From Hell And 4 Other Gripping Thrillers About Terrible Crimes That Were Never Solved
These brilliant works, which explore unsolved cases and unfathomable mysteries, turn the thriller genre on its head.
Crime stories almost always have unexpected climaxes and denouements, but they don't necessarily end with the crime being solved and the case being closed.
Cinema uses the situation of an unsolved crime to reveal an unknowable reality, the relativity of truth, and sometimes the insurmountability of evil.
1. The Town That Dreaded Sundown, 1976
History remembers the horrific events in Texarkana in 1946 when a serial killer, who was never caught, terrorized people in parked cars and even in their homes before disappearing.
The 1970s slasher film The Town That Dreaded Sundown reconstructs those nightmarish events. However, the filmmakers did not find answers to the questions they posed; they only strengthened the mystical aura surrounding the Texarkana massacre.
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2017
Frances McDormand plays Mildred, a grieving mother searching for justice. After her daughter is murdered, she blames the police for their negligence and inaction. She gradually realizes that her moral code is more valuable than the law.
Martin McDonagh's film is an experiment in how far an ordinary person can go in trying to find evidence while also calming their anger. Despite Milred's radicalism and her search for the criminal through DNA research, we cannot judge how her vendetta ended with certainty.
3. From Hell, 2001
Jack the Ripper, a symbol of the Victorian era, has found new life in the film adaptation of Alan Moore's comic book. Johnny Depp plays Frederick Abberline, a real detective who investigated the Ripper murders and often relied on psychic visions.
From Hell is a story of unsolved crimes where Masonic circles and even members of the royal family are implicated in the Ripper's bloody deeds.
The film presents its own theory as to why the brutal murders were never solved – because the killer belonged to high society.
4. Black Christmas, 1974
The fate of on-screen maniacs is easy to predict – their backstory is usually revealed by the middle of the film. However, Bob Clark's slasher film, one of the genre's pioneers, thought in terms of exceptions; the killer was never revealed.
A maniac living in the attic of a large house terrorizes female students on the eve of the Christmas holidays. When the police intervene, a circle of suspects emerges – only to find the suspects themselves dead.
By turning the killer into an unidentified object of horror, Black Christmas evokes an indescribable feeling of anxiety.
5. Rashomon, 1950
In Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, the story of the rape of a young bride and the murder of her samurai husband is told from four different points of view. Each version of the samurai's death is equally unreliable yet exists as a full-fledged witness testimony.
Perhaps no one will ever know who told the truth about the samurai's death. The problem lies in the relativity of knowledge, which is refracted by each person's experience.
There is no more discouraging realization than understanding that everyone has their own truth. In complicated cases such as murder, this awareness can easily lead to giving up.