Audiences have always been fascinated by murder mystery movies with their breathtaking plots, challenging puzzles, and suspenseful narratives. These films take the viewers into a world of duplicity, interest, and peril as they follow detectives, amateur sleuths, or unknowing victims on their mission to reveal the truth behind a puzzling killing. There are a lot of types of such screenplays from classical whodunits to contemporary thrillers that give people shivers up to the last frame. So here we talk about The Best Murder-Mystery Movies.
4) Knives Out (2019)
Rian Johnson might have been forgiven if he had decided to lower the stakes somewhat in his follow-up to Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, which was incendiary and broke the internet and dominated discourse. But no, far from toning things down, the director increased the stakes and much more with the star-studded original mystery Knives Out, which introduced us to Benoit Blanc as our next great fictional detective. And we are so glad he did! Johnson took Agatha Christie’s formula – a big old house, a large group of recognizable social stereotypes, and everyone gathering around for a climactic monologue that makes us all gasp – then brought it up-to-date for today’s generation.
In doing this for murder mysteries like he did with Star Wars, Johnson changed everything. Daniel Craig is simply fantastic as Foghorn Leghorn-accented Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc while Chris Evans plays against type delightfully as Ransom Drysdale; Ana de Armas’ star also shines vividly through her wonderfully layered performance as Marta; indeed the entire beautifully photographed film has a great soundtrack that plays like gangbusters at its final destination revealing what happened to Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) mystery writer. With Knives Out we get both the doughnut and the hole.
3) The Conversation (1974)
A tense thriller about a lone wolf surveillance expert called Harry Caul who bugs people for a living only to be embroiled in an unsolved car crash murder case by Francis Ford Coppola while making his Godfather films starring Gene Hackman playing Harry inimitably. This is one of those movies where just on my second viewing right now I feel compelled never ever to leave my apartment again. Themes of privacy invasion, surveillance state mentality, personal responsibility, etc run throughout The Conversation and still resonate over four decades later since Harry tries drawing a distinction between his job and moral obligations. The last scene featuring Harry playing the saxophone amidst the ruins of his house that he tore to get rid of the bug watching him, is brilliant cinema with its shakiness as if recorded by a CCTV. But It is one of the Best Murder-Mystery Movies.
2) Se7en (1995)
David Fincher rebounded brilliantly from Alien 3’s controversy and disappointment to direct this dark tale all about torture and murder inspired by seven deadly sins. Morgan Freeman’s world-weary Somerset pairs up with Brad Pitt’s eager Mills as their bodies begin to pile up. Andrew Kevin Walker’s intriguing screenplay is such that the real story takes a back seat for once, focusing more on the atmosphere in the case. However, it pulls no punches when revealing John Doe’s identity in a climactic twist. And intelligently, they opted not to put Kevin Spacey’s name or image anywhere on marketing materials or opening credits to make it more of a surprise while eliminating our usual assumption of going for the most famous face being our murderer. All leading towards that deeply shocking end sequence.
1) Rear Window (1954)
Rear Window is an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece driven by a single location, a handful of perfectly drawn characters, and a sharp perception of our inborn voyeuristic tendency to look where we shouldn’t.
This is the genre’s driving force here and how it finds its definition.
In Greenwich Village, a scorching sunshine falls on a block of flats while beads of sweat form on the forehead of James Stewart who plays L.B. Jefferies, a block-bound photographer with an eagle eye for action and the community’s peeping Tom. However, his suburban tailing of Miss Lonely-Hearts and Miss Torso might be just innocent fun but sighting local salesman Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) going out late with a hard case but coming in later with one looking much lighter and his wife nowhere around sparks off Jeffrey’s suspicions arousing him further towards inspecting this suspicious act closely. As he includes his loving girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and visiting nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) in his fiction about Thorwald, the threads that differentiate between seeing and believing begin to become smudged.
Although he knows it’s wrong Jefferies still can’t help taking an interest in something he should not be seeing; from his own two eyes, to a pair of binoculars, to a telephoto lens, and even Lisa- Hitchcock’s work here is all about how Jefferies’ need for answers is more important than any danger facing him. We should mention also ourselves who are watching this film as willing partners in crime participating in the search for the murder. Rear Window is simply unceasing momentum throughout, Hitchcock’s one-room masterpiece where every trick at his disposal has already been used. It is not just some detestable detective story but also maybe one of the most outstanding movies ever made.
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