The Blackening
In The Blackening, a group of friends go on a weekend trip but find themselves forced to use their street smarts and murder-mystery knowledge when they wind up trapped in a cabin with a killer. If you’re not big on horror, give this movie a shot. It combines the classic whodunit with a boatload of sly humor and satire.
Memories of Murder
Before making the Oscar-winning film Parasite, director Bong Joon-ho was inspired by true events to tell the story of South Korea’s first serial killer. Park and Cho, a pair of unskilled detectives, are assigned to investigate a double homicide. But as the body count rises, they realize this isn’t an isolated incident—and they’re in way over their heads.
Death on the Nile (2022)
In this clever remake of the 1978 film (based on Agatha Christie’s book), supersleuth Hercule Poirot, hoping for a vacation, finds himself in the middle of another murder investigation. Poor guy! Poirot clocks in to figure out who killed a fellow traveler.
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The Silence of the Lambs
Clarice!! If you haven’t seen The Silence of the Lambs, stop what you’re doing and press play. The great Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who’s asked to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist locked up for cannibalism. Clarice’s boss thinks Hannibal can help them crack a murder case. There’s a wild killer on the loose—and Hannibal, terrifying as he may be, is the key to finding him.
Missing
Missing is a modern mystery. When her mother goes missing in Colombia, June uses social media and high-tech tools to find her. (See what we mean?) As her investigation unfolds, she realizes her mother's disappearance is tied to something sinister.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
A thief on the run stumbles upon a casting call for the role of a detective in a film and gets mistaken for an actor. He nails the lines, though they reflect his reality a little too closely. To prepare for the role, he’s paired with a private detective. Antics ensue!
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The Third Man
This British noir is often called one of the greatest films in history, thanks to its striking cinematography. The Third Man follows an American in postwar Vienna who, upon arriving in the city to work with a friend, discovers that he has been murdered.
Charade
A murder mystery that opens with Audrey Hepburn having an affair with Cary Grant in Aspen before returning home to Paris—can you say glamorous? Well, things go awry when she finds her husband dead and she’s embroiled in the consequences of his stolen wealth. Charade is a perfect combination of thriller and rom-com, with a stellar score by renowned composer Henry Mancini.
Memento
In Christopher Nolan’s Memento, a man loses both his wife and his short-term memory after being attacked. Determined to avenge her murder, he sets out to find the killers, keeping track of the clues by tattooing them on his body.
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Knives Out
Director Rian Johnson and his all-star ensemble (Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Daniel Craig) revive the Agatha Christie-style murder mystery in this whodunit about a wealthy family whose crime-novelist patriarch has died suspiciously. It’s a delightful winding story combining elements of Succession and Clue, with millions of dollars at stake and everyone a suspect.
Gone Girl
Based on Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel, Gone Girl is the kind of film that leaves you stunned. Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, a college professor and writer whose seemingly perfect life with his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), begins to unravel when she mysteriously disappears. Nick quickly becomes a suspect, and as perspectives shift throughout the film, you won’t know what to believe. It’s a dark, thrilling tale about love, respect, sex, violence, and modern American marriage.
Scream
The original film in Wes Craven’s iconic 1990s slasher franchise, Scream follows a high school girl, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), and her friends as a masked killer terrorizes their small California town. Clever dialogue and frequent meta-references make Scream more than your garden-variety slasher film. Even dedicated students of the horror genre will find themselves falling prey to jump scares and speculation over who could be hiding beneath the mask.
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The Long Goodbye
Robert Altman’s 1973 take on Raymond Chandler’s classic detective novel is a total L.A. “stoner-noir” trip. Private investigator Philip Marlowe does a favor for a friend and finds himself entangled in a web of suspicious deaths. Featuring a jazzy soundtrack, naked yogi-hippie neighbors, a finicky orange cat, and an early uncredited Arnold Schwarzenegger appearance, The Long Goodbye is a worthy addition to your watchlist.
Brick
Long before Knives Out, Rian Johnson tried his hand at neo-noir in the 2005 cult classic Brick, starring a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as high school student-turned-detective Brendan. After a troubling call with his terrified ex-girlfriend Emily, Brendan follows a trail of strange clues through his suburban California neighborhood to get to the bottom of her case.
Se7en
Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman star as detectives on the twisted trail of a serial killer who targets his victims based on the seven deadly sins. Featuring Pitt in one of his most iconic roles as the short-fused rookie, Se7en is a dark, brutal, exciting crime tale.
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The Nice Guys
Shane Black’s neo-noir comedy thriller follows struggling private investigator Holland March (Ryan Gosling) and hired muscle Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) as unlikely partners working on the case of a missing girl (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s Margaret Qualley) and the death of a porn star. As murders start piling up, March and Healy realize they may be in over their heads.
Clue
Based on the board game, this 1985 black comedy is about a group of seven strangers who become suspects after one of them is murdered. As the body count rises, you’re invited to play the game and figure out just who’s responsible—maybe Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick? The film features three different endings, just to keep you on your toes.
L.A. Confidential
Set in 1950s Los Angeles, L.A. Confidential is a neo-noir about three police officers (Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, and Kevin Spacey) whose investigation of a series of murders unravels into a mysterious web of corruption and lies. It all makes for an award-winning film about dirty cops, the Hollywood scene, and the seedy underbelly of sunny California.
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Fargo
Frances McDormand gives an Oscar-winning performance as a pregnant Minnesota cop hot on the trail of two murderers in this classic Coen brothers dark comedy. If you don’t immediately think of Fargo when you see a wood chipper or hear “You betcha,” you should give it a watch right now. With its strong cast (Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy) and icy-white backdrop, Fargo is an apt movie to cozy up to.
Zodiac
Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac killer? Maybe. This movie doesn’t address it. Nonetheless, director David Fincher’s 2007 film is a gripping take on the story of the serial killer who terrorized San Francisco in the late 1960s and ’70s, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo.
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