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Movies like Tales of the Grim Sleeper

Key Features:
True crime, Serial killer, Documentary, Investigation, Social commentary, Systemic injustice, Poverty, Urban decay, Race relations, Crime investigation
Tone:
serious, gritty, suspense-driven
Target Audience:
True crime enthusiasts, Documentary viewers, Social justice advocates, Investigative journalism fans
Emotional Arc:
Intrigue → Dread

Tales of the Grim Sleeper

2014-08-29
Tales of the Grim Sleeper Poster - Find Similar Movies

When Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested in South Central Los Angeles in 2010 as the suspected murderer of a string of young black women, police hailed it as the culmination of 20 years of investigations. Four years later documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield took his camera to the alleged killer’s neighborhood for another view.

Genres
Crime, Documentary
Cast
Lonnie Franklin Jr.
Crew
Nick Broomfield
Rating
6.285(65 votes)
Tales of the Grim SleeperTales of the Grim Sleeper
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Tales from the Hood
6.26

A strange mortician tells four horrific tales to three drug dealers that he traps in their local funeral parlor.



Killer Legends
5.792

Delving into our collective nightmares, this horror-documentary investigates the origins of our most terrifying urban legends and the true stories that may have inspired them.



Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.



Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror

Delving into a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and finally embraced them, this is the untold history of black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre.



Biggie & Tupac
6.3

In 1997, rap superstars Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G.) were gunned down in separate incidents, the apparent victims of hip hop's infamous east-west rivalry. Nick Broomfield's film introduces Russell Poole, an ex-cop with damning evidence that suggests the LAPD deliberately fumbled the case to conceal connections between the police, LA gangs and Death Row Records, the label run by feared rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight.



V/H/S: Viral
4.8

As the streets of Los Angeles overflow with camera-wielding gawkers seeking to capture images of a bizarre police pursuit, the same people who sought to exploit the suffering of others for amusement on the Internet become the stars of a gruesome viral video from which no one gets out alive.



Dreams of a Life
6.5

A filmmaker sets out to discover the life of Joyce Vincent, who died in her bedsit in North London in 2003. Her body wasn't discovered for three years, and newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph.



O.J.: Made in America
8.415

A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.



Beware the Slenderman
6.498

In this horrifyingly modern fairytale lurks an online Boogeyman and two 12-year-old girls who would kill for him. The entrance to the internet quickly leads to its darkest basement. How responsible are our children for what they find there?



Sleepers
Sleepers(1996)
7.601

Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.



The Killing of America

A documentary of the decline of America. Featuring footage (most exclusive to this film) from race riots to serial killers and much, much more.



Campfire Tales
5.805

Anthology of famous, scary urban legends done with a modern twist.



Grimcutty
Grimcutty(2022)
5.113

A suburban teen girl and her little brother must stop a terrifying internet meme brought to life by the hysteria of their parents.



The Blackwell Ghost

A filmmaker tries to prove that ghosts are real but soon regrets his intentions after he finds himself being terrorized in a haunted house by a ghost with a dark past. An authentic documentary that shows actual ghost footage that was captured on camera.



Savageland
6.8

When a small town near the Arizona-Mexico border is wiped out overnight, suspicion falls on the lone survivor. But a roll of photos the survivor took that night tells a different story.



Digging Up the Marrow
5.448

A documentary filmmaker turns his lens on an enigmatic conspiracy theorist who claims he's found the entrance to a vast underground city populated entirely by monsters.



Ghost Stories
6.449

Professor Philip Goodman devotes his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural shenanigans. His skepticism soon gets put to the test when he receives news of three chilling and inexplicable cases -- disturbing visions in an abandoned asylum, a car accident deep in the woods and the spirit of an unborn child. Even scarier -- each of the macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to the professor's own life.



Ghosts of Mississippi

A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.



3 ½ Minutes, 10 Bullets

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving November 2012, four boys in a red SUV pull into a gas station after spending time at the mall buying sneakers and talking to girls. With music blaring, one boy exits the car and enters the store, a quick stop for a soda and a pack of gum. A man and a woman pull up next to the boys in the station, making a stop for a bottle of wine. The woman enters the store and an argument breaks out when the driver of the second car asks the boys to turn the music down. 3½ minutes and ten bullets later, one of the boys is dead. 3½ MINUTES dissects the aftermath of this fatal encounter.



