Movies like The Element of Crime

If you like "The Element of Crime" you are looking for surreal, bleak and neo noir movies about / with serial killer, murder, hypnosis, police investigation, surrealism, mentor and dystopia themes of Crime, Drama and Thriller genre shot in Denmark.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps: 1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below). 2. Look for them in the presented list.
The Element of Crime (1984)
 6.7
 11K
The Element of Crime (1984)
Original name: Forbrydelsens element
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Denmark
Duration: 104 min.
Story: Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.
Style: surreal, bleak, neo noir, art house, psychological, detective, suspenseful, cerebral, atmospheric, stylized ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, hypnosis, police investigation, surrealism, mentor, dystopia, society, memory loss, distopia, dialogue, psychoanalysis, killing, nordic, water, amnesia, maniac, killer, cyberpunk, murderer, lovers, spirituality, crime investigation, serial murder, trippy ...
Time: future
Place: middle east, cairo egypt, europe, egypt, africa
Keyword: dreams

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to The Element of Crime

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out serious, suspenseful, realistic and psychological films with plots about murder, deadly, law enforcement, serial killer, police investigation, killer and police detective mostly in Crime, Drama and Thriller genres. Some movies like The Element of Crime: The Cell (2000), I Stand Alone (1998), Europa (1991), Limbo (2021), Sebastian Bergman (2010). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009)
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min.
Story: It's Yorkshire in 1974, and fear, mistrust and institutionalised police corruption are running riot. Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to search for the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police ...
Style: neo noir, bleak, suspenseful, detective, suspense ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, murder mystery, investigation, journalism, police brutality, conspiracy, strangulation, brutality, justice, violence, journalist ...
Time: 20th century, 70s, year 2009, year 1974
Place: yorkshire, england, britain, northern england, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.4
 109K
The Cell (2000)
Genre: Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 107 min.
Story: A psychotherapist journeys inside a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.
Style: psychological, surreal, psychedelic, scary, mind bending ...
Plot: serial killer, surrealism, psychopath, race against time, coma, psychiatrist, virtual reality, mind game, fbi, investigation, schizophrenia, dream ...
Time: year 2000, y2k, 90s
Place: california
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.3
 26K
I Stand Alone (1998)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 93 min.
Story: The Butcher (known from Noe's short film Carne) has done some time in jail after beating up the guy who tried to seduce his teenage mentally-handicapped daughter. Now he wants to start a new life. He leaves his daughter in an institution and ...
Style: depressing, disturbing, psychological, bleak, controversial ...
Audience: adult
Plot: loneliness, incest, butcher, revenge, violence, alienation, nihilism, insanity, existentialism, macabre, violent, obsession ...
Time: year 1998, 20th century, 80s
Place: paris france, france, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.5
 23K
Europa (1991)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 112 min.
Story: An American, Leopold Kessler, goes to post-war Germany in 1945 to work as a railroad conductor for the Zentropa Rail Line instead of going into the Army because he feels its a more valuable thing to do for the state of the world. He meets Katharina ...
Style: art house, surreal, bleak, psychological, gloomy ...
Plot: train, world war two, assassination, betrayal, idealism, suicide, against humanity, misfit, terrorism, employee, danger, haunted by the past ...
Time: 1940s, 20th century, year 1991, 90s, post world war two
Place: germany, nebraska, frankfurt germany, munich germany, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
35%
Movie in collections
 7.1
 3K
Limbo (2021)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 118 min.
Story: Veteran detective Cham works with rookie cop Will to hunt down the city's serial killer. The investigation leads them to a lair littered with dismembered female limbs, and an ex-con who killed Cham's wife and child years ago...
Style: serious, captivating, detective, bleak, psychological ...
Plot: big city, stalker, police officer, serial killer, rape, police investigation, homeless, mutilation, murder, killings, murderer, police detective ...
Place: hong kong
⇓ similarity ⇓
26%
Sebastian Bergman (2010)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Sweden
Duration: 90 min.
TV show
Story: Swedish crime drama series about forensic psychologist Sebastian Bergmann.
