The old SerialKillerCalendar.com carried several hundred film reviews. Most were horror, but a run of them dealt with films about real cases, and those are collected here with the archive entry for each case alongside.
Films about real murders take liberties, and it is usually the liberties that make them worth arguing about. Where a film changes a name, compresses a timeline or inherits a legend rather than a record, the archive entry says what the record actually holds.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Michael Rooker plays Lucas as flatly ordinary, which is the film's whole argument. It is worth knowing while you watch that Lucas confessed to hundreds of murders and that almost all of those confessions collapsed under scrutiny. Archive entry: Henry Lee Lucas.
The Deliberate Stranger (1986). Made three years before Bundy's execution, with Mark Harmon cast against type. The film ends before the Chi Omega attacks are resolved, so the archive entry carries the part the film leaves out. Archive entry: Ted Bundy.
Ted Bundy (2002). Matthew Bright's version goes where the 1986 television film could not, and is far harder to watch for it. Archive entry: Ted Bundy.
Helter Skelter (1976). Adapted from Vincent Bugliosi's account of his own prosecution, which is worth remembering: it is the case for the Crown, dramatised. Archive entry: Charles Manson.
Live Freaky Die Freaky (2006). A stop-motion puppet retelling. Included here for completeness rather than recommendation. Archive entry: Charles Manson.
To Catch a Killer (1992). Brian Dennehy plays Gacy during the investigation rather than the crimes, and the film is mostly about the police work that finally got a warrant. Archive entry: John Wayne Gacy.
The Butcher of Plainfield (2007). Kane Hodder as Gein. The real case involved two killings, not the dozens the Gein legend has accumulated. Archive entry: Ed Gein.
Ed Gein (2000). Steve Railsback's performance is the reason to watch this one. Archive entry: Ed Gein.
Albert Fish (2007). A documentary built around Fish's letter to Grace Budd's mother, which is reproduced in the archive entry. Archive entry: Albert Fish.
Dahmer (2002). Jeremy Renner, before anyone knew who Jeremy Renner was. Structured as memory rather than chronology. Archive entry: Jeffrey Dahmer.
Green River Killer (2005). Made while Ridgway was still being sentenced, and it shows: the film has no ending because the case did not have one yet. Archive entry: Gary Ridgway.
BTK Killer (2005). Ulli Lommel's film, released the year Rader was caught after thirty years. Archive entry: Dennis Rader.
The Zodiac Killer (1971). Made and released while the killer was still active and unidentified, reportedly in the hope he would come to see it. Archive entry: the Zodiac Killer.
The Zodiac (2005). Told from the point of view of the detectives, two years before Fincher's better-known version. Archive entry: the Zodiac Killer.
Evilenko (2004). Malcolm McDowell plays a fictionalised Chikatilo. The name change is the film's worst decision and the performance is its best. Archive entry: Andrei Chikatilo.
Karla (2006). Covers the plea bargain that remains the most argued-over part of the case. Archive entry: Karla Homolka.
Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck (2007). Speck killed eight student nurses in one night in 1966, which places him outside the serial pattern despite the title. Archive entry: Richard Speck.
La Mataviejitas (2006). A Mexican film about the killings of elderly women in Mexico City, made the year Barraza was arrested. Archive entry: Juana Barraza.
Three of the original reviews cover cases the archive does not carry, for reasons the roster is strict about. The Curse of Lizzie Borden (2006) concerns a single incident and an acquittal. Black Dahlia (2006) concerns an unsolved single killing. Cannibal (2006) dramatises the Armin Meiwes case, a single killing by agreement rather than a series.