The Hunting Ground
7.38

A startling expose of rape crimes on US campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families. The film follows the lives of several undergraduate assault survivors as they attempt to pursue—despite incredible push back, harassment and traumatic aftermath—both their education and justice.



Tony
Tony(2010)
5.883

Unemployed and unemployable, Tony is a sympathetic recluse with severe social problems, an addiction to VHS action films and a horrible moustache. Occasionally he snaps and murder is the result…



Tales from the Hood 2

Mr. Simms returns to tell more eerie, unsettling tales involving dolls, psychics, possession and ghosts.



Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror

Anonymous and exploitative, a network of online chat rooms ran rampant with sex crimes. The hunt to take down its operators required guts and tenacity.



Clockers
Clockers(1995)
6.7

Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Detective Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.



V/H/S/85
V/H/S/85(2023)
5.7

Unveiled through a made-for-TV documentary, five chilling tales of found footage horror emerge to take viewers on a gore-filled journey through the grim underbelly of the forgotten 1980s.



Freeway
Freeway(1996)
6.447

Following the arrest of her mother, Ramona, young Vanessa Lutz decides to go in search of her estranged grandmother. On the way, she is given a ride by school counselor Bob Wolverton. During the journey, Lutz begins to realize that Bob is the notorious I-5 Killer and manages to escape by shooting him several times. Wounded but still very much alive, Bob pursues Lutz across the state in this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.



Kalifornia
6.579

A journalist duo go on a tour of serial killer murder sites with two companions, unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.



Abattoir
Abattoir(2016)
4.5

A reporter unearths an urban legend about a home being constructed from rooms where horrific tragedies have occurred.



Evilenko
Evilenko(2004)
5.7

For years, Andrei Evilenko eluded the obsessive Detective Lesiev and the psychiatric profiler Aron Richter. Spurred on by his rabid fury at the gradual crumbling of his precious Soviet Union, Evilenko is a man who will live, die and kill as a communist.



FearDotCom
3.8

When four bodies are discovered among the industrial decay and urban grime of New York City, brash young detective Mike Reilly teams with ambitious Department of Health researcher Terry Huston to uncover the cause behind their violent and inexplicable deaths. The only common factor shared by the victims? Each died exactly 48 hours after logging onto a website called feardotcom.



Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

The next great psycho horror slasher has given a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo, all the while deconstructing the conventions and archetypes of the horror genre for them.



Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film

This historical and critical look at slasher films, which includes dozens of clips, begins with Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Prom Night. The films' directors, writers, producers, and special effects creators comment on the films' making and success. During the Reagan years, the films get gorier, budgets get smaller, and their appeal wanes. Then, Nightmare on Elm Street revives the genre. Jump to the late 90s, when Scream brings humor and TV stars into the mix.



The Night Stalker
6.9

Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of murders in Las Vegas and suspects the culprit is a vampire. His editor thinks he's crazy and the police think he's a nuisance, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.



Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes

Serial killer Dennis Nilsen narrates his life and horrific crimes via a series of chilling audiotapes recorded from his jail cell.



Helter Skelter
6.8

The investigation of two horrific mass murders leads to the capture and trial of the psychotic pseudo-hippie Charles Manson and his "family".



Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.



The Nightmare
5.5

Eight people experience sleep paralysis, a condition which leaves them unable to move, speak or react.



Mara
Mara(2018)
5.702

Criminal psychologist Kate Fuller is assigned to the murder of a man who has seemingly been strangled in his sleep by his wife and the only witness is their eight-year-old daughter, Sophie. As Kate digs into the mystery of an ancient demon which kills people in their sleep, she experiences the same petrifying symptoms as all previous victims and spirals through a chilling nightmare to save herself and Sophie before she dares fall asleep again.



