Murder on the mind: the best shows about serial killers to stream now

Whether serial killers are fictionalised like Dexter or true-life murderers like Charles Manson, we can’t help being fascinated by them. Feed your morbid fascination with these series, documentaries and movies on internet TV.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

The story about Ted Bundy, told from the perspective of his long-time girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe he was a serial killer. Zac Efron stars as Bundy, with Lily Collins playing Kloepfer.

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Fictional killers

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Reckoning S1

When a teenager is killed, the death is linked to a serial killer who’s been dormant for years. The events surrounding the murder lead two dads living in a quiet community on a downward spiral.

Die Byl S1-2

Local series Die Byl follows troubled detective Piet Van der Bijl (Waldemar Schultz) on his quest to arrest ordinary criminals, but he and his team are also tasked with capturing a serial killer who targets everyone from gangsters on the Cape Flats to prisoners and emergency first-responders.

The drama is intense and gritty, it’s based on late super-cop Piet Byleveld’s work and it contains other elements like personal woes to bring us closer to the characters.

True Detective S1-3

Dark, dark, dark! The anthology series follows new cops and new killers each season, but what is constant is that the detectives are deeply flawed and their prey are sadistic, twisted, brutal individuals. This is not the kind of series to watch if you’re afraid of things that go bump in the night.

And don’t expect things to develop at a rapid pace – each episode is drawn out, going at its own creeping speed for a very good reason: to make you feel like you’re in the middle of the action. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is not where you want to be while the killers are on the loose. Because they are monsters!