Best movies like Formula for a Murder
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The film opens in 1960 Boston with an 11 year old girl encountering a faceless maniac dressed as a priest who gives her a doll. As is the way in the modern world that’s not all he wants to give her and whilst trying to escape, the girl (off screen) falls down a flight of steps, breaking her back which confines her to a wheelchair. 25 years later the victim, Joanna (Christina Nagy), is revealed as being a wealthy heiress who has put some of her funds into establishing a sports centre for paraplegics. She plans to also donate a substantial sum to the local church. However, someone else fancies the cash and will flash a razor in anyone's face to get it. Father Peter (Loris Lodi), a close friend of Joanna's and the priest who will be accepting the generous cash donation, is murdered in his confessional box, his throat slit.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 561
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: slasher
Best tv shows and movies like Formula for a Murder (1985):
Similar in 83%
Bloody Psycho (1989)
Plot Summary:
This is one of the five films legendary director Lucio Fulci supervised in 1989 to re-use some of the gory bits for his 1990 gorefest "A Cat in the Brain". "Bloody Psycho" features a haunted castle plus wimpy doctor Vogler,who is performing some sort of a psychic therapy on lesbian owner of the place.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Horror
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: slasher
Similar in 88%
Death of the Jackal (1984)
Plot Summary:
A psycho-killer is on the loose targeting only young women. Grisly deaths pile up, one after another. The real problem is not finding out who he is, but instead, how to stop him.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 63
Genere: Horror, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: slasher, detective, splatter, slasher horror
Similar in 82%
The Inherited (2009)
Plot Summary:
When a college student who grew up a ward of the state finds out he inherited a large estate, he and his friends decide to assess for themselves his new wealth. Unfortunately, they quickly discover his long lost family was anything but normal. Between incest and murder lies his future, if he can survive long enough to embrace his destiny. The old adage proves true. Nothing in life is free.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: slasher
Similar in 84%
The Scarecrow (1982)
Plot Summary:
The same night as a girl is slain in the woods, the teenagers Sam and Les are robbed of all of their hard earned hens. In the quest for their hens they cross the murderer's path.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 217
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: slasher, independent film
Similar in 78%
The Scorpion with Two Tails (1982)
Plot Summary:
Joan Barnard (Elvire Audray, AMAZONIA: THE KATHERINE MILES STORY), wife of archeologist Arthur Barnard (John Saxon, ENTER THE DRAGON), is being plagued by nightmares of ritualistic deaths within an ancient Etruscan tomb. Unsettling as they are, these dreams have also been unconsciously providing Joan with detailed knowledge of a lost temple that her husband has only just recently discovered. While talking on the phone about her violent and vivid dreams, Joan's life is forever altered, as she is forced to listen as her husband is murdered, his head nearly twisted off. Determined to uncover her husband's killer and get to the bottom of her hallucinogenic, maggot infested visions, Joan travels to the site of Arthur’s most recent excavation, escorted by her friend and colleague Mike Grant (Paolo Malco, THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY) uncovering a web of murder and mysticism.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 646
Genere: Crime, Horror, Mystery
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: slasher, bloody
Similar in 83%
Mask of Murder (1988)
Plot Summary:
In a Canadian village are women being killed by a psychopath. Chief Rich and Inspector McLane have no clue until McLane shoots a suspicious man. Now the killing seems to have ended, but the killer picks yet another victim.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 325
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: slasher, independent film, slasher horror
Similar in 83%
Death Carries a Cane (1973)
Plot Summary:
Ketty,a photographer living in Rome,accidentally witnesses the murder of a young woman at the hands of a razor-wielding black-gloved killer.Ketty and her fiance,Alberto,go to the police-only to learn that two other witnesses to the crime have been slashed to death.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 672
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy, Spain
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: suspense, slasher, slasher horror, cult film
Similar in 76%
The Weapon, The Hour, The Motive (1972)
Plot Summary:
A sexually-promiscuous priest is stabbed to death inside a church.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco
Similar in 86%
Blood Moon (1989)
Plot Summary:
Anne is convinced she has found her husband's corpse, but Dr. Mark can only find out that the man has gone home. When he comes back, his wife does not trust Mark, who believes she suffers from schizophrenia.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 75
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Monster of Venice (1965)
Plot Summary:
A mad killer is loose in Venice's catacombs. He attacks the beautiful women, releasing them into the underworld, kill them and then stop them and add them to his "collection".
