There are some people who are afraid to watch horror movies with ghosts and supernatural but don’t mind watching thrillers about real life serial killers. Don’t you think that’s a bit odd? 

If you think about it, thrillers about serial killers are actually way scarier than supernatural horror movies. Serial killers are normal people, like you and me. The live normal lives, they have jobs, and they do normal things like you, and I do. They could be anyone. 

In America, the FBI estimates that there are between twenty-five and fifty serial killers operating throughout the U.S. at any given time. Yet very few of them are actually caught. 

Here are some movies you can watch that are based of actual real life serial killers: 

1. My Friend Dahmer (2017)

This movie shows the strange and interesting life of Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, who murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. It shows Jeffrey’s high school years right before he went on his murderous spree at 18 years old. 

2. Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer (1986) 

Based on Henry Lee Lucas, an American serial killer who was active from 1960 to 1983. The case of the confession killer was slightly weird because he confessed to committing 600 murders some of which were actually false confessions. 

3. The Boston Strangler (1968)

This film is based on a true story of the mysterious man who assaulted, strangled, and murdered 13 single women in the early 1960s. A man named Albert DeSalvo who was being tried in a separate court case confessed to being the Strangler but as there was not much evidence until 2013 when DNA obtained from his nephew was linked to the rape and murder of one of the strangler’s victims.

4. Zodiac (2007)

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr, this movie was set in the late 1960 when the Zodiac Killer first made himself known. IT follows a cartoonist who tried to do some detective work during the murderous spree. The Zodiac Killer is a serial killer who until this day is still not identified who claimed to have killed 37 people. 

5. 10 Rillington Place (1971)

This movie tells the true story of John Christie, a British serial killer who went on a murder streak of his neighbors. He murdered at least eight people—including his wife, Ethel—by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London.

6. Citizen X (1995)

Based on the true story of a Russian serial killer who claimed victim to over 50 people, mostly under the age of 17. In what was then a communist’s state, the police investigations were slowed down by bureaucracy, incompetence and those in power. The story is told from the viewpoint of the detective in charge of the case.

7. Monster (2003)

In this movis, Charlize Theron plays the role of America’s first female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos a sex worker who murdered seven men in Florida in 1989 and 1990 by shooting them at point-blank range. After being sexually assaulted by a client, she sets off to murder the men that hire her for her service.