Fascinated by the human brain and its capacity for ruthlessness, psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis has spent her life investigating the interior lives of violent people. With each case, she came closer to developing a unified field theory of what makes a killer. Along the way - steering away from the conventional wisdom of her colleagues - she explored the world of multiple personality disorder.
Related Movies
Faces of Death III (1985)
The third installment of the infamous "is it real or fake?" mondo series sets its sights primarily on serial killers, with lengthy reenactments of police investigations of bodies being found in dumpsters, and a staged courtroom sequence.
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.
Reimagining A Buffalo Landmark (2019)
The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.
Murder: No Apparent Motive (1984)
This documentary about serial killers and FBI Behavioral Sciences profilers features interviews with Ed Kemper and Ted Bundy as well as crime victims and law enforcement officials. The film includes some dramatic recreations.
Holotropic Breathwork: A Conversation with Christina & Stanislav Grof, MD (1994)
In this interview, psychiatrist Dr Stanislav Grof, MD and his wife Christina explain holotropic breathwork, and discuss its uses in psychotherapy. Like hypnosis and psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork is a method for invoking non-ordinary states of consciousness for therapeutic purposes. Viewers see patients undergoing holotropic breathwork in a group session, and the patients themselves then report their experiences.
Obituary of a Beast (1985)
Between 1962 and 1966, sex murderer Jurgen Bartsch cruelly tortured and killed four children in an old air raid bunker in Germany. This documentary examines the personality of the killer who died in 1976 during voluntary castration surgery at the age of 30. Vilified by the press for his heinous crime, Bartsch also became a case study for famous found criminal psychologists like Alice Miller (who maintains that no one abuses without being abused as a child, and murderers tend to have their own childhood abuse denied by the adults around them). Bartsch never met his birth parents, he was raised in a clinic and later adopted by a cold, unaffectionate couple. By the age of 15, he tortured and killed his first child victim. This informative, fact-filled documentary provides enough details for viewers to come away with a broader understanding of the nature of the criminally insane and society's role in their formation.
The Look of Silence (2015)
An optician grapples with the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966, during which his older brother was exterminated.
Touched (2003)
The alien abduction phenomenon, told by those who experienced it, with the weight of a Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatrist at their back.
Murder on the Social Network (NaN)
Using real cases, this documentary demonstrates the extent to which violent criminals can use social media to locate and manipulate victims.
Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation (2007)
Albert Fish, the horrific true story of elderly cannibal, sadomasochist, and serial killer, who lured children to their deaths in Depression-era New York City. Distorting biblical tales, Albert Fish takes the themes of pain, torture, atonement and suffering literally as he preys on victims to torture and sacrifice.
Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy (2018)
Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy is a feature-length documentary film highlighting the history of the Crownsville State Mental Hospital in Crownsville, MD.
The John Wayne Gacy Murders: Life and Death in Chicago (2020)
Summaries "The John Wayne Gacy Murders: Life and Death in Chicago", Focuses on serial killer John Wayne Gacy's time in Chicago and includes information about Gacy's childhood, his career of crime in Waterloo, Iowa, and Gacy's becoming a celebrity in prison. Containing interviews with Chicago attorneys, news reporters, law enforcement officers, and history experts, the film illustrates what the atmosphere was like in Chicago when Gacy was murdering and ultimately apprehended. Gacy's time in prison as a celebrity serial killer is also explored in this groundbreaking film by Chicago native filmmaker John Borowski. —John Borowski
In Paradisum (1993)
In Paradisum relates two disturbing stories simultaneously. The female narrator tells her personal tale of imprisonment as the wife of the notorious Estonian serial killer, Andreas Hanni. Although her story is bizarre, it touches familiar themes that run throughout modern life: the desire to be loved and the fear of being alone. Pille Hanni's tale unfolds over cinema vérité images of life in several Estonian prisons. At times the images reflect in a literary way the events of the narration, yet they are representations and impressions, rather than traditional documentary style footage of the people involved. This opens the story to a more general interpretation, often with unsettling results. The parallel contents reveal, at two levels of story and social organisation, how the bizarre and inhuman can be tolerable and even addictive in the face of our fears.
The Butcher Baker: Mind of a Monster (2020)
Feature length documentary about the little known serial killer Robert Hansen, who killed for 12 years in the wilderness of Alaska before finally being caught in 1983. A compelling mixture of archive, actuality, interviews and a challenging drama shoot in Alaska brings his story to life.
Letters to a Serialkiller (2017)
A thriller documentary where the director seek answers on why her brother was shot by the Swedish serial killer Peter Mangs.
Hunting the Zodiac (2003)
A film by John Mikulenka documenting various people's investigation into the mystery of the Zodiac.
Unmasking Jack the Ripper (NaN)
The name Jack the Ripper conjures up vivid images, of fogbound Victorian alleyways where a sinister figure stalks the night in search of his unsuspecting prey. His name is famous throughout the world, and yet nobody knows for certain who he was, or even what became of him. This truly atmospheric drama/documentary is a journey back to 1888 when the Whitechapel Murderer s reign of terror sent waves of revulsion and horror coursing through Victorian London. Best selling author Richard Jones (History Channel and From Hell DVD Documentary) takes the viewer on a journey with the Victorian Police as they race against time to catch the murderer before he kills again. Interviews with leading Ripper expert Paul Begg and historian Lindsay Siviter deliver the latest accurate information concerning this fascinating case...
The Way of the Psychonaut (2020)
The Way of the Psychonaut explores the life and work of Stanislav Grof, Czech-born psychiatrist and psychedelic psychotherapy pioneer. Stan’s quest for knowledge and insights into the healing power of non-ordinary states of consciousness, influenced the discipline of psychology and profoundly changed many individual lives. One of those transformed by Stan is filmmaker Susan Hess Logeais. The documentary utilizes Susan’s personal existential crisis as a gateway to Grof’s impact, from the micro to the macro.