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 524
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: gothic horror, grindhouse, slasher, psychotronic
Similar in 78%
The Phantom of Sojo (1964)
Plot Summary:
A masked killer is stalking and killing Londoners outside a nightclub.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 365
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: West Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: slasher, classic horror, art house, psychotronic
Similar in 78%
Crazy Desires of a Murderer (1977)
Plot Summary:
A group of hip friends gather at a Gothic castle owned by a wheelchair- bound older relative of one of the girls. One couple in the group, unbeknownst to the others, is smuggling heroin in some Chinese artifacts the protagonist has brought back from the Orient to give to her elderly relative. Meanwhile the deranged uncle of the protagonist, who supposedly killed the protagonist's mother (his own sister) and cut out her eyes, is wandering the catacombs spying on everyone. When one of the guests is murdered and her eyes subsequently disappear, suspicion naturally falls on the mad uncle. But is he being set up?.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 482
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
The Clairvoyant (1982)
Plot Summary:
Two uneasy friends, a police officer and a TV talk show host, each pursue the mysterious "handcuff killer" with the aid of an artist who sees - and draws - the killer's crimes before they're committed.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: slasher, detective, grindhouse, independent film, suspense
Similar in 88%
The Dark Area (2000)
Plot Summary:
Five friends get lost in the woods. Soon one by one gets killed by a mysterious person.
IMDB Rating: 2.4
IMDB Votes: 154
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: surprise ending, suspense, slasher, independent film
Similar in 76%
Vacaciones de terror 2 (1991)
Plot Summary:
En esta noche de brujas la muerte estara presente.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: slasher, independent film
Similar in 77%
Delirium (1987)
Plot Summary:
This spaghetti horror's storyline revolves around a former hooker (Grandi) running a successful men's magazine. An obsessed admirer systematically slaughters her models (occasionally increasing the magazine's output) and supplies the mistress with pictures of their disfigured corpses taken in front of her semi-nude posters visible in the background. Is she going to be the psycho's next victim?.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: slasher, suspense, scary, atmospheric, mind bending, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, sexual
Similar in 83%
Cabin Fear (2015)
Plot Summary:
A group of friends is stalked by a killer at an isolated destination wedding.
IMDB Rating: 3.8
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: slasher, scary, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, psychotronic, teen horror, horror comedy, surprise ending, twist ending
Similar in 80%
Trhauma (1980)
Plot Summary:
A couple invites some friends to spend a weekend together in an isolated cabin surrounded by woods and fields. But... there's a killer lurking around.... And... someone is monitoring him.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 202
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: slasher
Similar in 75%
The Killer is on the Phone (1972)
Plot Summary:
A woman whose husband was murdered five years previously, is stalked by his killer, who wants to eliminate her as a potential witness. What he doesn't know is that the shock of his murder caused her to have amnesia, and she doesn't remember anything.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 336
Genere: Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy, Belgium
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: slasher, slasher horror
Similar in 75%
Five Women for the Killer (1974)
Plot Summary:
Thriller about a reporter who comes home from an overseas assignment to find his baby in the hospital and his wife dead.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 439
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: slasher, cult film
Similar in 82%
The Flower with Petals of Steel (1973)
Plot Summary:
Wealthy surgeon Andreas Valenti accidentally kills one of his lovers, Daniella, with an unusual objet d'arte and covers it up by dismembering and disposing of the body never realizing he's being watched by a stalker the entire time. Daniella's half-sister, Evelyne, knows he is somehow responsible for the girl's disappearance and enlists the aid of Inspector Garrano to help prove it. They discover the good doctor had a rich young wife who went insane on her wedding night and was committed to a lunatic asylum; later pronounced cured, she had vanished upon release. Andreas, now being blackmailed with photos of his cover-up crime, also finds himself framed when the flower with petals of steel that did Daniella in is used to murder Evelyne. Having fallen for the dead woman, the Insector won't stop until he gets to the bottom of the disappearances and deaths.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy, Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: surprise ending, cult film
Similar in 75%
Reflections in Black (1975)
Plot Summary:
