VENGEANCE IS MINE (1979)
This much acclaimed, multi award-winning Japanese drama from 1979 can be viewed as the HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER of the seventies. It’s also, in my eyes at least, one of the most overrated films of all time
BLACK WIDOW
A silly eighties thriller with occasional flashes of interest, courtesy of actress Theresa Russell—but flashes are all we get
EXECUTIVE KOALA
Japanese director Minoru Kawasaki’s follow-up to his cult hit THE CALAMARI WRESTLER was this goofy 2005 psycho thriller about a businessman koala bear who may or may not be a murderer
SUMMER OF SAM
From Spike Lee, a wildly overbaked yet vital account of the seventies-era “Son of Sam” killings. The film has much to say about the effects of fear and paranoia, none of it comforting
STAR TIME
One of the most idiosyncratic of all nineties-era serial killer dramas was this surreal account of a TV junkie becoming a mass murderer
SOMBRE
A product of the “New French Extremity” by director Philippe Grandrieux, who provides a highly artful and immersive account of a serial killer loose on the back roads of France
SISTERS (1973)
A 1973 effort by Brian De Palma that adequately showcases both his good and bad qualities as a filmmaker
SERIAL MOM
In my view John Waters’ best film, a funny and subversive comedy about serial killer worship starring a never-better Kathleen Turner
SECRETS OF A SOUL
From the silent era, a striking German-made depiction of psychoanalysis, notable for its unforgettably surreal dream/hallucination scenes
KILLER! (1989)
This 1989 serial killer thriller, made for a reported $9,500, was once called “the most technically accomplished super-8mm movie ever”