Storytelling has evolved so much that it is hard to place some stories into one specific box to what genre they belong. Romance can become a heartbreaking drama, and comedy can have dark thrills. However, some genres have specific characteristics that blend very well, making it hard to distinguish between them sometimes. One of the best examples is crime and horror.
Crime dramas and horror have various similar elements, and even the ones that are particular to each of them separately, once mixed enhance each other. So much so that there are movies that start going more heavily in one genre, and as the story progresses they become the other. This creates unpredictable stories that stay with the viewer for a long time, breaking genre expectations and clichés.
Here are some of the best crime dramas that become horror movies before the credits roll.
8 The Vanishing
The Vanishing is a Dutch crime thriller that waits until almost the last scene to become a horror movie, but nevertheless, it does. The amount of suffering the main character, Rex (Gene Bervoets), goes through trying to understand what happened the afternoon his girlfriend Saskia (Johanna Ter Steege) was kidnapped all boils down to one of the most impactful endings done in thriller movies.
Another element that brings fear is the story also follows the psychopath Raymon (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) and how he evolved his techniques as a kidnaper and killer. And once it is revealed what happened to Saskia, the horror elements become quite clear.
7 The Pale Blue Eye
The new Christian Bale movie, The Pale Blue Eye, tricks the audience into thinking this narrative will only be a historical crime drama. However, from the hidden motivations of the main characters to an actual human sacrifice ritual – it does surprise its viewer.
Since it is a story heavily influenced by the gothic period (the movie is set in 1830), and features one of the most important horror writers who ever lived in the character of Edgar Allan Poe, viewers of the period crime drama should’ve been warned of the horror elements. The sense of dread only gets higher as Poe and Bale’s character investigate the death of a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point.
6 Copycat
In Copycat, Sigourney Weaver is a criminal profiler and psychologist that had a traumatic experience while working and suffers greatly from agoraphobia — she can’t leave her house. However, she has to work with two detectives (Holly Hunter and Dermot Mulroney) to solve a case: it appears there is a copycat (someone that copies other killers’ Modus Operandi) killing multiple people. However, while working on the case, she has the impression that there is someone inside her house, her only safe haven. Is she right, or is it her trauma talking?
5 Prisoners
How far is too far to go when trying to protect the people you love? That’s the overall question imposed by Denis Villeneuve’s crime thriller Prisoners, which takes a chilling turn when the fathers of the missing girls, played by Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard, think they know who kidnapped them.
There are very few things these parents won’t do to get their little girls back, including multiple forms of torture once they perceive that the police are not doing enough. The ending is as cruel as the actions the duo is ready to take to get their family back together.
4 American Psycho
American Psycho is a cult classic that is hard to categorize. With Christian Bale in the lead as psychopathic serial killer Patrick Bateman being investigated by a quirky cop, it is not merely a slasher horror movie. It has elements of satirical comedy while still being a great crime thriller. The audience gets to see a detective in action, played by none other than William Dafoe. This is not for the faint of heart or for the ones that don’t enjoy any level of gore. American Psycho has become a reference point when talking about social commentary in genre cinema, and the film flirts between its strange crime story and all-out satirical horror.
3 Cape Fear
Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 thriller Cape Fear is a great movie that challenges the idea of safety for the characters that bleeds into the audience. The first time the audience sees Max Cady (Robert De Niro), they instantly know that the attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his family are in great trouble. It’s a tense slow burn that climaxes with an incredible amount of suspense and fear.
De Niro’s performance as the psychopath is one of the highlights of the movie – and ultimately what leads to this becoming a horror movie by the end, especially for the former attorney that had enough evidence to get him out of prison, and didn’t use it during the trial.
2 Seven
David Fincher’s psychological thriller Seven (often stylized as Se7en) with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as the lead detectives in a serial killer case is one of a kind. What starts off as another crime drama quickly takes a darker turn: from how the bodies are killed and tortured to the very last scene of the movie. Every element brings the movie closer to a horror story than just another serial killer drama. The soundtrack is also very effective; in scenes where there isn’t any real threat, the intense and atmospheric score makes the viewer extremely uncomfortable.
1 The Silence of the Lambs
It is simply impossible to talk about crime thrillers blending into horror without mentioning The Silence of the Lambs; after all, it’s one of those films where nobody can agree if it’s a horror or crime thriller movie. It could be stated that most serial killer movies released after this one were in some way inspired by the character of Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and the actor’s performance.
The story of a young FBI agent learning from a serial killer about how to catch another serial killer is dark and has power dynamics that few were able to recreate or get to this level of success. The audience is in a trance every time Hannibal and Clarice (Jodie Foster) talk, and they are instantly intrigued by these characters. The storylines outside of Hannibal’s cell are what make this a grounded criminal drama while still inspiring fear.
