5 Most Tense Thrillers About Genius Killers to Watch Before You Season 5 Drops
These projects will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Penn Badgley became famous for playing Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl. Who would have thought that after almost a decade, the actor would get the main role of his career.
We are talking about Joe Goldberg – a serial killer and professional stalker in the series You.
While you are waiting for the release of Season 5, which is scheduled for April 24, 2025, we suggest watching other shows and movies about terrible but ingenious killers.
1. Mr. Mercedes, 2017-2019
One of the most successful Stephen King TV adaptations. The main character of Mr. Mercedes is an elderly retired policeman named Bill Hodges, who does not lose hope of solving his last case even after retirement.
The psychopath Brady Hartsfield has no intention of leaving the policeman alone either. In fact, he is already preparing a new attack, which he openly hints at to his pursuer.
2. Prisoners, 2013
The daughters of Keller and his friend Franklin disappear. With each day of searching for the girls, hope fades, and the only suspect, Alex, the driver of a truck parked near their homes, is released due to lack of evidence.
Keller decides to take the law into his own hands and takes the man prisoner: in an abandoned house, together with Franklin, he will torture the suspect and try to beat the truth out of him.
Perhaps one of the best works of Denis Villeneuve, who is not interested in the investigation itself, but in the moral quest of the characters. Keller and Franklin reveal new limits of human cruelty, and detective Loki, unable to catch the culprit, gradually falls into the abyss of madness.
3. NOS4A2, 2019-2020
NOS4A2 is a fantasy story that is only indirectly related to the crime drama genre. However, at the center of the story is a madman. As we remember from the second season of American Horror Story, maniacs played by Zachary Quinto definitely deserve attention.
Quinto plays the eternally young Charlie Manx – he travels around the country kidnapping children who find themselves in a difficult life situation on the eve of Christmas. Rumor has it that Manx takes his victims to the Inscape – a snowy land where the holidays never end.
4. Zodiac, 2007
One of David Fincher's best films is dedicated to the investigation of the crimes of the real serial killer nicknamed the Zodiac, who terrorized California in the 1960s and 1970s.
Unlike Seven, another of the director's masterpieces, in which the detectives come face to face with a madman and even become indirect victims, here the investigators are forced to make do with clues.
The viewer is shown several times how an unknown person in a mask kills innocent people. But the entire investigation is one big set of doubts and guesses, and the identity of the killer is never established.
5. The Fall, 2013-2016
Even before he starred in Fifty Shades of Grey, Jamie Dornan played a frighteningly charming madman in the British series The Fall, co-starring Gillian Anderson.
The plot centers on Paul Spector, a family man who leads a double life. During the day he is a psychologist, a happy husband and father, and at night he is a serial killer who attacks young women.
Gillian Anderson plays the ambitious detective Stella Gibson, who becomes fascinated with the identity of the mysterious madman.
