5 Movies To Watch If You Like The Whisper Man

This article contains a discussion of sexual assault.

Adam Scott got his start in comedies like "Party Down" and "Parks and Recreation" (the second of which helped him rise to prominence in a pretty enormous way), but this multi-talented performer can tackle pretty much any genre, including horror. During his time on the Apple TV series "Severance," Scott has handily proven that he can convincingly and seamlessly switch between the two genres, leaning into the show's scariest aspects while still infusing his scenes with dry, wry humor whenever possible. That's why it's so exciting that, in Scott's new movie "The Whisper Man," he's going full horror. 

Adapted from the thriller novel of the same name by Alex North, "The Whisper Man," a Netflix original film, casts Scott as Tom Kennedy, a novelist mourning the loss of his wife who brings his young son Jake (Acston Luca Porto) to a town called Garretton, said late wife's hometown, to try and start fresh. Unbeknownst to Tom, Garretton is the site of several murders that began in the 1990s, all involving young boys and which were committed by a shadowy suspect known as the Whisper Man, whose real name is Frank Carter (Michael Keaton). As Michelle Monaghan's Detective Amanda Beck investigates a murder in 2026 that's almost identical to the ones committed in the 1990s by Frank alongside the detective who originally arrested him, Peter Willis (Robert de Niro), Tom tries to keep Jake safe, while Jake starts describing an odd "imaginary friend."

So what should you watch after "The Whisper Man?" We've got some ideas. From other stories about serial killers that feel impossible to track down to a shocking film about desperate fathers to a star-studded, Oscar-nominated crime drama, here are five movies to watch once the credits roll on "The Whisper Man."

David Fincher is so undeniably great at crime dramas that he has not one, but two entries on this list — so let's start with 2007's "Zodiac," which Fincher based on the true story of the so-called Zodiac Killer who remains at large years after his string of murders. Adapted by screenwriter James Vanderbilt from two books about the real-life serial killer by Robert Graysmith ("Zodiac" and "Zodiac Unmasked," released respectively in 1986 and 2002), "Zodiac" stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Graysmith himself, a political cartoonish who, after a couple at a lover's lane in California are attacked by an assailant and only the man survives, starts taking interest in the encrypted letters sent by the bold, arrogant killer. Even though crime reporters like Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) simply don't take Graysmith seriously, he remains steadfast in his convictions, and Avery and Graysmith ultimately become friends and start trading information as the Zodiac killer starts terrorizing Napa County and San Francisco. Thanks to the latter, San Francisco cops Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) end up on the case as well, teaming up with a series of other local officers to track down the murderer.

Regarded as one of Fincher's crowning achievements — if not his best-ever film — "Zodiac" takes true events and turns them into a lurid yet grounded and emotional story about ordinary people and law enforcement officers who feel sure that they can bring a killer to justice. Even if you've already seen "Zodiac," queue it up after "The Whisper Man," because this is a movie that just gets better and better with each rewatch.

Between his "Dune" movies and stunning sci-fi epics like "Arrival," Denis Villeneuve is a wildly talented and versatile director, and if you haven't seen his extraordinarily dark 2013 drama "Prisoners," you're really missing out. Written by Aaron Guzikowski (who went on to create the series "Raised by Wolves"), "Prisoners" takes place in the fictional small town of Conyers, Pennsylvania and focuses on two specific families: the Dovers and the Birches. After the two families get together one night, their daughters Anna Dover and Joy Birch (Erin Gerasimovich and Kyla-Drew Simmons) go missing after playing near an RN parked in the neighborhood. Though a local cop, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), investigates two potential suspects — Alex Jones (Paul Dano) and Father Patrick Dunn (Len Cariou) — and even finds human reimains in the priest's home, Alex is released due to the fact that Loki doesn't believe he has the intellectual wherewithal to kidnap and hide two girls.

Unfortunately for Loki, Anna's father Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) isn't convinced. As a vigilante, he "interrogates" Alex on his own and ends up kidnapping him and storing him in an empty building, and though Joy's father Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard) is initially apprehensive about getting involved, it becomes clear that both fathers will stop at absolutely nothing to find their missing daughters. "Prisoners" is a tense, exacting, and expertly acted film helmed by Villeneuve's extraordinarily steady hand, and thanks to Jackman, Dano, and Gyllenhaal's performances in particular — plus supporting turns from Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Dylan Minnette, and David Dastmalchian — "Prisoners" remains a staple of the crime drama genre.

