The 25 Best Murder Mystery Movies For the Detective in You
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Brain exercises should occur often. What better way to work your brain than watching murder mystery movies? The best movies will have you playing detective, twisting your thinking cap, attempting to stay one step ahead of the filmmaker’s breadcrumb trail.
If you fancy yourself a cinema sleuther, there’s few genres as titillating as murder mysteries. The format seems to turn most thrillers on their head. From the age of black-and-white film noirs to modern hits like Knives Out, the murder mystery canon is cunning, inventive and entertaining.And, lucky for you, we’ve done some digging to track down the best murder mystery movies to keep you on your toes and the edge of your seat.
Bad Times at the El Royale
Four strangers book rooms at a deserted hotel on the border of California and Nevada, which is managed by a single clerk in the late '60s. Each of them has different reasons for their stay—and some are more innocent than others.
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Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
A thief on the run stumbles upon an audition for a role as a detective in an upcoming film—and gets mistaken for an actor. The lines resemble his reality a little too closely and the thief nails the delivery. To prepare him for the role, the casting directors pair him up with a private detective. Antics ensue!
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit
In this world of this 1988 classic, cartoons exist beyond 2-D. A detective cuts through the loony antics to find out who pinned the murder of Toontown’s owner on Roger Rabbit.
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Identity
After a series of unfortunate events, a family ends up spending the night at a sketchy motel in Nevada. As they get acquainted with the other guests, they realize they're dying one by one. Yikes.
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The Hateful Eight
A bounty hunter and a wanted fugitive are dashing through a blizzard in post-Civil War Wyoming when they encounter another bounty hunter and a man who identifies himself as a sheriff. Seeking refuge from the winter storm, they find shelter and meet four other travelers... but not everyone seems like they can be trusted.
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Rear Window
It doesn’t take much investigating into Rear Window’s IMDb to understand that this film is a classic. Direct by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Hollywood heavyweights James Stewart and Gene Kelly, Rear Window provides a masterclass on psychological thrillers. Stewart stars as a newspaper photographer who believes he’s witnessed a murder while spying on his neighbors through his window. Confined to his apartment after an injury, he must get to the bottom of things using the only vantage point he has.
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The Third Man
This British noir is often referred to as one of the greatest films in history, thanks to its striking cinematography. The Third Man follows an American in post-war Vienna who, upon arriving to the city to work with his friend, discovers that he has been murdered.
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Charade
A murder mystery that opens with Audrey Hepburn having a love affair with Cary Grant in Aspen before returning home to Paris—can you say glamorous? Well, the glitz stops a bit there as she soon returns home to find her husband dead and herself embroiled in the consequences of his stolen wealth. Charade offers a perfect combination of thrills and rom-com, as well as another stellar soundtrack from renowned composer Henry Mancini.
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Memento
Christopher Nolan’s Memento follows a man who, after being attacked, loses both his wife and his short term memory. Determined to avenge the murder of his wife, he sets out to track down the killers -- keeping track of his clues by tattooing them onto his body.
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Knives Out
Director Rian Johnson and his all-star ensemble cast (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 suspiciously died. It’s a delightful, winding story combining elements of Succession and Clue, where millions of dollars are at stake and everyone is a suspect.
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Game Night
A murder mystery party quickly turns real when its host, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), is kidnapped. Max (Jason Bateman), Annie (Rachel McAdams), and their friends must follow the clues to save Brooks before it’s too late, embarking on a wild adventure that involves underground fight clubs, Fabergé eggs, and their creepy neighbor, Gary (Jesse Plemons).
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Happy Death Day
Part Groundhog Day time loop, part mystery thriller, Blumhouse hit Happy Death Day is an inventive twist on the classic genre. After a masked killer murders her on her birthday, college student Tree must relive the day again and again until she can find the identity of her killer and save her life.
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Gone Girl
Based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel, Gone Girl is the kind of film that leaves you utterly stunned once it’s over. Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, a college professor and writer whose seemingly-perfect marriage with his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), begins to unravel when Amy mysteriously disappears. Nick quickly becomes a suspect, and as perspectives shift throughout the narrative, you won’t know what to believe. It’s a dark and thrilling tale about love, respect, sex, violence, and modern American marriage.
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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 bloody slasher film. Even dedicated students of the horror movie genre will find themselves falling prey to jump scares and speculation over who could be hiding beneath the ghostface mask.
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The Long Goodbye
Robert Altman’s 1973 take on the Raymond Chandler classic mystery novel is a total Los Angeles ‘stoner-noir’ trip. Private investigator Philip Marlowe does a favor for a friend and finds himself entangled in an intertwining web of suspicious deaths. Featuring a jazzy soundtrack, naked yogi-hippie neighbors, a finicky orange cat, and an early uncredited Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo The Long Goodbye is a worthy addition to your watchlist.
