24 Serial Killer Movies Based on True Stories, and What Really Happened

Every film on this list started with a real case. A few stay close to the record, like Zodiac, Monster, and Snowtown. Others took one or two details and made up the rest. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the best known example of that.

The films are in order of release, oldest first. For each one we give the real case, what a court decided, and how much of the movie is true. Where nobody was ever convicted, we say so. We checked each case against encyclopedia entries and news reports from the time, fixed several mistakes from the earlier version of this list, and added four newer films: The Good Nurse, Holy Spider, Boston Strangler, and Woman of the Hour.

The 24 films at a glance

Serial killer movies based on true stories, with the real case and the court result

Film	Real case	What a court decided
The Boston Strangler (1968)	Boston Strangler killings, 1962 to 1964	Albert DeSalvo confessed but was never tried for the killings
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)	Fiction, with details from Ed Gein	Gein was found guilty of one murder but legally insane
Helter Skelter (1976)	Manson Family murders, 1969	Manson and his followers convicted in 1971
The Deliberate Stranger (1986)	Ted Bundy	Convicted of three murders in Florida, executed in 1989
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)	Fiction, partly drawn from Ed Gein	Gein was found guilty of one murder but legally insane
To Catch a Killer (1992)	John Wayne Gacy	Convicted of 33 murders in 1980, executed in 1994
Ed Gein (2000)	Ed Gein	Found guilty of one murder but legally insane in 1968
From Hell (2001)	Jack the Ripper, 1888	Unsolved. The killer was never identified
Dahmer (2002)	Jeffrey Dahmer	Found sane, sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms in 1992
Monster (2003)	Aileen Wuornos	Sentenced to death, executed in 2002
Wolf Creek (2005)	Fiction, drawn from outback murder cases	Ivan Milat convicted of seven murders in 1996
Zodiac (2007)	Zodiac Killer, 1968 to 1969	Unsolved. No one was convicted
Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck (2007)	Eight student nurses killed in 1966	Sentenced to death, later changed to prison terms
Snowtown (2011)	Snowtown murders, South Australia	John Bunting convicted of 11 murders
Texas Killing Fields (2011)	Bodies found near League City, Texas	A man was charged in two of the deaths in 2026. No trial yet
The Frozen Ground (2013)	Robert Hansen, Alaska	Pleaded guilty to four murders in 1984
My Friend Dahmer (2017)	Dahmer's high school years	See Dahmer above
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)	Ted Bundy	Convicted of three murders in Florida, executed in 1989
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)	Fiction, set around the Sharon Tate murders	Manson and his followers convicted in 1971
No Man of God (2021)	Ted Bundy and an FBI agent	Executed in 1989
The Good Nurse (2022)	Charles Cullen, a hospital nurse	18 life sentences by 2006
Holy Spider (2022)	Saeed Hanaei, Mashhad, Iran	Sentenced to death, hanged in 2002
Boston Strangler (2023)	The reporters who covered the Strangler case	DeSalvo was never tried for the killings
Woman of the Hour (2024)	Rodney Alcala on The Dating Game	Convicted of murder, died on death row in 2021

1. The Boston Strangler (1968)

Between 1962 and 1964, at least 11 women were killed in the Boston area in what the papers called the Boston Strangler murders. In 1965 Albert DeSalvo, who was being held at a state mental hospital on rape charges, confessed to them. Britannica says he was never charged with the killings, because investigators could not link him to the scenes. A court convicted him in 1967 on sexual assault charges. He later took back his confession, and he was killed in prison in 1973 while serving a life sentence on those other charges.

In July 2013, Boston police, the Massachusetts attorney general, and the Suffolk County district attorney said DNA from the 1964 murder of Mary Sullivan, who was 19, matched DeSalvo. They put the odds that another man left the evidence at one in 220 billion. No court has ruled on the other killings.

Richard Fleischer directed the film. Tony Curtis plays DeSalvo, and Henry Fonda plays John Bottomly, the chief investigator on the case. The BFI calls it "a documentary-flavoured account of the hunt for and eventual interrogation" of DeSalvo. The earlier version of this list gave the title as "The Boston Strangler: The Untold Story." That is a different, later film.

2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

This one is not a true story. Tobe Hooper's film made up its plot and borrowed a few details from Ed Gein, a Wisconsin farmer arrested in 1957: masks made of human skin, furniture made with human remains, and a lonely house full of body parts. Police found those things while looking into the disappearance of a hardware store owner, Bernice Worden. In 1968 a court found Gein guilty of her murder but legally insane, and he died in a state mental hospital on July 26, 1984.

Our article on the film goes through the true story of Ed Gein and which parts of the movie came from him. The 2003 remake, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, was sold with the tagline "Inspired by a true story." Snopes looked at the claim that year and rated it "Mostly False."

3. Helter Skelter (1976)

Members of the Manson Family killed the actress Sharon Tate and four other people at her Los Angeles home on the night of August 8, 1969. The next night they killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. In 1971 Charles Manson and his followers were convicted of all nine murders tied to the group. Manson was still serving a life sentence when he died on November 19, 2017, at 83. Strictly speaking this is a cult murder case, not a serial killer case, but it appears on nearly every list like this one, so we kept it.

Helter Skelter was a CBS TV movie. It shares its title with the best-selling 1974 book about the case. The Television Academy lists three Emmy nominations for it in 1977, including one for Tom Gries's directing. We make a Helter Skelter hoodie, and the rest of our Charles Manson designs are in one collection. Our profile of Charles Manson and the Family covers the case in more detail.

4. The Deliberate Stranger (1986)

Ted Bundy confessed to 30 murders, and Britannica notes that some people believe the real number is higher. A court convicted him of three, all in Florida: two college students and a 12-year-old girl. He was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989.

The Deliberate Stranger is a two-part NBC miniseries that aired on May 4 and 5, 1986, with Mark Harmon as Bundy. It is based on a 1980 book by Richard W. Larsen. Bundy was still alive on death row when it aired. Our profile of 'The Lady Killer' Ted Bundy covers his life and the murders, and we have a separate piece on how many people Ted Bundy killed.

5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill are made up. Jonathan Demme's film is an adaptation of Thomas Harris's 1988 novel, and it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in March 1992, along with the awards for Demme, Anthony Hopkins, and Jodie Foster. Britannica lists it among the films Ed Gein inspired. The link is Buffalo Bill, who makes clothing out of his victims' skin. Our article on the real Buffalo Bill explains what came from Gein and what did not.

If you want to rewatch it, The Silence of the Lambs holds up well. Browse our Ed Gein merchandise collection, or pick up the shirt that reads Hello, Clarice.

6. To Catch a Killer (1992)

John Wayne Gacy had a record before the murders. In 1968, in Iowa, he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage boy and was sentenced to 10 years. He was paroled in 1970. He later ran a contracting business and performed at events as a clown he called Pogo the Clown.

Police arrested him on December 21, 1978, while looking into the disappearance of a teenager, Robert Piest. They found the remains of 26 boys and young men in the crawl space under his house, three more elsewhere on his property, and four, including Piest, in the Des Plaines River. Gacy murdered more than 30 young men and teenage boys, and a jury convicted him of 33 murders in 1980. He was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994. He is one of the best known names on our list of notable serial killers in history.

To Catch a Killer was made for TV. Brian Dennehy plays Gacy, and the role earned him a 1992 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special.

7. Ed Gein (2000)

Chuck Parello directed this film. Fangoria's review says he built it as a step-by-step case history. It covers the same 1957 discovery as the Texas Chain Saw Massacre entry above, but without the made-up family.

The earlier version of this list said Gein spent ten years killing women and collecting their body parts. The record does not support that. Britannica says police found that Gein "had systematically robbed graves" and used body parts from them. A court found him guilty of one murder, Bernice Worden's, and he also confessed to killing a second woman, Mary Hogan. In 1957 he was found unfit to stand trial. The trial came in 1968, and he was sent to a state mental hospital for the rest of his life.

8. From Hell (2001)

Five women were killed in the Whitechapel area of London between August 31 and November 9, 1888: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. The name comes from a letter that was allegedly written by the killer. Britannica says the killer was never identified or arrested, and the case is still unsolved. Our full article on Jack the Ripper covers the five women, the letters, and the suspects.

From Hell is based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, and it was directed by the brothers Albert and Allen Hughes. Johnny Depp plays Inspector Fred Abberline, written here as an opium addict, and Ian Holm plays the physician Sir William Gull. Britannica lists Gull among several well known Londoners of the time who have been the subject of speculation about the murders. He was never charged. Watch From Hell as a horror film, not a history lesson. We also sell a Jack the Ripper t-shirt.

9. Dahmer (2002)

Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first victim in Ohio in 1978. Between 1987 and 1991 he killed 16 more boys and young men. He was caught in July 1991 after a man escaped from his apartment and stopped two police officers. Dahmer pleaded guilty but claimed he was insane. A jury found him sane, and in February 1992 he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms, with a 16th added later for the Ohio murder. Another inmate killed him in prison on November 28, 1994.

David Jacobson wrote and directed the film. Jeremy Renner plays Dahmer, and Bruce Davison is also in the cast. Our Jeffery Dahmer merch is in its own collection.