Style: stylized, suspenseful, bleak, atmospheric, tense ...
Plot: profiler, police investigation, serial killer, murder, loss of daughter, law enforcement, coping, criminal psychologist, nordic, murderer, forensics, brutality ...
Time: 21st century
Place: europe, eastern europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
26%
The Last Deadly Mission (2008)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 125 min.
Story: A washed-up Marseilles cop (Auteuil) earns a chance at redemption by protecting a woman from the man who killed her parents as he is about to be released from prison.
Style: psychological, suspenseful, tense, rough, bleak ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, woman in danger, redemption, haunted by the past, law enforcement, life is a bitch, dishonesty, deception, justice, police officer, cop ...
Place: france, europe, marseille
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%
Terribly Happy (2008)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Denmark
Duration: 99 min.
Story: Robert Hansen, 34, a young police officer from Copenhagen, is transferred against his will to the small town of Skarrild in Southern Jutland as a substitute Marshall. The transfer is Robert’s chance to start over. Whether he is allowed to return ...
Style: dark comedy, psychological, suspenseful, atmospheric, bleak ...
Plot: murder, infidelity, police investigation, fish out of water, power relations, forbidden love, vigilantism, misfit, dishonesty, husband wife relationship, nordic, police officer ...
Time: year 2008, 21st century
Place: denmark, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%
Movie in collections
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The Detective 2 (2011)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 104 min.
Story: Mysteries keep revolving around Tam’s life.
Style: realistic, serious, atmospheric, stylized, suspenseful ...
Plot: law enforcement, police detective, investigation, police investigation, danger, private detective, murder, riddles and clues, serial killer, killer, violent content, urban ...
Time: 21st century
Place: asia, china, thailand
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%
Under Suspicion (2000)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: A lawyer is asked to come to the police station to clear up a few loose ends in his witness report of a foul murder. "This will only take ten minutes", they say, but it turns out to be one loose end after another, and the ten minutes he is ...
Style: psychological, suspenseful, suspense, talky, tense ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: lawyer, serial killer, rape, police investigation, murder, murder mystery, twists and turns, investigation, psychology, plot twist, mind game, pedophile ...
Time: year 2000, 20th century, 90s
Place: puerto rico, latin america
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 (2009)
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min.
Story: After 6 years of brutal murders the West Yorkshire Police fear that they may have already interviewed The Ripper and let him back into the world to continue his reign of terror upon the citizens of Yorkshire, but things become more difficult for the ...
Style: tense, suspenseful, detective, atmospheric, cerebral ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, police corruption, police investigation, murder mystery, who done it, conspiracy, uncover truth, police detective, dishonesty, riddles and clues, twists and turns ...
Time: 80s, year 2009, year 1980, 20th century
Place: yorkshire, europe, england
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%
 5.8
 3K
The Lost (2006)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min.
Story: A charismatic psycho suspected of killing two innocent campers in a cold-blooded double homicide grows increasingly unstable as his suburban empire starts to crack at the foundations.
Style: disturbing, psychological, serious, suspenseful, realistic ...
Plot: serial killer, psychopath, murder, drug use, police investigation, youth, rivalry, lesbian, violence, male female relationship, sexploitation, investigation ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Memories of Murder (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 131 min.
Story: 1986 Gyunggi Province. The body of a young woman is found brutally raped and murdered. Two months later, a series of rapes and murders commences under similar circumstances. And in a country that had never known such crimes, the dark whispers about ...
Style: realistic, neo noir, psychological, bleak, disturbing ...
Audience: date night, adult
Plot: serial killer, police, rape, police investigation, murderer, murder, twists and turns, investigation, murder mystery, police detective, murder investigation, true crime ...
Time: year 2003, 80s, y2k, year 1986, 20th century ...
Place: south korea, east asia, asia, korea
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 6.2
 9K
Blink (1993)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Emma is an attractive girl in her 20s who has been blind for 20 years. A new type of eye operation partially restores her sight, but she is having problems: sometimes she doesn't "remember" what she's seen until later. One night ...
