The Fifth CordMovies like The Fifth Cord
- Key Features:
- Whodunit, Writer protagonist, Serial killer, Investigation, Mystery, Suspense, Paranoia, Red herrings, Unreliable narrator, Violence-moderate, Italian cinema, Giallo
- Tone:
- suspense-driven, gritty, serious
- Target Audience:
- Mystery fans, Thriller enthusiasts, Fans of Italian cinema
- Emotional Arc:
- Intrigue → Suspicion → Dread
The Fifth Cord

A journalist finds himself on the trail of a murderer who's been targeting people around him, while the police are considering him a suspect in their investigation.
The Fifth Cord
A nerdy film student and lifelong voyeur begins to believe that two lovely young strangers may have conspired to commit a brutal murder.

When socialite and heiress Julie Wardh begins receiving blackmail letters attributed to a mysterious serial killer, she suspects her cruel and sadistic former lover Jean is behind them. With her husband Neil frequently out of town, she falls into the arms of her friend's cousin George, and as the unknown assassin begins to make his move, she fears that one of the three men in her life may be the killer.

An English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of his psychic neighbor. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using very unconventional methods. The two are soon drawn into a shocking web of dementia and violence.

A maniac on the loose is committing savage acts of slaughter, and one survivor may be the only key to unmasking the serial slayer known as the Half-Moon Killer. The mysterious half-moon lockets he leaves with his victims could be the only key to unraveling his sinister motives, but will that be enough before he completes his ice-cold plot to claim his intended seven victims?

A young policewoman slowly goes insane while tracking down an elusive serial rapist/killer through Italy when she herself becomes a victim of the brutal man's obsession.

Roberto, a drummer in a rock band, keeps receiving weird phone calls and being followed by a mysterious man. One night he manages to catch up with his persecutor and tries to get him to talk but in the ensuing struggle he accidentally stabs him. He runs away, but he understands his troubles have just begun when the following day he receives an envelope with photos of him killing the man. Someone is killing all his friends and trying to frame him for the murders.

Oliviero is a drunk, burned-out writer who amuses himself by hosting orgies at his grand country manor and humiliating his wife Irina. When a number of women are murdered in grisly fashion, Oliviero becomes a prime suspect.

While walking along the beach, Christian and his girlfriend discover a mysterious woman washed ashore. The following day, Christian meets the woman again at a yacht party and soon finds himself entangled in a web of lust, intrigue and murder.

An American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city and conducts his own investigation, despite he and his girlfriend being targeted by the killer.

In Italy, a woman fears her sister has been kidnapped; Inspector Enzo Avolfi fears it's worse. They team up to rescue her from a sadistic killer known only as Yellow.

When a young female student is savagely killed in a park during a thunderstorm, the culprit seems obvious: TV sports personality Alessandro Marchi, seen fleeing the scene of the crime by numerous eyewitnesses. The evidence against him is damning... but is it all too convenient? And when the killer strikes again while Marchi is in custody, it quickly becomes apparent that there's more to the case than meets the eye...

Inspector Tellini investigates serial crimes where victims are paralyzed while having their bellies ripped open with a sharp knife.

Unable to process the death of his daughter, Detective Boyd embarks on a hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti. The only person who can help Boyd is Professor Mackles, an anthropologist who hides an unspeakable secret. The line between sanity and madness thins as Boyd goes deeper into the killer’s world.

A reporter and a promiscuous young woman try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town rife with superstition and a distrust of outsiders.

A vicious serial sex killer is on the loose, and landscape gardener and shop-window outfitter Loris is the prime suspect, thanks to his unfortunate habit of getting caught in compromising situations (for which there is always a totally innocent explanation that the police fail to spot). Undercover policewoman Jessica is assigned by eccentric police psychologist Taccone to follow Loris.

A masked serial killer with psychosexual issues strangles female coeds with scarves before dismembering them. When a wealthy student identifies one of the scarves and thinks she has a lead on a suspect, she becomes the killer's next target, retreating to her family's remote cliffside villa with three of her girlfriends.

Suave antiques dealer Alfredo Martelli is picked up by the police with no justification. At the precinct, Martelli realizes what the investigation is all about-- that he is the main suspect in the killing of his wealthy ex-lover. Is he guilty, or is he just a sleaze?

