Here Are The 15 Finest Whodunit Movies You Can Watch Right Now:
Not too long ago, whodunits seemed like an old holdover from the days of movies. For what seemed like decades, movies rarely showed mysteries with a group of interesting people at the center of a murder case and a brave detective examining them. The few movies that did show these kinds of plots didn’t get much attention either.
Whodunit mysteries have been a mainstay of movies for a long time. The drama of a crime being resolved on TV is hard to beat, what with all the twists and turns and interesting people who might or might not be the criminal?
Some of the tropes and patterns we’ve come to recognize from mystery films have changed over the years, yet the thrill of a good Whodunit story hasn’t changed.
The very best murder mysteries and “whodunits” do just that: they pull the reader into the narrative, taking them on a journey with new characters, problems, and places that add to the mystery’s emotional punch.
The Thin Man:
There are a lot of movies that say they make whodunits funnier or more self-aware, but the genre has never been known for being that serious.
Check out the famous “Thin Man” movies from the 1930s, which were one of the initial big film whodunits. The six movies in the series starred William Powell as well as Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora, a married couple who solve crimes and talk their way out of trouble.
The movies were mostly comedies, with deadpan humor, inside jokes regarding the formula, strange suspects, and a performance by dog actor Skippy as the couple’s dog Asta that stole the show.
Nick and Nora are investigating the death of a secretary when they come across more killings. The case in the first movie isn’t the most difficult or interesting, but that’s not what makes it so good.
In a good detective story, there should be good detectives. Nick and Nora are two of the best. They are not at all like the stuffy detectives you’d expect; they are very loose and funny.
Knives Out:
In Knives Out, Rian Johnson combined the style of an Agatha Christie murder mystery with the issues that millennials care about. When crime writer Harlan Thrombey is found dead, everyone immediately suspects his sneaky cousins. Somebody did it, but how are they going to get away with it? That’s more what the movie was about.
Johnson reveals the killer early on to the audience, but keeps them guessing as the broken family plans and their secrets are slowly unveiled. Watch it for Daniel Craig’s performance as a French detective with a Southern accent, and stay for the complex take on what it’s like to be an immigrant.
The Maltese Falcon:
Dashiell Hammett’s book, also titled “The Maltese Falcon,” became a movie in 1941. John Huston’s first movie as a director was a mystery movie, and Humphrey Bogart gained a lot of fame for his role as private detective Sam Spade, who is looking into the death of his partner.
This mystery movie is known to be one of the most significant film noirs ever made. As such, it created many of the tropes that are now common in the genre, such as the femme fatale, the lead character with mixed morals, and the sharp differences between light and dark.
Clue:
Clue by Jonathan Lynn may not be the best murder mystery ever, but it might be the best murder mystery movie ever. It came out in theaters with three different ends. Six people blackmailed by Mr. Boddy gather in his house to address their problems in Lynn’s film. The plot is full of twists and turns, and the comedy is out of this world.
When Mr. Boddy dies, the six of them have to figure out who the killer is while the number of bodies keeps going up. Tim Curry, who plays the cheesy butler Wadsworth with such energy, later told Empire that his blood pressure was through the roof!
Christopher Lloyd and Madeline Kahn are also in the cast, and they take turns stealing scenes from each other as they land zinger after zinger. And even though everything is crazy, the whole thing is still a really interesting story.
The Batman:
There is a superhero story in The Batman, which makes it a bit different from the other movies on this list. However, the movie’s dark direction and intense mystery make it a murder mystery like no other.
While slowly giving Batman signs about his motives and how to stop him, an unknown person targets and brutally kills the men of several powerful families in Gotham City.  The movie’s ending disappointed viewers because it introduced a superhero ending to a nearly completed mystery story. However, the movie does give viewers a puzzle to solve.
As Batman searches for the masked villain, the story’s danger is impossible to ignore. It was refreshing to witness a Batman story that truly showcased this aspect of the character, as he is often hailed as “The World’s Greatest Detective.”
The Big Sleep:
When watching a mystery movie, most people expect the story to make sense at the very least. I think the fact that “The Big Sleep” is still a classic show isn’t always required.
Howard Hawks’ movie version of Raymond Chandler’s crime novel about private investigator Phillip Marlowe getting involved in a case involving blackmail as well as multiple murders is famous for making an already very complicated plot almost impossible to follow by leaving out many of the explanations for the different clues and leaving many viewers wondering who the real killer is.
Then why does the movie even work? The reason for this is that watching Humphrey Bogart’s Marlowe look into the maze-like case is so fun and addicting. Hawks creates a classic noir mood in the movie, and Bogart’s portrayal of the tired detective is so good that it feels like the part was written just for him.
It’s so much fun and exciting to watch him explore and share great energy with his real-life wife, Lauren Bacall, to be a femme fatale with a good heart in a noir and whodunit mystery. In mysteries, the ending is more important than anything else, but “The Big Sleep” shows that the trip can be just as enjoyable as the goal.
Kavaludaari:
The writer and director of Kavaludaaari, Hemanth M. Rao, takes the usual elements of a mystery thriller and styles them in a way that makes the movie feel more noir.
A new police officer who wants to become a detective, a grumpy retired cop who comes out of retirement, an interested reporter, and strange human heads that were found by accident at a building site need to be explained.