Style: tense, suspenseful, psychological, exciting, suspense ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: serial killer, blindness, murder, psychopath, stalking, investigation, murder mystery, police investigation, woman in danger, police detective, strong female character, female protagonist ...
Time: 90s
Place: chicago
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Duration: 157 min.
Story: In the rural area around the Anatolian town of Keskin, the local prosecutor, police commissar, and doctor lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is ...
Style: atmospheric, art house, slow cinema, disturbing, lyrical ...
Audience: kids
Plot: police investigation, murder, brutality, character study, road trip, isolation, forensics, everyday life, introspection, law enforcement, existentialism, european ...
Time: year 2011, 2010s, 21st century
Place: middle east, maghreb, turkey
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 6.9
 2K
Backyard (2009)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 122 min.
Story: An astonishing fictional account of the unending series of murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which began in 1996. Most of the victims are low-paid laborers who have been drawn to the town by the possibility of work at American-owned ...
Style: serious, rough, psychological, suspenseful, bleak ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, police investigation, woman in danger, fighting crime, incompetent police, injustice, law enforcement, danger, dishonesty, police corruption, u.s. mexico border ...
Place: mexico, latin america
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 5.5
 311
Waste Land (2014)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: Belgium
Duration: 97 min.
Story: A Brussels homicide cop (Jérémie Renier) begins to lose control of his life as he tries to solve a bizarre murder.
Style: suspenseful, psychological, tense, serious, neo noir ...
Plot: police detective, police investigation, life turned upside down, murder, law enforcement, mental illness, pregnancy
Time: 21st century
Place: belgium, brussels
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
 5.9
 2K
The Riverman (2004)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: A series of interviews are conducted with convicted serial killer Ted Bundy in hopes of gaining insight into the Green River Killer who is terrorizing Seattle.
Style: serious, psychological, rough, disturbing, suspenseful ...
Plot: serial killer, psychopath, investigation, profiler, mind game, life is a bitch, true crime, police detective, woman in danger, killer, murder, violence ...
Time: 21st century
Place: seattle, florida, washington d.c.
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
Movie in collections
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Thorne: Scaredycat (2010)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min.
Story: D.I. Tom Thorne's latest case puts him on the hunt for not one, but two serial killers, who seem to be working together, yet killing separately.
Style: rough, tense, suspenseful, serious, realistic ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, police investigation, fighting crime, police detective, murderous pair, law enforcement, murder mystery, strangulation, psychopath, deadly
Time: 21st century
Place: england, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story: Kenneth Bianchi, one of the two serial rapists and killers who terrorized the Los Angeles area in the late 1970s, is giving police station interviews to psychiatrist Samantha Stone, who has disquieting lifestyle issues of her own. It falls to her to ...
Style: psychological, rough, suspenseful, realistic, bleak ...
Plot: serial killer, psychopath, murder, mind game, police investigation, who done it, mental illness, life is a bitch, killer, misogynist, serial rapist, strangler ...
Time: 70s, year 1978
Place: los angeles, usa, california
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
Out of the Darkness (1985)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: A gripping thriller telling the true story of the hunt and capture of David Berkowitz, a.k.a. "Son of Sam" — the infamous serial killer who stalked New York in the 70s.
Style: detective, psychological, realistic, serious, mind bending ...
Plot: serial killer, true crime, murder, killer, parent child relationship, couple relations, chases and races, tough law enforcer, danger, obsessive quest, law enforcement, fighting crime ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: brooklyn new york city, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
He Died with His Eyes Open (1985)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 105 min.
Story: On Ne Meurt Que Deux Fois, a French murder mystery based upon a novel of the same name, is an unusual, involving film with excellent performances by its entire cast. Police Inspector Staniland (Michel Serrault) is investigating the death of a ...
Style: neo noir, serious, mind bending, suspenseful, realistic ...
Plot: femme fatale, murder, seduction, police detective, investigation, who done it, couples, law enforcement, dishonesty, crime investigation, jealousy, brother sister incest ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: canada, france
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
A Pure Formality (1994)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 108 min.
Story: Onoff (Depardieu,) is a famous writer, now a recluse. The Inspector (Polanski,) is suspicious when Onoff is brought into the station one night, disoriented and suffering a kind of amnesia. In an isolated, rural police station, the Inspector tries to ...
Style: psychological, talky, atmospheric, surprise ending, serious ...
Plot: investigation, memory loss, afterlife, suicide, murder, uncover truth, mind game, murder mystery, death, all male cast, writers, prison escape ...
Time: year 1994, 90s
Place: italy
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
Movie in collections
The Hypnotist (2012)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Sweden
Duration: 122 min.
Story: After a young woman and her parents are murdered by a killer determined to wipe out the entire family, Detective Inspector Joona Linna works with a psychiatrist to hypnotize the son who narrowly escaped death in order to find the one surviving ...
Style: suspense, serious, suspenseful, realistic, bleak ...
Audience: teens, kids
Plot: hypnosis, murder, hospital, hypnotist, boy, witnessing a crime, kidnapped boy, investigation, psychologist, law enforcement, moral dilemma, danger ...
Time: 2010s, 21st century
Place: eastern europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
The Fifth Woman (2002)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland
Duration: 229 min.
TV show
Story: The 5th woman unfolds autumn 1994. An elderly man found in a gillrad pitfall impaled to death on the sharp sharpened bamboo poles, ecstatic praise of crows. Shortly afterwards disappears a florist without a trace and he also found executed in the ...
Style: psychological, tense, serious, suspenseful, detective ...
Plot: serial killer, police investigation, police detective, vigilantism, law enforcement, murder, vengeance, life is a bitch, vigilante, police procedural, revenge, hospital ...
Time: 21st century
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
Jack the Ripper (1976)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Switzerland, West Germany, Spain
Duration: 92 min.
Story: A serial killer whose mother was a prostitute starts killing streetwalkers as a way of paying back his mother for her abuse.
Style: bleak, scary, serious, suspenseful, rough ...
Plot: serial killer, jack the ripper, murder, maniac, psychopath, woman in danger, who done it, danger, police investigation, gory, mind game, killer ...
Time: victorian era, 70s, 19th century, 1880s
Place: england, london, europe, scotland, big ben london
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
 8.1
 118K
The Fall (2013)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story: When the Police Service of Northern Ireland are unable to close a case after 28 days, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson of the Metropolitan Police Service is called in to review the case. Under her new leadership, the local detectives must ...
Style: psychological thriller, psychological, captivating, serious, tense ...
Plot: serial killer, female detective, police detective, police investigation, policewoman, forensics, victim, crime investigation, violence against women, police, cop, female protagonist ...
Time: 2010s, 21st century
Place: ireland, europe, northern ireland, united kingdom, belfast
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
 6.8
 4K
Crónicas (2004)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 108 min.
Story: A suspense thriller about a reporter from Miami who travels to Ecuador in pursuit of a serial killer known as the "Monster of Babahoyo."
Style: psychological, tense, suspenseful, atmospheric, stylized ...
Plot: serial killer, investigation, journalism, psychopath, media, obsession, insanity, greed, uncover truth, ambition, journalist, reporter ...
Time: year 2004, 21st century
Place: ecuador, latin america, florida, miami
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
In the Electric Mist (2009)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 117 min.
Story: Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. At the same time, after Elrod Sykes, the star of the ...
Style: psychological, atmospheric, detective, suspenseful, rough ...
Plot: police detective, police investigation, murder, ghost, uncover truth, deep south, dishonesty, life is a bitch, law enforcement, hallucination, civil war, conspiracy ...
Time: year 2009, 2000s, 60s, 21st century
Place: new orleans, louisiana, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
 7.5
 603
Five Daughters (2010)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story: Factually-based drama telling the stories of five young women who were tragically murdered in Ipswich in 2006.
Style: serious, suspenseful, tense, bleak, realistic ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, police detective, police investigation, drug abuse, woman in danger, addiction, prostitute, life is a bitch, small town, murderer, who done it ...
Time: 21st century
Place: europe, england
⇓ similarity ⇓
19%
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