The marquis Galeazzo di Torre Alta is murdered by a mysterious killer who calls himself Diabolicus. His heirs are his three brothers and a sister, but all of them, with the exception of Monsignor Antonino di Torre Alta, are killed by Diabolicus. The police are unable to solve the case, but when Antonino gives his inheritance to Pasquale Bonocore, illegitimate son of his father and Pasquale is in prison and therefore can't be the killer, all the clues are in the hand of the police.

A woman with psychic powers has a vision of a murder that took place in a house owned by her husband.

Police detective Paolo Germi and the mysterious Marisa meet each other at a dance hall. Germi is unsuspecting of the secret Marisa is carrying with her: adverse conditions forced her into prostitution. As Germi finds the young girl brutally murdered, he decides to go after her killers. During his investigation, he enters a world of intrigue and obfuscation that leave an endless trail of blood.

A newsman works with a blind puzzle-solver to uncover a deadly conspiracy linked to a genetic research facility.

When a priest is jailed for the murder of a nun on whom he was performing an exorcism, an investigative journalist strives to determine whether he in fact murdered a mentally ill person, or if he lost the battle with a demonic presence.

Roman police detectives interrogate a series of potential perpetrators in their struggle to determine whom to arrest for the brutal murder of a beautiful prostitute whose body is discovered in a park on the day of a torrential rainstorm. One by one, the prime suspects -- girl-crazy teenager Nino, pickpocket Canticchia, a soldier on leave, a tourist and a pimp -- recount the events of the day to the police, each insisting he is innocent.

A beautiful American woman infiltrates the home of a novelist and his wife so she can investigate the disappearance of her lover — who was her employers’ previous secretary — and soon finds herself the target of the couple's erotic desires and a murder plot.

Gioia is a buxom centerfold working for Pussycat magazine. In such a profession, having an admirer or two is expected, but Gioia's admirer is a vicious killer! He murders her fellow magazine models one at a time, using a variety of twisted implements of death. Gioia is the lucky recipient of a collection of photos, each with murdered bodies arranged around posters of her.

Diana, a high-class prostitute trying to escape from a serial killer, suffers a car accident that leaves her blind and kills the family of Chin, a ten-year-old boy.

A middle-aged woman, traumatized from the death of her adulterous lover, moves into a room at a New Orleans boarding house where the blind landlord becomes suspicious to her activities of continuing her affair with her dead lover.

A young opera singer is stalked by a deranged fan bent on killing the people associated with her to claim her for himself.

To rescue his daughter, an unstable Special Forces veteran unleashes his inner beast as he pursues her kidnappers — and soon becomes a suspect himself.

Following the death of her wealthy husband, American widow Kathryn West migrates to Italy and takes up a reclusive existence in a luxurious villa. After quickly succumbing to the charms of a local man, she lets him move into the villa and the two are later joined by his sister, which soon leads to complications.

A burned-out New York police detective teams up with a college psychoanalyst to track down a vicious serial killer randomly stalking and killing various young women around the city.

A police inspector comes into contact with people of all types and dispositions during a grueling murder investigation.

Rich entrepreneur Rebecca Zuin has died from an alleged heart attack, raising suspicions on the part of a police inspector after her body disappears from the morgue. When her handsome young husband becomes a suspect, he starts thinking she may have faked her death to sadistically torment him.

Adriano wakes up in a hotel room next to the dead body of his lover, Laura. The door is locked from the inside and there is no evidence of anybody else in the room.

A one-time (and now one-handed) master film editor toiling in the cinematic sweatshops of 1970s Italy becomes the prime suspect in a series of brutal murders.

When a cynical journalist accepts a wager that he won't survive the night in a haunted castle, it unlocks an odyssey of sexual torment, undead vengeance, and a dark seductress who surrenders the gravest of pleasures.

A disturbed young embalmer digs the grave of his recently deceased girlfriend and brings her body to his family villa with help from his strange housekeeper. But his bouts of insanity are just beginning.

A razor-wielding serial killer is on the loose, murdering those around Peter Neal, an American mystery author in Italy to promote his newest novel.

Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

A montley group of free-lance photographers are desperate to grab a good shot of a celebrity.

Five ordinary people disillusioned with politics—a perennial temp, a docker, a university professor, a TV reporter, and a convict—decide to kidnap a politician, to dispense justice and use the ransom money to compensate the family of a blue-collar worker who died in workplace accident.