Followed
Followed(2020)
6

Social media influencer, 'DropTheMike', seeks thrills and stardom in the most horrific places. When he’s offered the possibility of a lucrative sponsorship, he takes his online channel to one of the most haunted hotels in America. What begins as a fun challenge accompanied by friends descends into a personal hell, begging the timely question: how far would you go to pursue internet fame?



Tales That Witness Madness

Dr. Tremayne is an enigmatic psychiatrist running an asylum that houses four very special cases. Visited by his colleague Nicholas, Tremayne explains his amazing and controversial theories as to why each of the four patients went mad.



Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman

Legend holds that 30 years ago, a suburban town was terrorized by the spirit of a woman whose horrid face had been grotesquely disfigured. Roaming the streets wearing a long coat and carrying large scissors, the spirit would approach her young victims and, while removing the mask, ask if she was pretty. The victim’s response would almost always lead to their violent death.



Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.



Bones
Bones(2001)
4.8

Over 20 years after his death, local legend and benefactor Jimmy Bones returns as a ghost to get revenge on those who killed him and restore his neighborhood.



Dark Days
Dark Days(2000)
7.3

A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.



Smiley
Smiley(2012)
4.318

After learning of an urban legend in which a demented serial killer named SMILEY can be summoned through the internet, mentally fragile Ashley must decide whether she is losing her mind or becoming Smiley's next victim.



American Grindhouse
6.742

This documentary explores the hidden history of the American Exploitation Film. The movie digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment.



Strong Island
6.367

Examining the violent death of the filmmaker’s brother and the judicial system that allowed his killer to go free, this documentary interrogates murderous fear and racialized perception, and re-imagines the wreckage in catastrophe’s wake, challenging us to change.



Crazy, Not Insane
7.218

Fascinated by the human brain and its capacity for ruthlessness, psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis has spent her life investigating the interior lives of violent people. With each case, she came closer to developing a unified field theory of what makes a killer. Along the way - steering away from the conventional wisdom of her colleagues - she explored the world of multiple personality disorder.



Cropsey
Cropsey(2009)
6.006

Realizing the urban legend of their youth has actually come true, two filmmakers delve into the mystery surrounding five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearances.



On Halloween
6.185

A journalist goes in search of the truth after a series of brutal deaths and disappearances lead back to an urban legend about a serial killing clown that has stalked the woods of Century Park for over a hundred years.



Scarecrow
Scarecrow(2013)
4.974

For generations, it was an urban legend that lived in the nightmares of children. Now, the season to rejuvenate the tale will revive a town's darkest fears. With the Scarecrow Festival on the horizon, school teacher Aaron Harris is doling out punishment for six students serving detention. Their task: help Aaron's girlfriend Amanda fix her family farm before it's sold. But the cornfields circling the farm come with a legend and Tyler takes macabre delight in recounting the tale: It never sleeps, it never dies, it can't be stopped, hear their cries.



Voyeur
Voyeur(2017)
5.897

Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.



True Crime
6.5

Boozer, skirt chaser, careless father. You could create your own list of reporter Steve Everett's faults but there's no time. A San Quentin Death Row prisoner is slated to die at midnight – a man Everett has suddenly realized is innocent.



Lead Me Home
6.339

Poignant stories of homelessness on the West Coast of the US frame this cinematic portrait of a surging humanitarian crisis.



Ghosts of Sugar Land

Shocked when their friend embraces extremism, a group of Muslim Americans in Texas recount their time with him and theories about his fate.



City of Ghosts
7.181

With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.



Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story

After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology and the law itself call her guilt into question.



To Catch a Killer
6.867

Baltimore. New Year's Eve. A talented but troubled police officer is recruited by the FBI's chief investigator to help profile and track down a mass murderer.



Hoop Dreams
7.6

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.



Freaky Tales
6.4

In 1987 Oakland, a mysterious force guides The Town's underdogs in four interconnected tales: teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score.



Murder-Set-Pieces
3.878

A ferocious, misogynistic, and morally deprived serial killer is active in Las Vegas. Obsessed with the collapse of the Twin Towers, and with Nazi tendencies, he even targets underage girls.



