Best movies like Boston Strangler

Inspired by a true story

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Boston Strangler Starring Keira Knightley, Carrie Coon, Chris Cooper, Alessandro Nivola, and more. If you liked Boston Strangler then you may also like: Zodiac, The Zodiac, Unabomber: The True Story, The Watcher, The Whole Town's Talking and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

selected filters: Sort: Default

You may filter the list of movies on this page for a more refined, personalized selection of movies.

Still not sure what to watch click the recommend buttun below to get a movie recommendation selected from all the movies on this list

Know any good movies to watch like Boston Strangler 2023. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.
7.5 / 10 2007 Crime Drama Mystery
suggested by: personaltrainer

Zodiac

A cartoonist teams up with an ace reporter and a law enforcement officer to track down an elusive serial killer.

The Zodiac

An elusive serial killer known as the Zodiac terrorizes the San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s, while detectives aim to stop him before he claims more victims. Based on a true story.

Unabomber: The True Story

The real story behind the hunt for Theodore J. Kaczynski, later known as the Unabomber, a terrorist who sent several bombs through the mail, alarming authorities and society. The movie follows a postal inspector who tracks down the suspect; a obstinate detective; and Kaczynski's brother, who suspected of Ted after the publishing of his manifesto explaining the reasons for the bombings.

The Watcher

FBI agent Joel Campbell, burnt-out and shell-shocked after years spent chasing serial killers, flees L.A. to begin a new life for himself in Chicago. But five months later, Joel's best laid plans are abruptly cut short when his new hometown becomes the setting for some particularly gruesome murders--murders that could only have been committed by one man: David Allen Griffin. One of Joel's most elusive and cunning nemeses, Griffin has followed his former pursuer to Chicago in order to play a sadistic game of cat and mouse. Taunting Joel with photographs of his intended victims and leaving his crime scenes meticulously free of clues in order to keep the police at bay, Griffin derives as much pleasure out of watching Joel react to every movement as watching his victims die. But when Griffin moves into Joel's inner circle, Joel must quickly find some way to stop him before someone close to him becomes the next one to die.

The Whole Town's Talking

Ordinary man-in-the-street Arthur Ferguson Jones leads a very straightforward life. He's never late for work and nothing interesting ever happens to him. One day everything changes: he oversleeps and is fired as an example, he's then mistaken for evil criminal killer Mannion and is arrested. The resemblance is so striking that the police give him a special pass to avoid a similar mistake. The real Mannion sees the opportunity to steal the pass and move around freely and chaos results.

Night School

A Boston police detective investigates a series of gruesome decapitations of various college coeds, committed by a helmeted, black-leather clad serial killer.

Nightstalker

A stylish horror film based on the life of Richard Ramirez, aka the Nightstalker, who terrorized people in Los Angeles during the 1980s.

Nothing But the Truth

When reporter Rachel Armstrong writes a story that reveals the identity of a covert CIA operative, the government demands that Rachel reveal her source. She defies the special prosecutor and is thrown in jail. Meanwhile, her attorney, Albert Burnside argues her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bordertown

American corporations are using the North American Free Trade Agreement by opening large maquiladoras right across the United States–Mexico border. The maquiladoras hire mostly Mexican women to work long hours for little money in order to produce mass quantity products. Lauren Adrian, an impassioned American news reporter for the Chicago Sentinel wants to be assigned to the Iraq front-lines to cover the war. Instead, her editor George Morgan assigns her to investigate a series of slayings involving young maquiladora factory women in a Mexican bordertown.

The Boston Strangler

Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story, the film follows the investigators path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.

Happy Face Killer

Serial killer Keith Jesperson murders at least eight women over a five-year span and taunts authorities with disturbing letters and scribbled confessions signed with a happy face.

Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story

An investigative reporter Nellie Bly, who’s on a mission to expose the deplorable conditions and mistreatment of patients at the notorious Women’s Lunatic Asylum, and feigns mental illness in order to be institutionalized to report from the inside. The movie is an account of actual events surrounding Nellie’s stay beginning after she has undergone treatment, leaving her with no recollection of how she came to the asylum or her real identity.

