Movies like In Cold Blood (1967)
The best movies like In Cold Blood (1967) are The Executioner's Song (1982), Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (1997) and The Stranger Beside Me (2003). If In Cold Blood hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest rated12 Angry Men (1957)8.6/10 from 10,590 votes
- NewestTed Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021)Released 2021
The Executioner's Song (1982)
In this fact-based made-for TV film, Gary Gilmore, an Indiana man who just finished serving a lengthy stay in prison, tries to start anew by moving to Utah. Before long, Gary begins an ill-advised romance with the troubled Nicole Baker, a teenage single mother. As their relationship quickly deteriorates, Gary goes on a murderous rampage, leaving two dead. During his trial, he demands capital punishment; a media circus ensues and outsiders look to profit from his story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (1997)
Based on a true story, this film recounts the story of Diane Zamora and David Graham, two high school sweethearts who swear to always be together, even as they enter separate military academies. But when David confesses he had an affair with a classmate, Diane has an ultimatum, leading the two into a murderous pact with severe repercussions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
The Stranger Beside Me (2003)
While working at a Seattle clinic for women in the 1970s, Ann Rule becomes friends with Ted Bundy. Based on a book by Ann Rule.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
Martha Beck, an obese nurse who is desperately lonely, joins a "correspondence club" and finds a romantic pen pal in Ray Fernandez. Martha falls hard for Ray, and is intent on sticking with him even when she discovers he's a con man who seduces lonely single women, kills them and then takes their money. She poses as Ray's sister and joins Ray on a wild killing spree, fueled by her lingering concern that Ray will leave her for one of his marks.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBluebeard (1963)
Paris, France, during the First World War. While thousands of soldiers die every day on the battlefields, Henri Landru, a seemingly respectable furniture dealer, married and father of four children, relentlessly feeds his own sinister factory of death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConfessions of a Serial Killer (1985)
After being arrested, a Texas man begins confessing to the brutal murder of over 200 women. He recounts his random selection of victims and his traveling companions, his friend and friend's sister. But the police can't be sure whether to believe him or not until he locates a body and shows them some polaroids. Based on the true story of Henry Lee Lucas.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
The Boston Strangler (1968)
Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story, the film follows the investigators path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHenry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDillinger (1973)
After a shoot-out kills five FBI agents in Kansas City the Bureau target John Dillinger as one of the men to hunt down. Waiting for him to break Federal law they sort out several other mobsters, while Dillinger's bank robbing exploits make him something of a folk hero. Escaping from jail he finds Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson have joined the gang and pretty soon he is Public Enemy Number One. Now the G-men really are after him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Heat of the Night (1967)
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBonnie and Clyde (1967)
In the 1930s, bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow, and together they start a violent crime spree throughout the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonster (2003)
In 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTed Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021)
Set in a gritty and decadent 1970s America, American Boogeyman follows the elusive and charming killer and the manhunt that brought him to justice involving the detective and the FBI rookie who coined the phrase ‘serial killer’.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEdwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster (2011)
Based on a real WWII vet and family man turned bank robber. Disillusioned by his post war circumstances, Eddie Boyd is torn between the need to provide for his young family and an unfulfilled dream to head to Hollywood to become a star. He discovers a way to do both, robbing banks Hollywood style, but his dream leads him down a path of danger and tragedy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Laughing Policeman (1973)
When a gunman opens fire on a crowded city bus in San Francisco, Detective Dave Evans is killed, along with the man he'd been following in relation to a murder. Evans' partner, Sgt. Jake Martin, becomes obsessed with solving the case.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Deliberate Stranger (1986)
Based on a true story, this film depicts the life of Ted Bundy, the serial killer. In 1974, after having murdered several young women, he leaves Seattle for Utah, where he is a law student and where other girls disappear. It takes the cooperation of a number of police forces to work efficiently on this case. Soon, but not soon enough, the police eliminate endless possibilities and close in on him. Bundy is tried in the media and his good-boy attitude brings him sympathy but also the hatred of many.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
The Laramie Project (2002)
"The Laramie Project" is set in and around Laramie, Wyoming, in the aftermath of the murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard. To create the stage version of "The Laramie Project," the eight-member New York-based Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie, Wyoming, recording hours of interviews with the town's citizens over a two-year period. The film adaptation dramatizes the troupe's visit, using the actual words from the transcripts to create a portrait of a town forced to confront itself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSacco & Vanzetti (1971)
Boston, 1920. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are charged and unfairly tried for murder on the basis of their anarchist political beliefs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBadlands (1973)
An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZodiac (2007)
Police conduct a manhunt for the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taunting police with letters, bloodstained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Secret Life (1993)
Based on the life of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered 17 men and ate many of them before he was caught in 1991.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Dance with a Stranger (1985)
Ruth Ellis lives with her ten-year old son Andy next to a night club. One night she meets David Blakely, and they start a love affair. However, for David with his upper-class background, it is impossible to uphold the relationship. He breaks up with her, something which makes Ellis, obsessed by him, very upset.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this10 Rillington Place (1971)
The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Friend Dahmer (2017)
Jeffrey Dahmer struggles with a difficult family life as a young boy. During his teenage years he slowly transforms, edging closer to the serial killer he was to become.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night of the Hunter (1955)
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTargets (1968)
An aging horror-movie icon's fate intersects with that of a seemingly ordinary young man on a psychotic shooting spree around Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like this12 Angry Men (1957)
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKidnapped: The Hannah Anderson Story (2015)
On the afternoon of August 3, 2013, 16-year-old Hannah Anderson was abducted after finishing cheerleading practice in a San Diego suburb. When the bodies of her mother and brother were found in the burned home of family friend James DiMaggio later that day, an AMBER Alert was issued, and a frantic multi-state manhunt for Hannah began. For a week she was kept prisoner by the increasingly unstable DiMaggio as they made their way across the state. One week later, the two were found in Idaho and DiMaggio was killed in a shootout with FBI agents, leaving Hannah as the sole survivor. As the dust settled, questions began to emerge about the nature of the relationship between Hannah and her kidnapper...and what really happened?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
The Wrong Man (1956)
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStraight Time (1978)
After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In Cold Blood?
The closest matches to In Cold Blood are The Executioner's Song (1982), Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (1997) and The Stranger Beside Me (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In Cold Blood?
People who watched In Cold Blood most often go on to The Executioner's Song (1982), Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (1997) and The Stranger Beside Me (2003).
What is the highest-rated movie like In Cold Blood?
12 Angry Men (1957), rated 8.6/10 by 10,590 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In Cold Blood?
Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like In Cold Blood?
Yes: The Executioner's Song (1982), Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (1997) and The Stranger Beside Me (2003).
How are movies similar to In Cold Blood chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In Cold Blood, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.