A lot of things in the 90s got pretty edgy and very crazy, and serial killer movies were right there on the edge of such a trend. The level of intrigue was still there, but the propensity for violence and gory effects got raised as well since people were less into the visceral aspect as they were the shock factor that was expected. A lot of these films simply went for everything when they were trying to entertain the audience and wound up doing far more than had been expected since they became hallmarks of the genre that people still remember to this day. Some of them are disturbing enough that people would actually have nightmares about them, which is understandable since some of the characters in the clips below are absolutely out of their minds when it comes to their relations with others.
Here are some of the best serial killer movies from the 90s.
5. Serial Mom
Kathleen Turner put in a great performance as a run of the mill, ordinary housewife and mother that behind the scenes was just as vengeful and crazy as they come. She kills enough people in this film to have her own impressive body count and despite it all she manages to defend herself in court and go free. Of course given all that she’s done and the fact that she kills over the slightest things that offend her, such as wearing white shoes after Labor Day, there’s a lot of potential in thinking that the character finally did get caught in the movie, though by the end all we see is a picture of her grinning.
4. Summer of Sam
This story is a little more relevant since it’s based on actual events that happened during the Son of Sam killings. Vinny and his band of friends however are the typical bunch of neighborhood guys that hang around and talk about little to nothing but are highly suspicious of just about everything and anyone that’s not like them. This is what prompts them to think that Vinny’s old friend Richie, who’s entered a punk rock phase in his life, is not only weird, he’s simply not the kind of element they want to hang around any longer. Unfortunately paranoia and and the very dangerous truth of having a killer in their neighborhood drives the guys to look at Richie as the Son of Sam killer and deliver a beatdown that leaves him bloodied in the street.
3. The Bone Collector
What would be worse, a killer that leaves you no clues at all and keeps killing, or a killer that leaves you every possible clue you would need to catch them? The latter would probably be it because it’s a way of mocking those that are following them and saying, not in so many words, that they can’t be caught. The surprise in this one is that the killer is actually closer to the people searching for him than anyone could possibly think since he’s one of the guys that visits the lead detective on the case constantly. In fact he’s one of the guys that is responsible for his care and knows almost everything about him.
2. Se7en
If you’ve ever read Dante’s Inferno or the entire Divine Comedy then you might understand this one a little better. The movie does manage to break it down for the audience more than a few times and yet it still doesn’t even scratch the surface of the Dante Aligheri’s most famous work. If anything it gives the most visceral meaning to it while lacing it with the cerebral matter that is meant to be understood by those that don’t take things so literally. John Doe is an absolute sadist even if he believes that he’s sending a message to people to wake up, as the nerve and dedication it would take to torture others in so many different ways speaks of a human being that has no love for their own species.
1. Silence of the Lambs
It’s odd but this movie really turned out to be more about Dr. Lecter than it did about Buffalo Bill. People do remember that this movie was about the hunt for the criminal known as Buffalo Bill, right? That whole message kind of got lost the moment that Dr. Lecter came on the screen and started talking. In fact Ted Levine’s character was all but pushed aside when Lecter came around since he had a much more magnetic personality as he hypnotized the crowd with his calm and deadly demeanor. In the films to come he was every bit as suave and just as dignified, but in this one you can’t deny that it sent chills down your spine when he was speaking to Starling.
Yes, the 90s brought a new edge to the serial killer movie.
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