However, the movie gradually constructs scenes shown to us in fragments, with each iteration introducing new information in small increments. Not only is the writing very artistic, but so is the direction.
Studying case history may seem dull, but when it’s organized like a funeral roll call, it comes to life. Some of the plot turns don’t make sense, yet Kavaludaaari works because it creates and maintains a tone of everyday grit that keeps us interested.
And Then There Were None:
There has to be at least one Agatha Christie version on any list of whodunits. The 1945 version of And Then There Were None is the most important as it had a significant impact on the mystery-thriller movies that followed. For those who don’t know the story, it’s about ten people who go to a remote island and are then killed one by one for unknown reasons.
Memories Of Murder:
A lot of people know Bong Joon-ho from his movie Parasite, but many still consider Memories of Murder to be his masterpiece.
The movie is based on one of the initial serial killings during South Korea’s history, but it doesn’t follow the usual rules of the genre. Instead, Park Doo-man and Seo Tae-yoon, two young agents, are tasked with catching the killer.
The hauntingly beautiful camerawork in Memories starts with a shot of a corn leaf hanging like a body under a golden sky. This shot shows how events like these change everything and everyone.
And while Park, who is quick to anger, and Seo, who is getting more and more desperate, stomp, beat, and hold on to every possible lead they discover, Bong bravely goes up against a way of running the justice system that ends more lives than it saves.
The fact that the Hwaesong killer hadn’t been caught when the movie came out adds to its power and all-time great finish. Bong Joon-ho dares to look evil in the eye.
Rear Window:
Part of what makes Rear Window a great murder mystery movie is that it’s not clear if there was even a murder. Jimmy Stewart plays a photographer who breaks his leg in an accident and has to stay in bed all day.
To pass the time in his too-small apartment, he looks at his neighbors through the windows of their apartments, which all face a courtyard. He starts to think that one of his neighbors killed their wife, yet he has to keep looking to be sure.
People who watch Rear Window have to decide if they want to believe in the story, like the main character, or if they’re just looking for something fun to do and will make up anything.
Charade:
You can’t really say that Alfred Hitchcock did whodunits; in most of his famous movies, he put tension over mystery. People have said that “Charade,” which Stanley Donen directed, is the best Hitchcock movie that the director failed to make himself.
A woman from the United States living in Paris named Audrey Hepburn files for divorce from her husband just as he is found dead, and their money disappears in this twisty love comedy thriller.
She is pulled into a confusing world of spying and double-crossing as she looks into the murder while three thieves are after her. She teams up with a nice American who also has some secrets of his own.
“Charade” is stylish and funny, and it does a great job of being both a spoof of the movies it’s based on and a very good straight version of them. Even though Hepburn and Grant are 25 years apart in real life, they have a great chemistry on screen that makes them a great detective team.
Talaash:
A well-known Bollywood star leaves his car in the water and drowns. Was this a murder? Was it a murder? What started out as an interesting police routine movie turns into a beautiful story about sadness, loss, and sorrow.
As Inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat looks into the death of the star, he can’t stop thinking about his son’s terrible death, which he feels responsible for. His hatred of himself has put a wall between him and his wife, Roshni, who goes to a medium to feel better.
Surjan then gets a lead from a strange prostitute named Rosie. Rosie is the character who ties all the different plot points together with a magical touch. Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar wrote that story.
Chinatown:
Roman Polanski directed the neo-noir movie Chinatown, which stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and won an Academy Award. This movie clearly draws inspiration from other whodunits, particularly The Maltese Falcon.
There are a lot of similarities between Nicholson and Dunaway’s friendship and the one between Bogart and Mary Astor within the 1941 noir classic. J.J. “Jake” Gittes was a private investigator that Evelyn Mulway hired to look into what her husband was doing. But Gittes quickly learns that this job is a lot harder than he thought it would be.
Gosford Park:
Set in the past, featuring an upstairs-downstairs relationship, starring Dame Maggie Smith, and written by Julian Fellowes, Gosford Park captures director Robert Altman’s own darker take on Downton Abbey, but in the best way possible.
It feels like director Robert Altman’s own darker take on Downton Abbey, but in the best way possible. In the 1930s, the movie takes place at a hunting resort where the rich and famous get together.
The movie features a star-studded cast including Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Richard E. Grant, Charles Dance, and many others. Altman skillfully satirizes the selfishness and snobbery of the British elite with sharp and clever humor, creating a delightful display of sparks.
There’s so much good writing as well as character work in this murder story that it’s easy to forget that the murder doesn’t happen until more than halfway through. When Inspector Thompson, portrayed by Stephen Fry, finally arrives, you will be just as perplexed as he is in his attempt to unravel the mystery.
Scream:
This movie is in the horror genre as well as the killer style. It’s different from many other movies within this genre because it’s a murder riddle. Although the killer is a slasher who scares people, the identity of the person behind the Ghostface mask is an important part of the riddle.
It leads to the second-to-last reveal of who has been killing the teens. Scream did such a great job with the murder mystery plot that it became the basis for the whole series.
People keep coming back to the sequence, most recently alongside the hit movie Scream VI, to try to figure out who is behind the Ghostface mask. Even though the audience gets to know the characters, none of the sequels may quite match the first movie’s sense of wonder.