The Murder of Princess Diana

Rachel, an American journalist in Paris, is present the night of the fateful accident of Princess Diana and witness to the crime scene. As she starts to investigate, Rachel uncovers information that leads her to believe this was no accident, and she soon learns that there are people out there who will stop at nothing to silence her.

Citizen X

Based on the true story of a Russian serial killer who, over many years, claimed victim to over 50 people. His victims were mostly under the age of 17. In what was then a communists state, the police investigations were hampered by bureaucracy, incompetence and those in power. The story is told from the viewpoint of the detective in charge of the case.

She Said

New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break one of the most important stories in a generation — a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood.

The Good Nurse

Suspicious that her colleague is responsible for a series of mysterious patient deaths, a nurse risks her own life to uncover the truth.

Texas Killing Fields

In the Texas bayous, a local homicide detective teams up with a cop from New York City to investigate a series of unsolved murders.

Down

After the elevators at a New York City skyscraper begin inexplicably malfunctioning, putting its passengers at risk, mechanic Mark Newman and reporter Jennifer Evans begin separate investigations. Newman gets resistance from superiors at his company, which manufactured the elevator, while additional elevator incidents cause several gruesome deaths. The police get involved and suspect that terrorists are responsible, but a far stranger explanation looms.

Fatherland

Fictional account of what might have happened if Hitler had won the war. It is now the 1960s and Germany's war crimes have so far been kept a secret. Hitler wants to talk peace with the US president. An American journalist and a German homicide cop stumble into a plot to destroy all evidence of the genocide.

Hangman

A homicide detective teams up with a criminal profiler to catch a serial killer whose crimes are inspired by the children's game, Hangman.

The Postcard Killings

After suffering a personal tragedy, and desperate for justice, Jacob Kanon, a veteran New York City police detective, embarks on the search for a twisted killer who is leaving a bloody trail of elaborate murders across Europe.

Don't Answer the Phone!

A deeply disturbed photographer and Vietnam veteran, named Kirk Smith, terrorizes Los Angeles by going around strangling lingerie-clad young women in their homes while taunting Lindsay Gale, a young psychologist, by calling her on a radio call-in show to describe his sexual hang-ups and misogynistic ways, while a local police detective, Lt. McCable, is always two steps behind in trying to catch the psycho.

Infamous

While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.

Lost Girls

When Mari Gilbert's daughter disappears, police inaction drives her own investigation into the gated Long Island community where Shannan was last seen. Her search brings attention to over a dozen murdered prostitutes.

The Mean Season

A routine investigation of a shocking murder takes a bizarre twist when the killer contacts the reporter and appoints him his personal spokesman. As the killer's calls and clues increase, the reporter is lured into a deadly trap.

Ted Bundy

Docu-drama based on the life of Ted Bundy, a serial killer who killed at least 19 young women during the 1970's (though some sources say as many as 30 to 35 were murdered). Set from his college student years, to his first victims, his capture, escape from prison (twice), his final killing spree to his trial, conviction and execution.

Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman

Set in a gritty and decadent 1970s America, American Boogeyman follows the elusive and charming killer and the manhunt that brought him to justice involving the detective and the FBI rookie who coined the phrase ‘serial killer’.

A Shriek in the Night

Rival newspaper reporters Pat Morgan and Ted Rand find themselves unraveling the mystery behind the death of a millionaire philanthropist who fell from his penthouse balcony. When it is discovered that the plunge was not an accident, the building's residents come under suspicion. Soon, the body count begins to mount as three more murders occur by strangulation.

A Stranger is Watching

A twisted man holds a TV newswoman and a girl hostage in the bowels of Grand Central Station.

Life of Crime

Two common criminals get more than they bargained for after kidnapping the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer who shows no interest in paying the $1 million dollar ransom for her safe return.

Cry Havoc

An ambitious young reporter is granted an interview with one of the FBI's most wanted. While entering his compound she finds one of his prized possessions, a serial killer who murders at call, called HAVOC. Her only hope is a rogue police man searching for his daughter.