The most popular big-screen adaptation of Thomas Harris' crime novels, bar none, is Jonathan Demme's 1991 masterpiece "The Silence of the Lambs," which introduced the moviegoing world to the sadistic killer and villain Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Adapted by Ted Tally from Harris' novel of the same name (which was a sequel to another Hannibal-centric story, "Red Dragon"), "The Silence of the Lambs" stars Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling, who's trying to track down a serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine) who makes a habit of, well, killing young women and using their skin for horrifying purposes. Trying to get into the mind of a murderer, Clarice enlists the help of incarcerated killer Hannibal Lecter, who's a brilliant, thoughtful, and fascinating guy that also happens to be a cannibal. (Nobody's perfect, right?)

Things reach a head (pun intended, something you'll get if you've seen the movie) when Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), the daughter of United States Senator Ruth Martin (Diane Baker), is taken by Buffalo Bill — and the FBI tells Clarice to offer Hannibal a false deal for his freedom if he helps bring Buffalo Bill to justice. As of this writing, "The Silence of the Lambs" is the only horror movie to win best picture at the Academy Awards, and it also snagged a statue for Hopkins in the process. Frankly, we don't need to tell you that "The Silence of the Lambs" is a legitimate staple of the true crime genre, and truthfully, every time somebody makes a film like "The Whisper Man," they're following in the enormous footsteps of Demme and his work on this movie. Even if you haven't watched "The Whisper Man," you should probably experience this incredible movie for yourself as soon as possible. 

The second David Fincher entry on this list might not be as unimpeachably perfect as "Zodiac," but it's still pretty incredible. Released in 1995 and sometimes stylized as "Se7en," Fincher's crime thriller penned by Andrew Kevin Walker stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as detectives David Willis and William Somerset in an unnamed city that's positively rife with crime — and though William is just one week from retirement, he ends up working a case with David that changes both men forever. When the two detectives find a morbidly obese man brutally murdered in his home with the word "gluttony" painted on a wall, Somerset asks for a different case but is denied; before long, the duo realize that there's a killer on the loose murdering people according to the biblical sins, of which there are seven. After gluttony, the detectives find bodies with "greed," "sloth," "pride," and "lust," and eventually receive instructions from the killer to go to a second location where they'll find the victims of "wrath" and "envy."

As this is all happening, William grows unexpectedly closer to David and his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), who's newly pregnant ... and this budding friendship makes the end of the film all the more devastating and shocking. When William and David get to that location and find the killer, John Doe (Kevin Spacey), he says he's the representative of envy — and reveals Tracy's severed head in a box. David shoots and kills him, becoming wrath and completing this twisted cycle. "Seven" is a stone-cold masterpiece when it comes to crime dramas, and there's little to no doubt that its widespread influence on culture at large helped inspire Alex North when he wrote something as twisted as "The Whisper Man."

Adapted from Dennis Lehane's best-selling novel of the same name by screenwriter Brian Helgeland (who won an Oscar for penning "L.A. Confidential") and directed by none other than Clint Eastwood, "Mystic River" is a shocking, tragic, and devastating tale of generational trauma in a Boston neighborhood and how it affects a group of young boys for generations. When we first meet young Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle, they're played by Jason Kelly, Connor Paolo, and Cameron Bowen, and they're playing outside when Dave is approached by two men posing as police officers who kidnap the young boy and violently sexually assault him over several days. Though both kidnappers ultimately die — one before he can be incarcerated and the other decades later in prison — Dave bears these scars for life.

Years later, Dave (Tim Robbins) is married to Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden), Jimmy (Sean Penn) is married to Celeste's second cousin Annabeth (Laura Linney), and Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a police officer in the neighborhood, ensuring that the three childhood friends remain connected. Everything changes again, though, when Jimmy's daughter from his first marriage, Katie Markum (Emmy Rossum) is murdered and her boyfriend Brendan Harris (Tom Guiry) immediately becomes a suspect. We won't spoil the bloody, horrifying, and gut-wrenching twists found throughout the run time of "Mystic River," because this is a film worth experiencing for yourself; beyond that, the performances are phenomenal, especially Robbins and Penn (who won Oscars for their supporting and lead roles). 

"The Whisper Man" is streaming on Netflix.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).