Top 10 Psycho Killer Movies

It was Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog that gave us our first glimpse in cinema of the murderer who kills for purely psychological reasons. Loosely based on the London serial killer, Jack the Ripper, Hitchcock blazed a trail that eventually lead to his 1960 film, Psycho.

What separates the deranged criminal killer from the psycho killer? It is a bizarre mental landscape, the absence of tangible motive for killing, and psychological fulfillment as the reward of murder. One can clearly see the difference between James Cagney’s character, Cody Jarrett, in “White Heat”, (certainly a character with “mother issues”) and Anthony Perkin as Norman Bates in “Psycho”. For the Cagney character murder is delicious aspect of his criminal enterprise.  For Norman Bates, murder is regrettable act of psychotic behavior, an act which he cannot even conceive of as his own.

The psycho killer movie is different from the slasher flick. It is the film’s focus on the inner workings of the murderer rather than the terror of the murders that separates the psycho killer from the slasher. For that reason, the Halloween, Friday the Thirteenth, and Saw movie franchises are not included on my list.

The psycho killer perpetrates a unique brand of violence. He has an irrational murderous spirit, a break with reality that ranges from twisted logic to psychosis. He may kill without reason, realization or remorse, and often for the pure pleasure of the kill. The psycho killer gets into your head, reverberates in the inner reaches of your being, residing in those dark places deep within the mind. The audience loses itself in deranged mental landscape of the killer, seeing the world as he sees it. That is the hypnotic quality of the psycho killer.

10. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Perhaps by the end of World War II, the movie going public was ready for a film that poked a little fun at the act of murder.  In this dark comedy directed by Frank Capra, we find the sweetest pair of mass murders the movies has ever produced.  Played by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha have filled the basement of their Brooklyn home with a string of elderly gentlemen, whose visit with the ladies ends with them resting in peace.  The two sisters’ murder spree is triggered quite by accident when a visitor to their home dies of a heart attack. Seeing his peaceful serenity, the two aunts conspire in their benevolence to provide the same comfort to other lonely old men. Mixing a touch of poison with a glass of their homemade elderberry wine, their victims meet their end.  Insanity runs throughout the family. Teddy (John Alexander) believes he is Teddy Roosevelt digging the Panama Canal.  Older brother, Jonathan (Raymond Massey), escapes from a prison for the criminally insane. When Mortimer (Cary Grant) discovers a body hidden in the window seat, he sets upon a plan to keep his two elderly aunts out of prison by having them declared insane.  This comic introduction to the psycho killer laid the groundwork for later black comedies such as Fargo and American Psycho.

9. In Cold Blood (1967)

Based on Truman Capotes’ non-fiction novel, this film depicts the brutal murders in 1959 of the Herbert Clutter family. Paroled convicts Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson) plan to rob the family. When the robbery produces only a few dollars, Perry wants to let the family go, but Dick insists they leave no witnesses.  While trying to prove that Dick doesn’t have wherewithal to go through with killing the family, Perry has a sudden emotional snap, and slits Herb Cutter’s throat.  This cascades into the murder of the rest of the family. Perry’s mental illness and Dick’s personality disorder mix to create a psycho killing of monstrous proportions.

8. Taxi Driver (1976)

Starring Robert DeNiro and directed by Martin Scorcesse, this movie is set in a decaying 1970’s New York City.  Mentally unstable ex-marine, Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), copes with his chronic insomnia by driving a taxi at night. Besieged by the decadence, crime and corruption of the city, and reeling from the rejection of a women he is obsessed with, Travis decides to buy a small arsenal of guns with the intention of righting the wrongs he encounters. When he finds himself in the middle of a robbery at a grocery store, he kills the thief.  Later he goes on a killing rampage to free a young prostitute and return her to her parents. This psycho killer story has a strange twist when the crazed Travis is hailed as a hero by the media.

7. Basic Instinct (1992)

San Fransico detective Nick Curran’s (Michael Douglas) investigation of a rock star’s murder leads him to suspect crime novelist, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), of the crime.  Her recent novel depicts a murder similar to the one Curran is investigating.  The manipulative Tramell leads Curran in a cunning game of cat and mouse as the body count rises.

Curran is having his own difficulties on the force, and is required to see SFPD psychiatrist Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Thripplehorn) for his drinking and psychological problems. The detective and the alluring suspect, Tramell, become involved in a heated sexual relationship. The plot becomes even more convoluted by Tramell’s  bisexual leanings, and facts that are revealed about her past. This causes Currin to suspect Dr. Garner might be responsible for the murders.  The mind games and torrid sex in this twisted tale combine to make Catherine Tramell the hottest “psycho killer” on my list.

6. American Beauty (1999)

I’ve had some push back about including this film on this list, but I contend that the psycho killer is a key player in the “beauty” of this film.

Frustrated with his job, dissatisfied in his marriage, and distant from his teenage daughter, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) proceeds to enhance his life in a number of very strange ways. He becomes infatuated with his daughter’s high school friend, starts working out with weights to improve his physique, and begins smoking some very high-grade marijuana to note just a few.

Buried in subplot, we see the inner workings of the deranged murderer’s psyche revealed through his relationship with his son and his wife. We see how his homophobia results in violence towards his son, how his son uses his father’s deranged emotions to free himself, and how the murderer’s conflicted inner feelings compel him to kill.

