framethrowerSign up for free

Best Murder investigation Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of murder investigation cinema — measured across 1,230 indexed frames from 18 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Murder investigation films over-index on asphalt, streetlamp and neon sign — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Gattaca (1997)

    Andrew NiccolDP Slawomir IdziakIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    In the not-too-distant future, a less-than-perfect man wants to travel to the stars. Society has categorized Vincent Freeman as less than suitable given his genetic make-up and he has become one of the underclass of humans that are only useful for menial jobs. To move ahead, he assumes the identity of Jerome Morrow, a perfect genetic specimen who is a paraplegic as a result of a car accident. With professional advice, Vincent learns to deceive DNA and urine sample testing. Just when he is finally scheduled for a space mission, his program director is killed and the police begin an investigation, jeopardizing his secret.

  2. 2

    The Batman (2022)

    Matt ReevesDP Greig FraserIMDb 7.8TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Two years of nights have turned Bruce Wayne into a nocturnal animal. But as he continues to find his way as Gotham's dark knight, Bruce is forced into a game of cat and mouse with his biggest threat so far, a manic killer known as "The Riddler" who is filled with rage and determined to expose the corrupt system whilst picking off all of Gotham's key political figures. Working with both established and new allies, Bruce must track down the killer and see him brought to justice, while investigating his father's true legacy and questioning the effect that he has had on Gotham so far as "The Batman."

  3. 3

    Dark City (1998)

    Alex ProyasDP Dariusz WolskiIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    John Murdoch awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he has lost his memory and is wanted for a series of brutal and bizarre murders. While trying to piece together his past, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of beings known as The Strangers who possess the ability to put people to sleep and alter the city and its inhabitants. Now Murdoch must find a way to stop them before they take control of his mind and destroy him.

  4. 4

    Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (2009)

    Werner HerzogDP Peter ZeitlingerIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    After Katrina, police sergeant Terence McDonagh rescues a prisoner, hurts his back in the process and earns a promotion to lieutenant plus an addiction to cocaine and painkillers. Six months later, a family is murdered over drugs; Terence runs the investigation. His drug-using prostitute girlfriend, his alcoholic father's dog, run-ins with two old women and a well-connected john, gambling losses, a nervous young witness, and thefts of police property put Terence's job and then his life in danger. He starts seeing things. He wants a big score to get out from under mounting debts, so he joins forces with drug dealers. The murders remain unsolved. A bad lieutenant gets worse.

  5. 5

    Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

    Edward NortonDP Dick PopeIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Set against the backdrop of 1950s New York, "Motherless Brooklyn" follows Lionel Essrog (Norton), a lonely private detective afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome, as he ventures to solve his friend's murder. Armed only with a few clues and the powerful engine of his obsessive mind, Lionel unravels closely-guarded secrets that hold the fate of the whole city in the balance.

  6. 6

    Bad Boys (1995)

    Michael BayDP Howard AthertonIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Marcus Burnett is a hen-pecked family man. Mike Lowry is a foot-loose and fancy free ladies' man. Both are Miami policemen, and both have 72 hours to reclaim a consignment of drugs stolen from under their station's nose. To complicate matters, in order to get the assistance of the sole witness to a murder, they have to pretend to be each other.

  7. 7

    In a Lonely Place (1950)

    Nicholas RayDP Burnett GuffeyIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Screenwriter Dixon Steele, faced with the odious task of scripting a trashy bestseller, has hat-check girl Mildred Atkinson tell him the story in her own words. Later that night, Mildred is murdered and Steele is a prime suspect; his record of belligerence when angry and his macabre sense of humor tell against him. Fortunately, lovely neighbor Laurel Gray gives him an alibi. Laurel proves to be just what Steele needed, and their friendship ripens into love. Will suspicion, doubt, and Steele's inner demons come between them?

  8. 8

    Atomic Blonde (2017)

    David LeitchDP Jonathan SelaIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    The crown jewel of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is equal parts spycraft, sensuality and savagery, willing to deploy any of her skills to stay alive on her impossible mission. Sent alone into Berlin to deliver a priceless dossier out of the destabilized city, she partners with embedded station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies.

  9. 9

    Cruising (1980)

    William FriedkinDP James A. ContnerIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    A serial killer brutally slays and dismembers several gay men in New York's S&M and leather districts. The young police officer Steve Burns is sent undercover onto the streets as decoy for the murderer. Working almost completely isolated from his department, he has to learn and practice the complex rules and signals of this little society. While barely seeing his girlfriend Nancy anymore, the work starts changing him.

  10. 10

    A Haunting In Venice (2023)

    Kenneth BranaghDP Haris ZambarloukosIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Celebrated sleuth Hercule Poirot, now retired and living in self-imposed exile in Venice, reluctantly attends a Halloween séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

What murder investigation films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a murder investigation frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — asphalt is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • asphalt2.7×
  • streetlamp2.7×
  • neon sign2.2×
  • car2.1×
  • fedora1.9×
  • water1.9×
  • suit jacket1.8×
  • necktie1.8×

How murder investigation films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate murder investigation from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 55%low keyvs 39% baseline
  • 32%dayvs 43% baseline
  • 33%naturalvs 44% baseline
  • 55%nightvs 42% baseline
  • 24%widevs 20% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Phenomena (1985) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,230 frames from 18 films carrying the murder investigation label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/murder-investigation

What is FrameThrower?

Great films start with great references.

The numbers on this page come from the same index you can search directly. Every frame is tagged for lighting, lens, shot size, colour and mood — so you can find the reference you already have in your head, by describing it, by dropping in an image, or by picking a colour.

  • The largest film library in the world — searchable frame by frame
  • Search by light, colour, lens or mood — or by dropping in an image
  • Script to lookbook in an afternoon — a board for every scene, from real frames
  • Moodboards you can share on one link — your DP, designer and client see the same film
  • API and MCP access — for agentic and developer workflows
  • Free to start — no card required

A pitch trailer takes weeks of work and a budget most projects never get. The lookbook gets you there in an afternoon.

Start free — search the library7-day free trial of everything · cancel anytime

DiscoveryResearchReferencesEducation

These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used