8213: Gacy House
3.4

A group of paranormal investigators enter the abandoned home of paedophile and serial killer John Gacy, hoping to find evidence of paranormal activity. Upon entering the house they set-up cameras throughout the abandoned house while going room to room with hand-held cameras, performing séance's and asking for John Gacy to come forward. As the evening progresses it seems the investigators are not prepared for the horror still within the house.



The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo

After the death of her daughter at the hand of her boyfriend, Marisela Escobedo began to fight for justice not only against the murderer but also against the corrupt Mexican judicial system.



Tabloid
Tabloid(2011)
6.426

A documentary on a former Miss Wyoming who is charged with abducting and imprisoning a young Mormon Missionary.



Grave Halloween
4.5

After inadvertently unleashing an ancient curse, a documentary crew of American exchange students is haunted by angry spirits in Japan's infamous Suicide Forest.



The Clovehitch Killer
6.406

A picture-perfect family is torn apart after Tyler finds a cache of disturbing images in his father's possession. He begins to suspect that the man he trusts most in the world may be responsible for the murder of 13 women ten years prior.



Ghost Trail
6.8

After being imprisoned by the Assad regime in Syria, Hamid now works undercover as part of a secret group pursuing their leaders, including the guard he suspects was responsible for his torture.



School Spirit
5.5

A group of social outcasts, stuck in weekend detention, find themselves stalked by their school’s urban legend who is set on killing bad students.



Surveillance
6

An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims - all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.



Grave Encounters
6.317

A crew from a paranormal reality television show lock themselves in a haunted psychiatric hospital. They search for evidence of paranormal activity as they shoot what ends up becoming their final episode.



The Driller Killer
5.2

An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two female roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.



Butterfly Kisses
5.8

A filmmaker discovers a box of video tapes depicting two students' disturbing film project featuring a local horror legend, The Peeping Tom. As he sets out to prove this story is real and release it as a work of his own, he loses himself and the film crew following him into his project.



Pandemic
Pandemic(2016)
5.1

After a virus of epic proportions overwhelms the planet—with more infected than uninfected—humanity is losing its grip on survival and its only hope is finding a cure and keeping the infected contained. Lauren, a doctor, arrives in Los Angeles with her crack team to lead the hunt for uncontaminated civilian survivors, but nothing can prepare them for the blood-soaked mayhem they witness as they head into the Californian streets where everything is considered a trap.



Hell House LLC
6.5

Five years after an unexplained malfunction causes the death of 15 tour-goers and staff on the opening night of a Halloween haunted house tour, a documentary crew travels back to the scene of the tragedy to find out what really happened.



C.H.U.D.
C.H.U.D.(1984)
5.7

A rash of bizarre murders in New York City seems to point to a group of grotesquely deformed vagrants living in the sewers. A courageous policeman, a photojournalist and his girlfriend, and a nutty bum, who seems to know a lot about the creatures, band together to try and determine what the creatures are and how to stop them.



The Star Chamber

As violence escalates in Los Angeles and heinous murders are committed, Steven Hardin, a young judge of the California Supreme Court, must struggle with his tortured conscience and growing despair as he watches helplessly as the ruthless criminals brought before his court go free because clever lawyers find obscure loopholes in the law.



Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

For decades, Freddy Krueger has slashed his way through the dreams of countless youngsters, scaring up over half a billion dollars at the box office across eight terrifying, spectacular films.



Overnight
Overnight(2003)
6.333

Alternately hilarious and horrifying, Overnight chronicles one man's misadventures of making a Hollywood movie. It starts out as a rags to riches story as Troy Duffy, a Boston-bred bartender, sells his first screenplay for The Boondock Saints.



Gridlock'd
6.7

After a friend overdoses, Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their drug habits and attempt to enroll in a government detox program. Their efforts are hampered by seemingly endless red tape, as they are shuffled from one office to another while being chased by drug dealers and the police.



Boneyard
Boneyard(2024)
5.51

After Police Chief Carter discovers the remains of eleven women, FBI Special Agent Petrovick is recruited to profile the serial killer responsible for the infamous "boneyard" killings. As the police force, narcotics agency, and FBI lock horns, a tangled web of intrigue turns everyone into a suspect.



