Film

The Case of the Hillside Stranglers

A 1989 TV movie about the hunt for the Hillside Stranglers, the cousins whose murder spree terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. It's a procedural that follows detectives piecing together evidence, played straight without sensationalism. Solid craftsmanship in service of a true crime story that still unsettles.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a sober police procedural that follows a detective's patient, document-heavy hunt for two cousins and the dead-end leads along the way.

Skip it if you need the pulse of a theatrical thriller; this is a modest TV movie with a plain look, talky scenes, and a grim subject that offers little release.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes of unhurried, methodical attention, with stretches of case-file talk and office routine, and a tone that stays stern rather than lurid.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Zodiac2007

Fincher's methodical hunt for a serial killer across decades, built on detective work and obsession. The focus is the investigation itself—the exhausting, maddening pursuit of pattern and proof.

But Deliberately unglamorous and slow. It offers no catharsis, and the killer's identity matters less than the detectives' descent into their own obsession.

Zodiac poster

MINDHUNTER2017

Two FBI agents pioneer criminal profiling by interviewing imprisoned serial killers. Intelligent, deliberate, and genuinely unsettling—it understands why these men are fascinating without ever making them sympathetic.

But Dialogue-heavy and procedural. Some episodes are 60 minutes of interviews in prison visiting rooms, which rewards patience but demands it.

MINDHUNTER poster

Murder in the First2014

A detective and prosecutor team take on a fresh murder case across a season. Character-driven, smart about forensics and the grinding work of building a case for trial.

But Network TV sensibility means it edges toward procedural-of-the-week, even as it tries not to. Less dark than its ambitions suggest.

Murder in the First poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Case of the Hillside Stranglers

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Capote2005

Both are about the machinery of investigation and the people drawn into it. But Capote flips the script: it asks what it does to the investigator when the killer becomes your muse.

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote writing 'In Cold Blood,' the book that defined true crime. It's about obsession, manipulation, and the cost of telling a killer's story—a mirror held up to the genre itself.

But Not a crime story—it's a character study about a writer. If you want plot momentum, you won't find it. Some find Capote insufferable to spend two hours with.

Capote poster
More like this (8)

In Cold Blood1967

Capote's true-crime classic adapted as a measured, humane film. It examines killers without flinching, and asks uncomfortable questions about the nature of evil and journalistic obsession.

But Shot in stark black-and-white on a slim budget, it can feel distant. Some viewers want more dramatic energy than it provides.

In Cold Blood poster

The Silence of the Lambs1991

An FBI trainee hunts an active serial killer with help from an imprisoned cannibal genius. Taut, terrifying, and genuinely intelligent about psychology and predation.

But Hannibal Lecter is so charismatic he threatens to overwhelm the film's actual subject. It's also been imitated to death, so the shock has faded.

The Silence of the Lambs poster

Homicide: Life on the Street1993

The gold standard for police procedurals. Baltimore detectives work murders with unglamorous competence. It's about the work, the evidence, the moral weight of the job.

But The first two seasons are rough around the edges. It takes time to find its rhythm, and some cases resolve unsatisfyingly.

Homicide: Life on the Street poster

Nightcrawler2014

Jake Gyllenhaal is a freelance videographer who films crime scenes and sells them to news stations. Nasty, propulsive, and a sharp critique of media and capitalism's corrosive effect.

But It's cynical and bleak without redemption. The protagonist is morally repellent, and the film has no interest in making him likeable.

Nightcrawler poster

The Devil in the White City

A serial killer operates during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair while a detective pursues him. Epic in scope, visually gorgeous, with real narrative momentum and a sense of historical moment.

But Ambitious and sprawling, which sometimes means it loses narrative focus. The two storylines don't always balance evenly.

Murder One1995

A defense attorney builds a case for an accused murder suspect across an entire season. Unusual structure—one trial, one season—with strong writing and moral complexity.

But Defense-focused, not prosecution, so it won't scratch the same itch if you want to see a killer caught. Also feels very much of its era.

Murder One poster

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri2017

Both focus on the families and communities torn apart by unsolved murders. But this one is about anger and action, not patient detective work—the inverse approach to the same devastation.

A mother takes on a small town and indifferent police after her daughter's unsolved murder. Darkly funny and unexpectedly tender, it treats grief as a legitimate form of rage.

But Tonally messy—it shifts between comedy and tragedy without always landing the balance. The third act divides viewers sharply on whether it's earned or cheap.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri poster

Memories of Murder2003

Both are true-crime investigations from an era before forensic certainty. But this one is about how the absence of answers corrodes the investigators themselves—a psychological study disguised as a procedural.

A South Korean police procedural about the hunt for a serial killer in the 1980s. Methodical, darkly comic, and morally complex—the detectives' desperation makes them compromised.

But Subtitled, and the Korean police system operates on different logic than American crime film conventions. The ending offers no closure. Slow in places and patient to a point some find frustrating.

Memories of Murder poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

The Resident