Assumed Killer

Bernard Salzmann's thriller Assumed Killer tells the tale of a reporter investigating a serial killer. After she suffers an accident and becomes an amnesiac, she begins to suspect her husband may be the person responsible for the brutal slayings

4.2 / 10 1971 Thriller
suggested by: photographer

The Todd Killings

Based on the true story of '60s thrill-killer Charles Schmidt ("The Pied Piper of Tucson"), Skipper Todd (Robert F. Lyons) is a charismatic 23-year old who charms his way into the lives of high school kids in a small California town. Girls find him attractive and are only too willing to accompany him to a nearby desert area to be his "girl for the night." Not all of them return, however. Featuring Richard Thomas as his loyal hanger-on and a colorful assortment of familiar actors in vivid character roles including Barbara Bel Geddes, Gloria Grahame, Edward Asner, Fay Spain, James Broderick and Michael Conrad.

Ann Rule Presents: The Stranger Beside Me

While working at a Seattle clinic for women in the 1970s, Ann Rule becomes friends with Ted Bundy. Based on a book by Ann Rule.

Exclusive

The famous TV journalist Marcy Singer receives an anonymous phone call that orders her to the Blue Moon bar. When she arrives, she finds 6 corpses. Urged by her new boss, she investigates the case, and soon learns about evidence against her own husband Reed.

Dead Connection

After a series of murders in motel rooms are connected, a cop, Dickson, heads out on the trail to find a serial killer. He discovers that he signs the motel guest-books with the names of boxers, and hence gets a lead on him. However, when he just fails to catch up arrest him, the chase becomes personal.

suggested by: JungleJavelina

The Riverman

A series of interviews are conducted with convicted serial killer Ted Bundy in hopes of gaining insight into the Green River Killer who is terrorizing Seattle.

Murder in Greenwich

The story of Martha Moxley, a 15-year-old girl murdered in Greenwich in the 1970s. Her murder went unsolved for 25 years.

Awakening the Zodiac

The story follows a down-on-their-luck couple who discovers a serial killer's film reels. They decide to take the law into their own hands, risking everything for the chance at a $100,000 reward. It isn't long until they find themselves in the killer's lethal cross-hairs.

Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team arrive in Three Pines to solve the unusual murder of a much-loved woman and find dark secrets shadowing this usually peaceful village.

Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker

Based on the true story of Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez who terrorized California in 1985 and the two Los Angeles police detectives who try to track him down.

The Case of the Hillside Stranglers

The chilling true story of the "two of a kind" killing cousins, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, better known as the Hillside Stranglers.

Victim/Suspect

Investigative journalist Rae de Leon travels nationwide to uncover and examine a shocking pattern: Young women tell the police they’ve been sexually assaulted, but instead of finding justice, they’re charged with the crime of making a false report, arrested, and even imprisoned by the system they believed would protect them.

Look Again

Just as her life is coming together, Allison experiences a terrible tragedy when her boyfriend is murdered by an intruder from whom the woman herself barely escapes. The police capture a man they believe to be the killer, but Allison, still unsettled, has her doubts. Things take a frightening turn when she meets her friend's new boyfriend and suspects him to be the killer.

Choke

The lines between reality and fiction, and good and bad blur when both a nihilistic detective and a serial killer's affairs with a mysterious girl overlap.

The Hunt For the BTK Killer

After 31 years at-large, detectives in Wichita, Kansas hone in on the serial killer known as BTK.

The Falcon Strikes Back

The Falcon is framed for the murder of a banker and the theft of war bonds. He makes his escape into the mountains where he hides out in a rustic lodge. From here he uncovers a phony war bond operation.

Christmas 9 to 5

Jennifer is a tough crime beat reporter who gets the assignment of her life: to find the true meaning of Christmas. When she goes undercover in a department store as a 9 to 5 sales clerk from Black Friday to Christmas Eve, she finds her true calling and meets the man of her dreams. It's a Christmas she will never forget.

Re-Cut

When twin girls are found dead in their family’s barn, reality star turned TV-reporter Meredith Phillips and her de-facto camera crew are dispatched to rural Wisconsin to investigate the gruesome deaths. In their relentless drive to break the story, the reporters become entangled in a deadly mystery and uncover the small town’s shocking secret. Edited together from the crew’s multiple cameras, the film documents their struggle to survive the most terrifying night of their lives and becomes the only evidence of a crime too horrific to imagine.

More related lists

Sort results by:

X close
Default
Clear filters
...