Slender Man
4.299

In a small town in Massachusetts, four high school girls perform a ritual in an attempt to debunk the lore of Slender Man. When one of the girls goes mysteriously missing, they begin to suspect that she is, in fact, his latest victim.



Fender Bender
5.1

In a small New Mexico town, teenager Hilary gets into a fender bender and innocently exchanges her personal information with the other driver, a terrifying and bizarre serial killer who stalks the country’s endless miles of roads and streets with his old rusty car, hungrily searching for his next unsuspecting victim.



Los Angeles Plays Itself

From its distinctive neighborhoods to its architectural homes, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to countless movies. In this dazzling work, Andersen takes viewers on a whirlwind tour through the metropolis' real and cinematic history, investigating the myriad stories and legends that have come to define it, and meticulously, judiciously revealing the real city that lives beneath.



A Haunting at Silver Falls

A small town is haunted by the twin daughters of a wrongfully convicted man. Young Jordan is sent down the path to who the real killer is only to find the killer is very close to her.



John Doe: Vigilante
6.439

When John Doe is convicted of being a vigilante serial killer, a vigilante group named 'Speak for the Dead' emerges in support of John's cause—elevating the debate about justice versus vengeance.



Streetwise
7.484

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.



Longlegs
Longlegs(2024)
6.563

FBI Agent Lee Harker is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer. As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.



Collapse
Collapse(2009)
7.2

From the acclaimed director of American Movie, the documentary follows former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter Michael Ruppert. He recounts his career as a radical thinker and spells out his apocalyptic vision of the future, spanning the crises in economics, energy, environment and more.



Episode 50
3.636

Teaming up for the first time for a special episode of a supernatural reality TV show, two rival crews get more then they bargained for when they make physical contact with a ferocious spirit of terrifying power. They must band together before it destroys them all. After 49 killer episodes…this is the true story of what happened on episode 50.



Dark Figure of Crime
6.602

A serial killer is caught for his seventh murder. A cop tries to solve the first six cases with the killer's help, but starts to suspect that he has ulterior motives. Based on a true story.



Audrie & Daisy
7.142

A documentary film about three cases of rape, that includes the stories of two American high school students, Audrie Pott and Daisy Coleman. At the time of the sexual assaults, Pott was 15 and Coleman was 14 years old. After the assaults, the victims and their families were subjected to abuse and cyberbullying.



Awakening the Zodiac

The story follows a down-on-their-luck couple who discovers a serial killer's film reels. They decide to take the law into their own hands, risking everything for the chance at a $100,000 reward. It isn't long until they find themselves in the killer's lethal cross-hairs.



The Axe Murders of Villisca

Three ghost-hunting high-schoolers visit the Moore House in Villisca, Iowa—the site of one of America’s most grisly unsolved mass murders. After their private tour is interrupted, the group sneaks back in at night, unaware of the otherworldly terror that awaits them.



Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal

An examination that goes beyond the celebrity-driven headlines and dives into the methods used by Rick Singer, the man at the center of the shocking 2019 college admissions scandal, to persuade his wealthy clients to cheat an educational system already designed to benefit the privileged.



88 Minutes
5.8

Famed forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gramm enjoys a reputation as one of the most sought-after profilers around. His expert testimony has resulted in the conviction of many criminals, including serial killer Jon Forster. On the eve of Forster's execution, one of Gramm's students is murdered in a vicious copycat crime, and Gramm himself receives an ominous message informing him that he has less than 90 minutes to live.



Long Shot
Long Shot(2017)
7.186

When Juan Catalan is arrested for a murder he insists he didn't commit, he builds his case for innocence around unexpected raw footage.



The Ghost Station
6.508

Reporter Na-yeong and her partner investigate a series of mysterious deaths and a perplexing case where her source was allegedly already dead at the time of their interview. Together they end up confronting a terrifying truth.



Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy

A cheap, powerful drug emerges during a recession, igniting a moral panic fueled by racism. Explore the complex history of crack in the 1980s.



Gacy
Gacy(2003)
4.504

Based on a true story of serial killer a model citizen, loving father and husband and serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a man with over 30 dead men and boys entombed in the crawl space underneath his house which he shared with his family.

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