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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 throughout his suburban California neighborhood to get to the bottom of Emily’s case.
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Se7en
Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman star as detectives following 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 detective, Se7en is a dark, brutal, and 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 together on the case of a missing girl (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s Margaret Qualley) and the death of a porn star. As everyone involved in the case is killed off one by one, March and Healy realize they may be in over their heads.
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Clue
Based on the board game, this 1985 black comedy follows 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—Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick? The film features three different endings, just to keep you on your toes.
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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 corrupt cops, the Hollywood scene, and the crime hidden beneath the surface 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 woodchipper 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.
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Zodiac
Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac killer? Maybe. This film doesn’t address it. Nonetheless, director David Fincher’s 2007 film is a gripping take on the story of the infamous 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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The Maltese Falcon
The 1941 film noir stars Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, a private investigator who takes on a case after his partner is murdered. From the dangerous and beautiful femme fatale (Mary Astor) to the a valuable falcon statuette at the center of the mystery, The Maltese Falcon is a Hollywood classic well worth a watch.
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Murder on the Orient Express
In this award-winning adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel, Detective Hercule Poirot is on a journey home when a wealthy American businessman is murdered aboard his train. Halted on the track by a snowstorm with an unknown killer hiding aboard in plain sight, every eclectic passenger is a suspect and Poirot must solve the mystery.
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Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Daniel Craig is Mikael Blomkvist, a financial journalist with his career on the rocks in this psychological thriller. Along with the help of a young computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Roony Mara) he is tasked with solving the murder of a wealthy girl who went missing 40 years prior. Her uncle believes the murder was made by a member of the family and seeks Mikael's help to finally get some answers.
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The Girl On The Train
Emily Blunt stars in this thriller about Rachel Watson, a recent divorcee who watches the life of a seemingly perfect couple from the train every day on her way to work. One day, after witnessing something shocking, she becomes caught up in a missing person investigation.
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Shutter Island
In this psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) find themselves at Ashecliffe Hospital, an institution for the criminally insane. They are there to investigate the death of a patient, but soon find themselves wrapped up in so much more.
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The Lincoln Lawyer
Following the same premise as the new Netflix show of the same name, this 20111 movie stars Matthew McConaughey as Mick Haller, a charming defense attorney who runs his practice from the back of his Lincoln Town Car. When Mick is tagged with defending a the son of a wealthy Beverly Hills business woman in an attempted murder case. He soon finds that this case isa lot more complicated than he had expected. This film also features a star studded cast that includes: Ryan Phillipe, Marisa Tomei, William H Macy, Bryan Cranston and more.
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Deep Water
This psychological thriller based on the 1957 novel of the same name, Ben Affleck is once again playing a sulky husband with a complicated wife and a messed up marriage (see: Gone Girl). This story deals is of Vic and Melinda Van Allen, a married couple with their share of problems. The couple have an arrangement where Vic allows Melinda to have as many affairs as she likes, so long as she does not turn to divorce. When her lovers start turning up dead, Vic becomes murder suspect no. 1. But, did he do it?
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Get Out
The politics of race plays center stage in this horror-mystery starring Daniel Kaluuya. Kaluuya plays Chris, a black man who travels to upstate New York to spend the weekend with his white girlfriend and her family. Nervous about her parents' reactions to their interracial relationship, Chris feels uneasy during his time. But, he later finds that his instincts are correct as he uncovers a sinister plot beyond his imaginations.
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The Black Dahlia
This film is inspired by the infamous unsolved case of The Black Dahlia and adapted from the novel of the same name by James Ellroy. Two cops in the 1940s work to solve the mysterious case, finding themselves obsessing over it and developing stronger ties to it.
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Rear Window
In this Hitchcock classic, starring James Stuart, Grace Kelly and more, a news reporter who is confined to a wheelchair due to breaking his leg spends his time recovering at home. While idle he begins to watch his neighbors through his window and in time, he is convinced he has witnessed a murder.
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Charade
Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this 1963 romantic mystery movie about a married woman who falls for a stranger while on a ski trip and returns home to find her husband murdered. She then finds herself target to several men who seek the fortune her husband had stolen from them. This Hitchcock classic is often described as some of his best work.
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Us
Following Get Out as the second ever movie written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us is quite the experience. The film follows a family of four who are attacked by mysterious strangers on their trip. Soon enough, they discover that the strangers carry an uncanny resemblance to them.
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Suspect
In this late 80s flick, Cher stars across Dennis Quaid as Kathleen Riley, a public defender tasked with representing a homeless man, Carl Wayne Anderson (Liam Neeson), who has been accused of murdering a Supreme Court judge. Believing her client to be innocent, Kathleen must then must figure out just who the real killer is in the hopes of keeping him out of jail.
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