Mystery
Changeling
(2008)
J. Michael Straczynski
Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 11 wins & 44 nominations.
Los Angeles, 1928. A single mother returns from work to find her nine-year-old son gone. She calls the LAPD to initiate a search. Five months later, a boy is found in Illinois who fits the description; he says he's her son. To fanfare and photos, the LAPD reunite mother and son, but she insists he's not her boy. The cops dismiss her as either a liar or hysterical. When she joins a minister in his public criticism of the police, they in turn use government power to silence and intimidate her. Meanwhile, a cop goes to a dilapidated ranch to find a Canadian lad who's without legal status; the youth tells a grisly tale. There's redress for murder; is there redress for abuse of power?
Chinatown
(1974)
Robert Towne
Won 1 Oscar. Another 20 wins & 23 nominations.
JJ 'Jake' Gittes is a private detective who seems to specialize in matrimonial cases. He is hired by Evelyn Mulwray when she suspects her husband Hollis, builder of the city's water supply system, of having an affair. Gittes does what he does best and photographs him with a young girl but in the ensuing scandal, it seems he was hired by an impersonator and not the real Mrs. Mulwray. When Mr. Mulwray is found dead, Jake is plunged into a complex web of deceit involving murder, incest and municipal corruption all related to the city's water supply.
Copycat
(1995)
Ann Biderman, David Madsen
2 wins & 1 nomination.
In San Francisco, the criminal psychologist Helen Hudson is specialized in serial-killers. During a trial, the accused Daryll Lee Cullum kills a police officer and tries to kill her and she becomes agoraphobic. Now Helen lives a reclusive life with her gay friend Andy that helps her. Sometime later, there is a wave of crimes and Detectives M.J. Monahan and Reuben Goetz are investigating the murder cases. Helen identifies that the murderer is copycatting notorious serial-killers and she anonymously contacts the Police Department. After fourteen phone calls, she is identified by the police. Detectives M.J. and Reuben visit her and Helen teams up with them and prepares the profile of the killer that wants to be famous. But soon the copycat killer Peter Foley contacts and stalks Helen and M.J. and Reuben give protection to her. Will they be capable to stop Foley before the next murder?
Cypher
(2002)
Brian King
5 wins & 3 nominations.
An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.
D.O.A.
(1950)
Russell Rouse (story), Clarence Greene (story), Russell Rouse (screenplay), Clarence Greene (screenplay)
1 win.
Frank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why.
Dark Places
(2015)
Gilles Paquet-Brenner, Gillian Flynn
N/A
Libby Day is a lifeless woman who survived the massacre of her family in their farmhouse in the countryside of Kansas when she was eight. She's been living on donations and lectures ever since. Thirty years ago, the police believed that a satanic cult was responsible for the murder of her mother and two sisters, and her brother Ben was convicted with her testimony in court. Today, however, an acquaintance, Lyle Wirth, invites Libby to visit "The Kill Club", where amateurs investigate famous crimes, and she finds that they believe Ben is innocent. Libby needs money and, in return, accepts to revisit the slaughter of her family and comes up to the painful revelations and the ultimate truth.
Dark Water
(2002)
Kôji Suzuki (novel), Ken'ichi Suzuki (screenplay), Yoshihiro Nakamura (screenplay)
6 wins & 1 nomination.
A mother and her 6 year old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.
Deliver Us from Evil
(2014)
Scott Derrickson (screenplay), Paul Harris Boardman (screenplay), Ralph Sarchie (book), Lisa Collier Cool (book)
2 wins & 4 nominations.
In DELIVER US FROM EVIL, New York police officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), struggling with his own personal issues, begins investigating a series of disturbing and inexplicable crimes. He joins forces with an unconventional priest (Edgar Ramirez), schooled in the rituals of exorcism, to combat the frightening and demonic possessions that are terrorizing their city. Based upon the book, which details Sarchie's bone-chilling real-life cases.
Devil
(2010)
Brian Nelson (screenplay), M. Night Shyamalan (story)
2 nominations.
A group of people are trapped in an elevator and the Devil is mysteriously amongst them.
Disturbia
(2007)
Christopher Landon (screenplay), Carl Ellsworth (screenplay), Christopher Landon (story)
4 wins & 6 nominations.