A woman dressed in black is murdering young women. The police question lawyer Anselmi for whom one of the girls worked as a secretary, and it turns out that all the victims were friends of lawyer's wife Leonora.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, cult film
Similar in 89%
Don't Go to the Reunion (2013)
Plot Summary:
Scott Rantzen (Brady Simenson) is a horror movie loving misfit who is teased by the popular students in school. When a date with the very popular and very beautiful Erica Carpenter (Stephanie Leigh Rose) backfires, he feels as though his life is ruined. Ten years later, the gang reunite for their class reunion. Little do they know that someone is waiting for them and ready to see that they pay for what they did. Is Scott back for revenge and will the old gang survive to tell the tale? It'll be more gore for Class of 04.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: slasher, scary, bleak, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, splatter, independent film, grindhouse
Similar in 75%
Blood Widow (2020)
Plot Summary:
A modern telling of an ancient genre. A serial killer is terrorizing Arizona with the police in hot pursuit. What the police don't know is that a mysterious group are also pursuing the same killer to stop the killer from unleashing an evil like nothing before. From Vampires to Biblical wrath - everything comes down to one showdown.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 145
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: slasher, suspense, suspenseful, tense, bleak, psychotronic, detective
Similar in 87%
Camp Dread (2014)
Plot Summary:
The “Summer Camp” horror trilogy was one of the most popular franchises of the 1980s. However, the decade ended and so did director Julian Barrett’s career. Now Barrett plans to resurrect his gory series via a modern reboot patterned after reality filmmaking. With his former leading lady and an eclectic group of 10 young “contestants,” Barrett returns to the same locale where his old splatter-fests were filmed. When one of the campers is found savagely murdered, they realize there’s more at stake than just fame and fortune. Each of them is in a fight for their lives as they realize summer is over – forever.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 992
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: slasher, suspenseful, tense, suspense, captivating, scary, rough, serious, teen horror, slasher horror
Similar in 85%
Daddy's Little Girl (2014)
Plot Summary:
After the police find Derek’s daughter brutally murdered on the beach, he vows to make the culprit suffer for his actions, even if that person is ‘part of the family.’ With careful research into the history of torture, Derek prepares himself and his basement for a week of brutal tactics that will make his daughter’s killer feel the pain that he has inflicted upon so many others. In a time when stranger danger is ever present, a single father learns that it’s the ones you trust most who have to be watched the closest.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Horror, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, psychological, brutal, bleak, suspense, suspenseful, controversial
Similar in 88%
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy English lord is suffering a mental breakdown following the death of his red-headed wife, Evelyn, whom he feared was cheating on him. He tours local bars and dives, scouring for lovely red-heads willing to come back to his decaying castle in the country, where he seduces them, then tortures and kills them. His friend the doctor talks him into marrying again to help heal his slowly-rotting mind, which he does--but are the doctor's orders really what he needs?.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: gothic, slasher, suspenseful, tense, serious, psychological thriller, classic horror, grindhouse, erotic, suspense
Similar in 82%
Murder-Rock: Dancing Death (1984)
Plot Summary:
A series of murders rock a dance academy in New York in which the mysterous directress, Candice, sets out to find the kiler, with a little assistance from a shady male model, named George, who has a hidden agenda for her as does she for him.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: slasher, suspenseful, tense, psychological, captivating, suspense, cult classic, mind bending, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
The New York Ripper (1982)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: slasher, disturbing, grindhouse, detective, dark, suspenseful, scary, bloody, controversial, suspense
Similar in 84%
Madison County (2011)
Plot Summary:
A group of college kids travel to a small, mountain town called Madison County to interview the author of a tell-all book on the accounts of several grisly murders that happened there. But when the kids get to Madison County, the author is no where to be found and the towns people act like they haven't seen him in years. They also say that the killer never existed and the murders never happened. However, when the kids start digging around to get their own answers, they find out that the stories maybe more real than the townspeople are letting on!.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: slasher, serious, tense, suspense, captivating, suspenseful, psychological, scary, rough, realistic