# What is the best 21st century serial killer film?

> From methodical procedural hunts to unsettling character studies and visceral cat-and-mouse thrillers, these films explore the darkest corners of the human psyche. Which one haunts you most?

*By YPB Team · Published April 8, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-21st-century-serial-killer-film*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Zodiac**
   David Fincher's meticulous 2007 procedural follows the decades-long investigation into San Francisco's infamous Zodiac Killer.
2. **No Country for Old Men**
   The Coen Brothers' 2007 Oscar winner features Anton Chigurh, one of cinema's most terrifying killers, in a bleak Texas noir.
3. **Monster**
   Charlize Theron won an Oscar playing real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in this devastating 2003 character study.
4. **Prisoners**
   Denis Villeneuve's tense 2013 thriller blurs the line between victim and monster as a father hunts for his kidnapped daughter.
5. **Memories of Murder**
   Bong Joon-ho's 2003 masterpiece dramatizes South Korea's first serial murder investigation in a film that's both comic and deeply unsettling.
6. **I Saw the Devil**
   Kim Jee-woon's 2010 Korean thriller pushes the revenge-killer dynamic to its most extreme and disturbing conclusion.
7. **Extremely Wicked**
   Zac Efron plays Ted Bundy in this 2019 film told from the perspective of Bundy's girlfriend, who refused to believe the evidence.
8. **Snowtown**
   Justin Kurzel's 2011 Australian film chronicles the true story of the Snowtown murders — the most prolific serial killing in Australia's history.
9. **The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo**
   David Fincher's 2011 adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel follows a journalist and hacker investigating a decades-old disappearance tied to a serial killer.
10. **Frailty**
   Bill Paxton directs and stars in this 2001 supernatural thriller about a father who believes God has commanded him to destroy demons disguised as humans.
11. **Catch Me If You Can**
   Steven Spielberg's 2002 film follows FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) in a decades-long pursuit of brilliant con man Frank Abagnale Jr. (DiCaprio).
12. **The Frozen Ground**
   Nicolas Cage plays Alaska State Trooper Glenn Flothe hunting serial killer Robert Hansen (John Cusack) who abducted women in this 2013 thriller.

Tags: movies, thriller, crime, serial killers