After his father is killed in a car accident, things unravel for Kale Brecht and he is placed under house-arrest for punching his Spanish teacher. Having nothing better to do, Kale occupies himself by spying on his neighbors. But one night, he witnesses what appears to be a murder going on in Mr. Turner's house. Kale becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind these murders but, after a few unsettling run-ins with Mr. Turner, it becomes a matter of life and death. And the ominous question: Who is watching whom?
Dorian Gray
(2009)
Toby Finlay, Oscar Wilde
1 nomination
A naïve young man. A lovelorn artist. A corruptible Lord. A deal with the Devil. It all paints a dark picture of a Victorian London and how the rich and infamous party at their peril. Here, the telling of time and its consequence of experience for life's treasures' takes its toll on the body, mind and soul. The haunting and bleak tale of power, greed, vanity and inevitable self-destruction is ever present amongst the deceit, opium dens and sin.
Eagle Eye
(2008)
John Glenn (screenplay), Travis Wright (screenplay), Hillary Seitz (screenplay), Dan McDermott (screenplay), Dan McDermott (story)
3 wins & 8 nominations.
Jerry Shaw is an amiable slacker with an over-achieving twin brother. After his twin dies in an accident, strange things happen to Jerry at a dizzying pace: a fortune shows up in his bank account, weapons are delivered to his flat, and a voice on his cell phone tells him the police are on their way. Jerry follows the voice's instructions, and soon he and a woman he's never met are racing through the city, on to a plane, and eventually to the Pentagon, chased by the FBI. She is Rachel Holloman, a single mom; the voice has threatened her son's death if she doesn't cooperate. The voice seems to know everything. Who is behind it, what is being planned, and why Jerry and Rachel?
Edge of Darkness
(2010)
William Monahan (screenplay), Andrew Bovell (screenplay), Troy Kennedy-Martin (television series)
1 nomination.
Thomas Craven is a detective who has spent years working the streets of Boston. When his own daughter is killed outside his own home, Craven soon realizes that her death is only one piece of an intriguing puzzle filled with corruption and conspiracy, and it falls to him to discover who is behind the crime.
Ex Machina
(2015)
Alex Garland
Won 1 Oscar. Another 59 wins & 127 nominations.
A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breath-taking humanoid A.I.
Exam
(2009)
Stuart Hazeldine, Simon Garrity (story), Stuart Hazeldine (story)
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 1 nomination.
Eight talented candidates have reached the final stage of selection to join the ranks of a mysterious and powerful corporation. Entering a windowless room, an Invigilator gives them eighty minutes to answer one simple question. He outlines three rules they must obey or be disqualified: don't talk to him or the armed guard by the door, don't spoil their papers and don't leave the room. He starts the clock and leaves. The candidates turn over their question papers, only to find they're completely blank. After the initial confusion has subsided, one frustrated candidate writes 'I believe I deserve...,' and is promptly ejected for spoiling. The remaining candidates soon figure out they're permitted to talk to each other, and they agree to cooperate in order to figure out the question: then they can compete to answer it. At first they suspect the question may be hidden in their papers like a security marker in a credit card, and they figure out ways to change their environment to expose the hidden words. But light, liquids and other plans all come to naught. Soon enough, the candidates begin to uncover each other's background, prejudices and hidden agendas. Tensions rise as the clock steadily descends towards zero, and each candidate must decide how far they are willing to go to secure the ultimate job . . .
Exposed
(2016)
Gee Malik Linton (screenplay)
N/A
A police detective investigates the truth behind his partner's death. The mysterious case reveals disturbing police corruption and a dangerous secret involving an unlikely young woman.
Flightplan
(2005)
Peter A. Dowling, Billy Ray
2 wins & 6 nominations.
A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet, the child vanishes, and nobody will admit she was ever on the plane.
Get Out
(2017)
Jordan Peele
Won 1 Oscar. Another 122 wins & 181 nominations.
Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parent's for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
Ghost Ship
(2002)
Mark Hanlon (story), Mark Hanlon (screenplay), John Pogue (screenplay)
1 nomination.
After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1962 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvagers claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre ocurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by a demonic creature.
Gone Baby Gone
(2007)
Ben Affleck (screenplay), Aaron Stockard (screenplay), Dennis Lehane (novel)
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 32 wins & 28 nominations.
Two Boston area detectives investigate a little girl's kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally.