AMERICAN PSYCHO At 25: 8 Of The Most Chilling Fictional Serial Killers In Cinema

What would you do if you believed someone close to you could be a serial killer? It's a sobering concept explored in The Clovehitch Killer, directed by Duncan Skiles. The 2018 thriller is set in a small Kentucky town that has been terrorized by the titular killer who bound and strangled his female victims before seemingly disappearing 10 years ago.

Tyler Burnside (Charlie Plummer) lives with his devout Christian family in this town, including mom Cindy (Samantha Matthis), sister Susie (Brenna Sherman), and dad Don (Dylan McDermott) who is a beloved member of the local community. But when Tyler discovers a suspicious photograph in his dad's car, he begins to suspect he has uncovered the identity of The Clovehitch Killer.

Grimy, seedy, and utterly terrifying – 1980 slasher Maniac introduced fans to the truly spine-chilling serial killer Frank Zito (Joe Spinell). After suffering through an abusive childhood with his mother Carmen, Frank grows up to become a grizzly serial killer who murders young women, scalps them, and attaches their hair to mannequins.

The film follows Frank as he stalks his victims, motivated by the idea that a crime is punishable by death. It was remade in 2012 by Franck Khalfoun, with genre icon Elijah Wood in the role of Frank, who takes over his family's mannequin restoration business after the recent death of his mother. In both films, we are aligned with the killers in POV shots that put the audience right into the feet of the criminals and the horrific murders they commit.

Based on Davis Grub's 1953 novel of the same name, The Night of the Hunter is a cautionary dating tale that hammers home how the one you fall for could well be the most dangerous person you've ever met.

Charles Laughton's chilling film follows Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a heinous serial killer who, while sharing a prison cell with Ben Harper (Peter Graves), learns that he hid $10,000 from a bank robbery and shared the secret location with his children, John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce).

Upon his release and following Ben's execution, Harry gains the trust of Ben's widow, Willa (Shelley Winters), to infiltrate their home and pry the information from the children by any means necessary.

Delving into the dark corners of the internet, Pascal Plante's spine-chilling Red Rooms horrified genre fans upon its release last year. It centers on model Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) who becomes obsessed with the trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a man accused of broadcasting the brutal torture and murder of three teenage girls in a Red Room, a chat room on the dark web where viewers pay to watch snuff films.

As the case gains more and more media attention, Kelly-Anne delves deeper and deeper into the case and attempts to uncover the missing third tape of one of the killer's victims which has so far evaded police. In a society that has become increasingly obsessed with true crime, blurring the lines between entertainment and real life, it is not just Chevalier's killings that are so shocking but the obsessive actions of those following his case that make the entire ordeal so chilling.

Portrayed by Anthony Perkins, Vince Vaughn, and Freddie Highmore, Norman Bates is likely one of the first serial killers that comes to mind when you think of the subgenre. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho changed the genre as we know it, and Norman Bates has stood the test of time to remain one of the most important antagonists of horror.

Based on the 1959 novel, Hitchcock's 1960 film of the same name begins with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a woman who goes on the run after stealing a large amount of money from her boss to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin).

While avoiding the police, she comes across the Bates Motel and decides to get some rest. She meets the proprietor, Norman Bates (Perkins), who has an interest in taxidermy and a tough relationship with his mother. Marion goes missing, leading Sam and Marion's sister Lila (Vera Miles) on the hunt for her.

Se7en's sadistic serial killer, John Doe (Kevin Spacey) only appears in roughly 20 minutes of the film's entire runtime. Yet, his presence left generations of cinema fans with one simple question burned into their brains – what's in the box?

Starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Gwyneth Paltrow, Se7en joins Detective Lieutenant William Somerset (Freeman) one week from retirement when he is partnered with the short-tempered Detective David Mills (Pitt). Together, they are tasked with tracking down a meticulous serial killer whose crimes are based around the seven deadly sins.

Last year, genre fans were captivated by NEON's eerie marketing campaign for the psychological horror film Longlegs, exploring the crimes of the titular serial killer. Played by Nicolas Cage, Dale Ferdinand Kobble – or Longlegs – was hidden from trailers and social media posts, leaving his big reveal for the big screen.

It's a strategy that paid off, leaving his maniacal tendencies to be experienced firsthand by moviegoers in enveloping sound and darkness. Directed by Osgood Perkins, Longlegs follows FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) after she is assigned to the case of Longlegs, a serial killer who annihilates families but seems to control the father figure to do his bidding. As Harker investigates the crimes, she soon realizes the killer lies far closer to home than she expects.

Silence Of The Lambs graced us with not one history-making serial killer, but two. Both Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) and Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) are enough to turn anyone's sweet dreams into skin-crawling nightmares without ever really seeing much blood and guts – their mannerisms and the tales of their exploits are more than enough.

In Jonathan Demme's 1991 thriller, Jodie Foster stars as FBI agent trainee Clarice Starling, who aims to attain an interview with Dr Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist imprisoned for several murders and cannibalism. Despite the danger, Dr Lecter could hold the key to Agent Starling capturing another dangerous serial killer on a crime spree.