5. Cape Fear (1962 & 1991)

It is rare that I think a remake is as good as its classic counterpart, but in this case I really can determine which movie I like better.  So the 1962 original starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Polly Bergen shares my number 5 spot with Cape Fear (1991) starring  Nick Nolte, Robert DeNiro and Jessica Lange.

In this story of twisted revenge, Max Cady (Mitchum, DeNiro) is a released convict who preys on his former defense attorney, Sam Bowden (Peck, Nolte) and his family.  Festering in the distorted mind of Cady over his 14 years of captivity, is the fact that his attorney, Bowden, hide a piece of evidence during his trail that might have convinced the jury of reasonable doubt.  Cady makes no assertion of innocence, and Bowden is certain of his guilt. The story depicts the psychological battle of wit between Cady and Bowden, as the convict stalks the lawyer and his family, leaving no evidence. With the legal authorities powerless to do anything, Cady manipulates the situation, putting Bowden in the position of taking matters into his own hands outside of the law.

Both movies take the audience to that dark place in our consciousness, where we are powerless to defend against a cunning and relentless evil force, drifting helplessly in our private Cape Fear.

4. Natural Born Killers  (1994)

Take the direction of Oliver Stone and mix it with the story writing of Quentin Tarentino, and what do you get?  A romance as macabre as the one between Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis) Knox. The bizarre couple kills Mallory’s abusive father and her head-in-the-sand mother, and takes off on the road. Their self-consecrated marriage sealed in blood; they go on a massive killing spree. Leaving one person alive at every scene to tell the story, they murder to increase their fame. Equally as bizarre is the style in which this story is told. Mixed with steamy, sexually enticing scenes that end in brutal mass murder, are sitcom-like gag lines, complete with canned laughter.

Could a movie like this possibly have a happy ending for this mass-murdering couple?  Though quite distinct in style and substance from “Arsenic and Old Lace”, both films form a the category I’ll just call “Psycho Killer Romantic Comedy.”

3. Silence of the Lambs (1991)

“You spook easily, Starling?” FBI agent Crawford asks. And that is the true nature of the psycho killer, they spook you, entering the workings of your inner mind, that unfathomable portion of consiousness, where the irrational is able to imagine the unthinkable.

“You don’t want Hannibal Lechter inside your head.” That’s the final piece of advice Starling gets from her superior.

Here is a film that makes me shiver in my boots every time I see it. Perhaps it is the innocent appearance of FBI Agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), and the menacing politeness of the imprisoned cannibalistic murderer, Hannibal Lechter (Anthoy Hopkins). They engaged in a gentle waltz of mutual interrogation that gives this movie its power. But in the act of murder, Dr. Lecter is anything but polite. We see his sophisticated brutally close-up, as he viciously kills two guards to escape. Starling is tasked with questioning the brilliant psychiatrist/serial killer Lecter to gain clues about another psychopathic killer, Buffalo Bill, who is on the loose.

As Starling digs deeper into Lector’s psyche, he demands quid-pro-quo. With each question Starling asks, Lector gets to ask one of her. In this manner, we go deeper and deeper into the mind not only of the maniacal psychopath, but also to the inner reaches of the woman who is pursuing him. It is a chilling story of one psycho killer placing a trail of breadcrumbs for the investigator to follow in her search for another psycho killer.

2. The Shining (1980)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson as the writer/caretaker/husband/father/pyscho killer, Jack Torrence, this film is a haunting tale of one man’s slow spiral into insanity. Based on the novel by Stephen King, we watch as alcoholism, cabin fever, marital problems and some very strange supernatural happenings push the barely functional Jack Torrence over a psychological cliff into a psychopathic frenzy of murderous proportions. Jack was fired from his teaching position in Vermont, moved to Colorado to start a new life, and mend his relationship with his family. He takes a position as the winter caretaker of the Overlook hotel in Colorado, a seasonal resort high in the Rocky Mountains that is snowbound for most of the winter. Their young son, Danny, has a special power that gives him insight into events past, present and future with the assistance of his imaginary friend, Tony.

When snow makes contact with the outside world impossible, the situation deteriorates. We find that the hotel holds its own pyscho killer ghosts, that infiltrate the already tettering mind of Jack Torrence. Jack contends that he would give his soul for a drink. The supernatural world of the Overlook steps in, fulfilling his alcoholic longings, and so the murderous mayhem begins.

1. Psycho (1960)

I was 6 years old when this movie was released in the theaters, and remember vividly my Uncle Joey describing the movie blow-by-blow to my parents. I just had to see this movie, and finally did in 1967, when it aired on television.  The really terrifying scenes were drastically cut, but I can still feel the terror as Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) falls victim in the shower. I can still seeing the red blood spiraling down the bathtub drain, regardless of the fact that the film and the TV were black and white.  Hitchcock takes us on a journey into the deranged mind of Norman Bates, and creates a tapestry that displays the bizarre psychological motives behind his murderous acts.

In Psycho, Hitchcock perfected the psychologically deranged killer, whose delicate hold on reality slips into murderous rampage. Chilling and emotionally disturbing, the psycho killer upsets our own sense of reality as we delve into his mind, trying to rationalize the irrational.