Television series
Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes
- Serial killer
- Psychological horror
- Very dark
A four-part documentary that lets Jeffrey Dahmer speak directly through archival prison interviews, with minimal editorializing. His words—casual, evasive, occasionally chilling—form the spine of a study in how someone becomes a killer. It's intimate and deeply unsettling, less about shock than about the banality of evil. For those fascinated by criminal psychology and willing to sit with genuine darkness.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you want a forensic, documentary-style look at how a murderer narrated his own life, with the tapes doing the talking and little outside commentary.
Skip it if you need a dramatised story or a gentler subject, since this is three hour-long episodes of a real killer's self-justifying talk and the grim material never lets up.
What it asks of you: Three sittings of close, uncomfortable listening: it moves slowly, leaves long silences unfilled, and stays steady in its bleakness rather than building toward any release.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
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The Staircase2022
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But Nearly 14 hours long, and the conclusion pivots in ways that may feel unsatisfying after your investment.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark2020
A true-crime podcast host's obsessive hunt for the Golden State Killer, intercut with her own life. Turns the investigator herself into the emotional core of the story.
But The personal narrative can feel like it competes with the crime for your attention, which some find self-indulgent.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Act of Killing2012
Both place the perpetrator's own voice at the center; both force you to listen to someone describe horror in their own register, with minimal moralizing. The real study is in how people talk about the unspeakable.
An Indonesian documentary where the filmmaker asks death-squad perpetrators to re-enact their killings as entertainment. It's about how people rationalize atrocity, not prosecute it. Profoundly unsettling.
But Slow, abstract, and demands you sit with your own discomfort rather than offering narrative catharsis or justice. Some will find it unbearable.
More like this (7)
MINDHUNTER2017
Dramatized but grounded in real FBI work, following the agents who pioneered criminal profiling. Taut, intelligent, and genuinely suspenseful about interviewing serial killers.
But The show was shelved after two seasons, so it ends on a cliffhanger that will never resolve.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer2021
A tight four-part dive into Richard Ramirez's reign in 1980s LA, mixing archival footage, interviews, and police work. Propulsive and methodical.
But Shorter than you might expect, which some readers will find refreshing and others frustratingly brisk.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst2015
Robert Durst's own words—rambling, contradictory, occasionally damning—are the weapon here. Feels like watching a confession happen in real time across six hours.
But Heavy on aristocratic eccentricity in ways that can feel like a distraction from the murders themselves.
Killer Ratings2019
A Brazilian crime documentary that captures the moment a jailed killer became a TV star, blending media criticism with true crime. Genuinely unusual angle.
But Subtitled, and the cultural context around Brazilian celebrity and crime may be unfamiliar, making it harder to parse quickly.
The Serpent2021
A dramatized account of Charles Sobhraj, a charming con artist and killer who preyed on backpackers across Asia in the 1970s. Slick, dark, and morally murky.
But Leaning into the charm and style can trivialize the victims, and the ending feels rushed after eight careful episodes.
Killer Joe2012
Both reject the comforting distance of pop psychology; both insist that ordinary Americans can be capable of extraordinary monstrosity, and neither looks away from that fact.
A Texas noir about desperation, class, and the casual cruelty that lives in ordinary people. Matthew McConaughey is utterly terrifying. Lean, visceral, operatic in its ugliness.
But Graphic sexual violence and depravity played entirely straight, not as titillation but as moral statement. It's punishing in a way many will reject.
Memories of Murder2003
Both see the killer as secondary to what his existence reveals about the systems and minds around him. Both suggest that understanding evil is less important than understanding why we're so drawn to understanding it.
A South Korean masterpiece about detectives hunting a serial killer in the 1980s, but the real subject is institutional failure and the psychology of investigation itself. Gorgeously shot, deeply human.
But Non-English, and its meditation on the killer's unknowability may frustrate viewers wanting a tidy resolution or clear answers.