After the death of their grandfather, two sisters inherit their family castle, which is said to be haunted by the Red Queen, whom legend says claims seven lives every hundred years. When a mysterious woman in a red cloak starts targeting their circle of friends, the sisters begin to suspect there might be some truth to the legend.

Following a bungled robbery, three violent criminals take a young woman, a middle-aged man, and a child hostage and force them to drive them outside Rome to help them make a clean getaway.

Isabella, a young model, is murdered by a mysterious masked figure at a fashion house in Rome. When her diary, which details the house employees' many vices, disappears, the masked killer begins killing off all the models in and around the house to find it.

The story of a man who murdered thirty-two people, gained power, and then got afraid because too many people wanted to kill him. One August morning, he disappeared. For fifteen years, everyone believed him dead.

A detective is assigned to investigate the mysterious murders of some Supreme Court judges.

After her husband dies in a freak plane accident, a woman leaves London for Athens to collect his generous life insurance policy. She soon discovers that others besides herself are keen to get their hands on the money - and are willing to kill for it. Meanwhile, a private investigator arrives to investigate irregularities in the claim, teaming up with a beautiful reporter.

A gripping and chilling thriller that brings us to a hazy mountain village where an enigmatic detective is investigating the sudden disappearance of fifteen-year-old girl.

An elderly and retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer whom has resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year hiatus.

A young pathologist seeks answers to the mysterious death of a friend and soon comes into contact with the same cursed videotape that caused the death of the friend's wife and son, which is haunted by the curse of Sadako, a relentless spirit.

A police inspector suspects a serial killer is afoot in the university city of Bologna, luring in his victims through online video chats before murdering them and assuming their identity.

A group of young journalists investigate a cult said to practice human sacrifice, but their ambitious ways may lead them to becoming the cult's next victims.

Eccentric and full of manias, Michele is a young high school professor who defines himself as “not used to happiness”. He realizes his life is meaningless if he doesn’t have a woman by his side but, after a series of rather disastrous experiences, he feels more alone than ever. Then, out of the blue, a new French teacher called Bianca arrives at school. Amongst uncertainties and contradictions, the two start dating. In the meantime, a series of homicides take place and a police officer begins to suspect that Michele is involved. Bianca will save him providing an alibi at the right moment, but then, everything goes wrong again.

Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities with a mysterious tie to her past.

Carol Hammond, daughter of a politician, has vivid nightmares involving sex orgies and LSD. In a dream, she murders a neighbor she envies and wakes up to a real investigation into her neighbor's murder.

A priest-doctor chasing a man with supernatural regenerative abilities, who has recently escaped from a medical lab, reaches a small town where the mutant goes on a killing spree.

A killer is on the loose, and an FBI agent sifts through clues and learns that the bloodthirsty felon's victims of choice are other serial killers.

A young man returns to his countryside hometown to investigate the unclear circumstances behind the death of his father, ostensibly killed by Fascists in 1936, before his birth. As he unravels a web of lies that seems to encompass the whole town, he finds himself entangled in the same web.

Five strangers - newlywed serial killers, a suicidal, depressed policeman, and two young runaways with a secret - become suspects and potential victims when a masked murderer makes its presence known in an isolated mountain town.

In a Naples suspended between magic and superstition, madness and rationality, a mystery envelops the existence of Adriana, overwhelmed by a sudden love and a violent crime.

Both a journalist and a documentary filmmaker chase the story of a murder and its prime suspect.

A dockworker seeking revenge on the killer of his sister finds himself the object of desire for two women.

Four bodies are found at a cave accident and forensics point to the only survivor as the culprit. He denies guilt, accusing his wife of committing the crime. But how is this so? She is one of the deceased.

Julia, a woman suffering from a degenerative sight disease, finds her blind sister Sara hung in a basement. Despite all signs pointing to suicide, Julia decides to investigate what she intuitively feels is a murder case.

Rachel Keller is a journalist investigating a videotape that may have killed four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring so she can save herself and her son.

A reporter witnesses a brutal murder and becomes entangled in a mystery involving a pair of twins.

On an autumn night, in the deserted streets of a seaside town, Sara is fleeing from a party, convinced she has witnessed a murder. He finds refuge with Veronica, but does not know that the woman is the lawyer of an important industrialist, the alleged murderer.

