them, Arkin ...

Saw VI (2009) is a horror film directed by Kevin Greutert and written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. As with its predecessors, the movie begins with a woman (portrayed by Tanedra Howard, winner of the reality show ‘Scream Queens’) waking up in a dimly lit room with a deadly trap on her head. This particular trap involves a headset with two bolts positioned at her temples, designed to penetrate her brain if triggered. In a separate area of the room, an overweight man also regains consciousness with the ...

The Lovely Bones (2009) is a supernatural drama film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, based on Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel of the same name. In 1973, 14-year-old high school freshman Susie Salmon has aspirations of becoming a photographer. She is asked out by Ray, the boy she has a crush on. One day while walking home through a cornfield, Susie encounters her neighbor George Harvey and follows him to an ...

In his directorial debut, Martin McDonagh brings us In Bruges (2008), a black comedy-drama crime thriller. Following orders, inexperienced hitman Ray unintentionally shoots a young boy instead of his target, a priest during confession. Along with his mentor Ken, Ray travels to Bruges as instructed by their employer Harry, to wait for further instructions. While Ken finds the city enchanting and peaceful, Ray is unimpressed and unhappy. However, their boredom is momentarily interrupted when they come across a movie being filmed with a dwarf actor. This entertains Ray greatly. During his time in Bruges, Ray also meets Chloë – a local drug dealer who is working as ...

Untraceable (2008) is an American psychological thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit. Its protagonist, FBI Special Agent Jennifer Marsh, is a widowed single parent residing in a suburban Portland home with her daughter, Annie Haskins, and her mother, Stella Marsh. By night, Jennifer works alongside her colleague Griffin Dowd in the FBI’s cybercrime division, tackling cases of identity theft and other similar crimes. One particular night, they receive an anonymous tip leading them to a troubling website called KillWithMe.com. This site features disturbing live videos of animal cruelty and can’t be taken ...

The horror film Saw V (2008), directed by David Hackl in his directorial debut, features a screenplay written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. The story follows convicted killer Seth Baxter, who awakens chained to a table beneath a pendulum blade. Despite being told he can release himself, the blade still cuts him in half as someone watches through a hole in the wall. Meanwhile, FBI agent Peter Strahm manages to escape from the room where Detective Hoffman had locked him up. However, he is then attacked by a figure ...

The American road thriller film, The Hitcher (2007), features an all-star cast including Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, and Zachary Knighton. It is a remake of the 1986 film with the same title. Two college students, Jim Halsey and Grace Andrews, are on their way to meet friends for spring break in New Mexico. On their first night of driving, they almost hit a hitchhiker standing in the middle of the road. After swerving to avoid him, they continue on their journey. However, fate has other plans as Jim comes across the hitchhiker ...

88 Minutes (2007) is an American thriller film directed by Jon Avnet. In 1997, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gramm provides crucial testimony and expert psychiatric opinion at the trial of suspected serial killer Jon Forster, known as ‘The Seattle Slayer’ to the police. Gramm’s testimony leads to Forster’s conviction for the attempted killing of Janie Cates and the murder of her sister Joanie, who was drugged, hanged upside down and killed in their apartment. As Forster receives a guilty verdict from the jury, he taunts Gramm with the words ‘Tick-tock, Doc’. Nine years later, as ...

In the  musical slasher film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), directed by Tim Burton and written by John Logan, a barber named Benjamin Barker arrives in London with young sailor Anthony Hope. After being falsely convicted and sent to Australia by corrupt Judge Turpin, who desired his wife Lucy, Barker assumes the identity of ‘Sweeney Todd’ and returns to his old shop above Nellie Lovett’s meat pie shop on Fleet Street. Lovett, who harbors unrequited love for him, informs Todd that after his exile, Turpin drove Lucy to suicide and ...

Hot Fuzz (2007) is an action-packed buddy cop comedy directed by Edgar Wright and co-written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg also takes on the lead role alongside Nick Frost. After his promotion to Sergeant in the Metropolitan Police Service, highly capable constable Nicholas Angel is transferred to Sandford, Gloucestershire – a quaint town that regularly wins the title of ‘Village of the Year’. Meanwhile, ...

The American slasher film, Halloween (2007), was written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. Serving as a remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 horror film with the same title, it takes place in Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night. A ten-year-old Michael Myers displays early signs of psychopathic tendencies as he brutally murders his school bully Wesley Rhoades, his sister Judith, her boyfriend Steve Haley, and his mother’s abusive partner Ronnie White out of a desire for revenge. However, he spares his infant sister Angel. Following one of the lengthiest ...

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, Saw IV (2007) is a horror film with a screenplay by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, and a story by Melton, Dunstan, and Thomas Fenton. During a routine autopsy of the notorious Jigsaw Killer, John Kramer, an unexpected discovery is made: a wax-coated microcassette hidden in his stomach. Lieutenant Mark Hoffman is then summoned to listen to the ...

No Country for Old Men (2007), an American neo-Western crime thriller film directed and written by Joel and Ethan Coen, is based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel with the same name. In 1980, Anton Chigurh, a hitman, is arrested in Texas but manages to escape by strangling a sheriff’s deputy. He then steals a car using a captive bolt pistol to kill the driver. Meanwhile, Llewelyn Moss is hunting pronghorns in the desert when he stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong. Among the scene are several dead men, a wounded ...

Zodiac (2007) is an American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by James Vanderbilt, based on the nonfiction books by Robert Graysmith: Zodiac (1986) and Zodiac Unmasked (2002). The movie opens on July 4, 1969, when an unknown man attacks Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau with a handgun at a lovers’ lane in Vallejo, California. Only Mike survives. A month later, the San Francisco Chronicle receives encrypted letters from the killer who calls himself ‘Zodiac’. In these letters, he threatens to kill twelve ...

Hannibal Rising (2007) is a chilling psychological thriller that serves as the fifth installment in the Hannibal Lecter franchise. Serving as a prequel to Red Dragon, Hannibal, and The Silence of the Lambs, this film brings to life Thomas Harris’ eponymous 2006 novel. It delves into the origins of Lecter’s descent from a vengeful Nazi hunter to a monstrous cannibalistic serial killer. Set in 1944 Lithuania during World War II, we see an eight-year-old Hannibal and his family take refuge in their hunting lodge to escape the advancing German troops. However, after three long years, ...

The American psychological thriller film, Mr. Brooks (2007), directed by Bruce A. Evans and starring Kevin Costner, follows the story of Earl Brooks. Despite appearing as a respected businessman in Portland, Oregon, Brooks leads a secret life as a serial killer. Struggling to control his ‘killing addiction’, Brooks eventually gives in to his id, Marshall, and murders a young couple in their bedroom. This pattern of leaving a thumbprint on the lampshade earned him the moniker ‘Thumbprint Killer’. His methodical approach includes meticulous ...