10. Monster (2003)

Britannica says Aileen Wuornos killed at least seven men in Florida in 1989 and 1990. She was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002. Read our full story of Aileen Wuornos for the details of the case and the trials.

Monster was Patty Jenkins's first film as a director. Charlize Theron plays Wuornos and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role in February 2004. Christina Ricci plays Selby Wall, Aileen's girlfriend in the film. The real Wuornos was with Tyria Moore from 1986 to 1990, and Moore later testified against her. We cover Wuornos's relationship with her girlfriend in a separate article. Browse our Aileen Wuornos collection.

11. Wolf Creek (2005)

Wolf Creek is fiction. The killer, Mick Taylor, is not a real person. Writer and director Greg McLean told Hollywood.com in 2005 that two real cases shaped the character.

The first is Ivan Milat. A court convicted him in July 1996 of murdering seven backpackers whose remains were found in the Belanglo State Forest in 1992 and 1993. He got seven life sentences and died in prison in October 2019, at 74. The second is Bradley John Murdoch. A jury found him guilty of murdering a British backpacker, Peter Falconio, in the Northern Territory in 2001, and of the attempted kidnapping of Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees. Falconio's body has never been found. Murdoch died in July 2025.

12. Zodiac (2007)

The Zodiac Killer's known attacks took place in Northern California in 1968 and 1969. He shot or stabbed seven people, and five of them died. He mailed taunting letters and ciphers to newspapers until 1974. Police publicly named one suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen. Allen was never conclusively linked to the killings, and he died in 1992. The case is still open. Our full guide to the Zodiac Killer covers each attack, the ciphers, and the suspects.

David Fincher's film grew out of two books by Robert Graysmith, a former San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist, and it stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. Graysmith named Allen as the most likely suspect. We also carry Zodiac Killer t-shirts.

13. Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck (2007)

On the night of July 13, 1966, Richard Speck broke into a Chicago town house where student nurses lived. He killed eight of them and raped one. One nurse survived by hiding under a bed. Days later a hospital doctor recognized his "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo, which matched her description, and he was arrested on July 17, 1966. In 1967 he was sentenced to death. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down death sentences in 1972, his sentence was changed to eight consecutive terms of 50 to 150 years. He died of a heart attack on December 5, 1991. Speck killed all eight women in one night, so he is usually called a mass murderer, not a serial killer.

Michael Feifer wrote and directed the film, and Corin Nemec plays Speck.

14. Snowtown (2011)

In May 1999, police found eight bodies in six plastic barrels inside an old bank vault in Snowtown, a small town about 140 kilometres north of Adelaide in South Australia. Four more bodies were later linked to the case. In 2003 a jury found John Bunting guilty of 11 murders. Robert Wagner pleaded guilty to three and was convicted of seven more. James Vlassakis pleaded guilty to four of the murders.

Justin Kurzel's first feature tells the story through Jamie Vlassakis, a 16-year-old played by Lucas Pittaway, as Bunting, played by Daniel Henshall, works his way into the family. In the United States it was released as The Snowtown Murders. It uses the real names, and it is hard to watch.

15. Texas Killing Fields (2011)

The Texas Killing Fields are an area near Houston where the bodies of many women have been found since the 1970s. The remains of four women were found in one field off Calder Road in League City between 1984 and 1991: Heidi Fye-Villareal, Laura Miller, Audrey Cook, and Donna Prudhomme. The FBI has asked the public for information about the unsolved Texas Killing Fields murders. In April 2026 a Galveston County grand jury indicted James Dolphs Elmore Jr., 61, on a manslaughter charge and evidence tampering charges in the Miller and Cook cases. He has not been tried, and the charges are only accusations until a court rules.

The Texas Killing Fields is a police drama that takes its name from the area. Ami Canaan Mann directed it. Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan play the detectives, and Jessica Chastain also stars.

16. The Frozen Ground (2013)

In 1983 a teenager, Cindy Paulson, ran into a motel in handcuffs and told police that Robert Hansen had held her at his home, raped her, and put her on his plane. The Anchorage Daily News called that the turning point in the case. In February 1984 Hansen pleaded guilty to murdering four women and was sentenced to 461 years. He confessed to police that he had killed 17 women and raped 30 more over more than a decade. The Anchorage Daily News reported that he flew victims to remote areas in his plane to kill them. He died at an Anchorage hospital on August 21, 2014.

The Frozen Ground was directed by Scott Walker. John Cusack plays Hansen, Nicolas Cage plays a state trooper, and Vanessa Hudgens plays Cindy Paulson.

17. My Friend Dahmer (2017)

The cartoonist Derf Backderf went to high school with Jeffrey Dahmer in the 1970s, and he later drew a graphic novel about those years. Marc Meyers wrote and directed this film from the book, with Ross Lynch as the teenage Dahmer. It stops before the first murder.

Time Out called the teenage Dahmer a 1970s "teen loner," and that is who the film is about. For what came after: when police went to his apartment in 1991, they found a human head in the refrigerator, and a later search turned up body parts and several skeletons. Our Dahmer profile covers the case, including his habit of keeping mementos from his victims.

18. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

Joe Berlinger directed this Netflix film, which came out on May 3, 2019. Zac Efron plays Ted Bundy, and Lily Collins plays his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who is called Liz Kendall in the film. It is based on her book, The Phantom Prince: My Life With Ted Bundy, and it tells the story from her point of view.

The facts of the case are in the Deliberate Stranger entry above. Watch Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile with the real record next to it.

19. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Quentin Tarantino's film is mostly about two made-up men, a fading actor played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his stunt double, played by Brad Pitt. It is set in Los Angeles in 1969, the year of the murder of Sharon Tate. Britannica calls the film "fictional," so do not take its version of events as the record. For the real case, see the Helter Skelter entry above.

Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood is a good film, but it is not a guide to the Manson murders.

20. No Man of God (2021)

Bill Hagmaier was a young FBI agent who interviewed Ted Bundy on death row in the years before his execution in 1989. Amber Sealey's film is built from those talks, with Elijah Wood as Hagmaier and Luke Kirby as Bundy. Most of it is two men talking in a prison room, and it is one of the quieter films on this list.

21. The Good Nurse (2022)

Charles Cullen worked for years as a nurse in hospitals in two states. In March 2006 a judge gave him six more life sentences, raising his total to 18. The Associated Press described him as a former nurse who killed at least 29 patients in two states.

Tobias Lindholm's film came to Netflix on October 26, 2022. It is based on Charles Graeber's 2013 book. Jessica Chastain plays Amy Loughren, the ICU nurse who began to suspect him, and Eddie Redmayne plays Cullen.

22. Holy Spider (2022)

Saeed Hanaei was a construction worker in Mashhad, a holy city in Iran. In 2000 and 2001 he killed 16 women who were sex workers, and he became known as the "Spider Killer." He confessed. A court sentenced him to death for strangling the 16 women, and he was hanged on April 17, 2002.

Ali Abbasi's film follows a journalist who goes to Mashhad to look into the killings. Zar Amir Ebrahimi won Best Actress at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for the role. Mehdi Bajestani plays Hanaei.

23. Boston Strangler (2023)

This newer film is about the two Record American reporters who covered the killings, Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole. Keira Knightley plays McLaughlin and Carrie Coon plays Cole. Matt Ruskin wrote and directed it, and it came out on Hulu on March 17, 2023. The Hollywood Reporter's review called DeSalvo "the confessed but not quite proven killer." For the case itself, see the 1968 entry at the top of this list.

24. Woman of the Hour (2024)

Rodney Alcala appeared on The Dating Game in 1978 and won a date with an aspiring actress, Cheryl Bradshaw. She refused to go out with him. Alcala was later convicted of murders he committed both before and after the show. He died of natural causes on July 24, 2021, at 77, while on California's death row. Read the full story of Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game serial killer.

Anna Kendrick directed the film and plays Bradshaw, spelled Sheryl in the film. It was her first film as a director, and it came to Netflix on October 18, 2024. NPR's review says the film is not focused on the killer.

Serial killer movies FAQ

Which serial killer movies are closest to the real case?

Monster, Snowtown, The Frozen Ground, and the two Dahmer films are built on the real cases, and most of them use the real names. Zodiac grew out of Robert Graysmith's books about the case. The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, From Hell, Wolf Creek, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are fiction that borrows from real cases.

Is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre a true story?

No. The family and the story are made up. A few details, like the masks made of human skin, came from the Ed Gein case in Wisconsin.

Which movies are about Ted Bundy?

This list has three: The Deliberate Stranger (1986), Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), and No Man of God (2021).

Is The Silence of the Lambs based on a real killer?

Not on one killer. Thomas Harris made up Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill. Britannica lists the film among the works Ed Gein inspired.

More true crime

If you would rather watch the real people, here are 18 Serial Killer Documentaries to put on Your Watch List.

Our horror blog has two related lists: Strange but True, about five films drawn from bizarre real events, and 5 Horror Movies Based on true stories.

Read our Product Review of the serial killer card game, or see our guide to limited edition true crime merchandise.

Sources

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