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.

A spree of grisly murders is perpetrated in Frankfurt by a group of Satan worshippers. A lonely schoolteacher almost runs over an elderly man and takes him in, unbeknown to her the man has plans for her – plans that involve a permanent future with the Satanic cult.

A psychotic killer is on the prowl, who continues to slaughter young women while an innocent man is wrongly accused and sentenced for crimes he could never have committed. A determined detective arrives on the scene and soon becomes obsessed with the case while under pressure from the prosecutor to see a man hang.

In 1983 an English journalist travels to Italy to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young vatican girl.

While visiting his favorite resort village during winter, a writer investigates the apparent suicide of a woman he was infatuated with.

A journalist gets caught up in a terrorist plot in Moscow while investigating the Russian secret service.

Julie Kohler is prevented from suicide by her mother. She leaves the town. She will track down, charm and kill five men who do not know her. What is her goal? What is her purpose?

Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and the social order it protects.

A psychotic executive triggers a journalist's dark side, and they begin to form a strange bond through the internet.

A young lawyer stumbles upon a vast conspiracy while investigating a brutal murder case.

A vicious sniper has appeared in Tokyo, rendering the people too scared to go outside, once again it's up to Conan to figure out the meaning behind the killings and capture the mysterious sniper before more lives are lost.

A reporter is murdered while driving to his job. The Police are contacted by a clairvoyant who saw the death in a vision, but some dark force is preventing him from seeing the man behind the crime...

A desperate young journalist turns to podcasting to salvage her career, but her rush to make headlines leads her to an alien conspiracy.

Four women were murdered, each was knifed and, though they had their clothes torn, they weren't molested. As the famed police inspector Jules Maigret pieces the clues together, he comes to realize that for the elusive man that he suspects to be unmasked, he has to set him a trap.

Five people travelling by camper crash into a tree. When they recover, the road they were driving on has been replaced by an impenetrable forest and a wooden house.

An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp out in a dilapidated building on the estate.

A dying master sends his last student to check up on five former pupils, who each know a special style of kung-fu.

Policewoman Anna Mari is forced to play a dangerous game with the title serial killer. If she loses, she witnesses the maniac's tortured victims having their throats cut in explicit close-up detail via webcam. She teams up with British cop John Brennan to find out the identity of the murderer.

Set in the fictional country of Heaven Valley, the film is the story of a man, Adam, who following the suspicious death of his wife begins to investigate her murder and in doing so, discovers the involvement of local mafia boss: Denny Richards. Unable to trust the police, corrupt and controlled by Denny, Adam, consumed by anger, summons a demon who offers him superhuman strength and dark powers. The demon follows him during his trip, promising to lead Adam to the door of the murderer if he does everything the demon asks. This unleashes a bloody war that will bring Adam, the demon on his side, against the police department with all its dark allies. The fight begins and it will be extreme!

After a doctor kills his mistress and himself while researching the mysterious previous owner of his Boston home, his colleague, Dr. Norman Boyle, takes over his studies and moves his family into the Boston mansion. Soon after, Boyle's young son Bob becomes plagued by visions of a young girl, who warns him of the danger within the house.

A hitman finds himself embroiled in the middle of a Mafia war between the Sicilians and the Calabrians.

After several Catholic school pupils are murdered, a teacher who is having an affair with one of his students becomes a suspect. When other gruesome murders start occurring shortly thereafter, the teacher suspects that he may be the cause of them.

The 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists

A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.

When a tough-as-nails reporter is lead to a mysterious cult and the evil Pinhead, any moment could be her last.

A group of American tourists is traveling through Spain when two of them are murdered by a mysterious serial killer who removes an eyeball from every one of its victims. The tour presses on as the murders continue, with the travelers and the police trying to deduce which one of them is the killer.

A wealthy, possessive husband's investigation reignites his young wife's past love, leading them to plot against him. As obstacles fall away, their passion faces a new test.

A psychotic small-time criminal realizes that the everyday robberies, rapes and murders he commits aren't profitable enough, so he figures to hit the big time by kidnapping the daughter of a rich man.

The suicide of a prominent wine producer unleashes a series of mysterious murders.

The story of Giancarlo Siani, a journalist killed by the Neapolitan Mafia in 1985.

