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Best and worst "serial killer movie"


Sandor
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BEST:

For me: Se7en.The Silence Of The Lambs is a very, very close second, but Se7en is one my 10 favorite movies ever.

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Se7en is such an amazing movie that my limited vocabulary could never do it justice. It is one of those rare films where I expected to see just another "cops hunting killer" movie, but only 5 minutes into the movie I was totally absorbed by it and realised that I was in for a major surprise. The "Sloth scene" is still one of the most scary and effective film moments I have ever seen and the row I was sitting in at the movie theatre was seriously pulled out its joints when Victor "came to life again".

The cinematography, the "constant rain", the script by Andrew Walker, the redemption of David Fincher (after Alien3), the fact that the horrors are not seen (only shown by snippets of photographs and quick images of victims), but described vividly is an amazing achievement: it let's the viewer play out the horrible murders *in their mind* and what we can image is usually a lot more terrifying than we see on the screen, because we tend to place ourselves in the role of the victim ("What if it would happen to me?"). That's why Se7en is so effective; it plays on THAT psychological facet. Great moviemaking.

WORST:

The Bone Collector.

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I'm not even going to explain why...

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SPOILERS BELOW!

For me it's also Silence with Se7en not far behind. Interesting that in Silence, the most intimidating serial killer in the film is free and having a ball at the end of the film (even though he is not the serial killer being hunted), and in Se7en, the serial killer is entirely successful at every point, even the end.

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I agree with SOL and 7 but another film was Micheal Mann's Manhunter. It's always been a favorite of mine.

Red Dragon failed to capture the darkness of MH and Fiennes didn't have that presence needed, plus Hopkins looked too old.

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Perhaps the Dutch thriller "Spoorloos" could also be regarded as a "serial killer movie". If so; it would rate very high on my list.

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Silence of the Lambs is so superior to Se7en, its not even close.

there is none of the tension, or excitment in 7. Hopkin's gives one of the greatest performances ever, as do all.

Se7en as good as it is, is marred by Brad Pitt, who gives just an average performance, which may be the best he's capable of.

Halloween is a better film that 7, as is The Deliberate Stranger, with Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy.

Interestingly the 2 best serial-killer films were scored by Howard Shore.

they are not the two best as I've just pointed out.

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As in the two "best-made" it would have to be Silence of the Lambs followed by Seven. In Psycho, Norman Bates isn't really a "serial killer" that's why I don't include it. Not until the sequels did they touch on Norman actually killing many people.

As far as my favorites personally, I'd say Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original not the horrible trash as of late).

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actually Strong bad, Norman Bates is a serial killer, even without the sequels, which are easily discounted.

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actually Strong bad, Norman Bates is a serial killer,  even without the sequels, which are easily discounted.

Yes, the less said about them the better.

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Se7en is the first one that came to my mind, and after reading this thread, I still think it's my favourite. Lambs is excellent as well, of course. As far as I remember, Manhunter did absolutely nothing for me.

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Best: Easily the oft-mentioned Silence of the Lambs - hey - nice to see Manhunter mentioned though! Brian Cox would have made a great Lecter for the modern age - still couldn't top HopKins' pereformances though....I like Se7en, but it ain't nowhere near as good as some people seem to think.....

Worst: Either Psycho III (which immediately sprang to mind when reading the thread title - even though I hadn't read the thread yet), or the abomonibal "From Hell", which just sucked....though I guess it could be argued that it wasn't actually about Jack the Ripper at all, but it still sucked....

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I don't understand you European's love affair with David Fincher, don't you guys know he's a terrible director.

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best, and David Fincher are things you won't hear much of in the US.

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Well, for me David Fincher is a director with an enourmous vision and he is able to give all his movie a unique signature. Just the visual language of a film like The Panic Room tells us: this is a David Fincher film. And it's a language I love by the way.

Fincher has the ability to really sell a story. Less talented directors would have turned Se7en into another Kiss The Gils.

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That was a damn good film I thought, I loved the performances and chemistry between Freeman and Judd.

Kiss The Girls (got it right this time...) is for me Hollywood rearing its ugly head. A reaction to the succes of Se7en, but without any of the creative punch that made Se7en so hardhitting and great. The worst thing about it, is the "revelation" of the identity of the killer. Any serial killer movie where the killer turns out to be a character we thought was a "good guy all the time" just simply gets it wrong. Kiss The Girls, The Bone Collector, ... Sigh. The fact that in both Silence Of The Lambs and Se7en the killer is just the killer (and nothing else) is proof that those movies didn't need a Scream-like "whodunit" element.

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thats because they are not a who dunit story, complete and separate genre's

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"Memories of Murder", korean movie directed by Bong Joon-ho in 2003, is the last film of the genre I've really liked (probably more than "Seven").

talk about obscure, some how I doubt they could make a movie that would hold my interest.

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