10 of the Most Underrated Movies About True Crime

Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, and Steve Carell star in the five-time Academy Award nominated film Foxcatcher. The 2014 sports movie follows the lives of Mark (Tatum) and Dave (Ruffalo) Schultz, two Olympic gold-medal-winning wrestlers who are invited to train for the next championship at a private facility, known as Foxcatcher Farm, run by multimillionaire John E. du Pont (Carell). Though the trio develop a friendship, the team begins to crack, resulting in the shocking murder of one of the brothers.

In August of 2000, 15-year-old Nick Markowitz was kidnapped and murdered after getting caught in the middle of a feud between his brother and a drug dealer. Six years later, a film based on the tragic events was released. Alpha Dog premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and starred Justin Timberlake, Emile Hirsch, Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Ben Foster, and the late Anton Yelchin. Together, the star-studded cast depict the unusual relationship between the victim and his captors, the actions that led to such a horrible crime, and the aftermath.

Created by award-winning Boyhood director Richard Linklater, 2011's Bernie recounts the 1996 murder of the elderly millionaire Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) by her companion, mortician's assistant Bernie Tiede (Jack Black). The film portrays their unusual friendship and Marjorie's increased dependence, Bernie's snapping point, and the cold murder, as well as the unusual events surrounding the trial after Bernie is charged with first-degree murder by a local attorney (Matthew McConaughey).

Based off of the book of the same name by Mara Leveritt, biographical crime drama Devil's Knot was released in 2013. The movie chronicles the trial of three teens, known as the West Memphis Three, accused of several heinous murders. Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, True Blood's Stephen Moyer, and The Catch's Mireille Enos are just a few of the A-listers that star in this feature, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Before Eddie Redmayne played a wizard searching for fantastic beasts, he portrayed a schizophrenic youth in Savage Grace. The movie, which showed at the 2007 Cannes and Sundance film festivals, follows the real-life events surrounding the gruesome murder of socialite and heiress Barbara Daly Baekeland (Julianne Moore) by her son, Antony (Redmayne), with whom she had an allegedly incestuous relationship.

Before helming the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, Peter Jackson directed 1994's Heavenly Creatures. The movie stars Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey as Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker, two extremely close school friends who plan and execute the murder of Pauline's mother, which occurred in 1954. The first film for both actresses, it gives an inside-look at the girls' relationship, the wild fantasies that drove them to commit such an unspeakable act, and the outcome of their actions.

In 2008, Angelina Jolie starred in the Clint Eastwood-directed film Changeling. Jolie portrays Christine Collins, a young mother who struggles to convince the police that the boy claiming to be her son, who went missing years before, is actually an impostor. The mystery thriller is based off of the real-life events of the 1928 Los Angeles "Wineville Chicken Coop" kidnappings and murders. The movie, which received eight BAFTA and three Oscar nominations, also stars John Malkovich, Burn Notice's Jeffrey Donovan, and Michael Kelly.

Mob hitman Richard Kuklinski (who is suspected of having taken over 100 lives) is the subject of the 2012 biography crime thriller, The Iceman, which was his professional moniker. The film begins in the 1960s, capturing Kuklinski's introduction to the mob, promotion to contract killer, the struggles he faced trying to keep his violent activities secret from his wife and children, and finally, the extreme events that led to his eventual arrest and conviction. Michael Shannon stars as Kuklinski, while Winona Ryder, Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, James Franco, and David Schwimmer make up the rest of the cast.

An American Crime depicts the circumstances surrounding the horrifying torture and murder of 15-year-old Sylvia Likens in Indiana during 1965. Ellen Page stars as Likens, while Catherine Keener plays Gertrude Baniszewski, the woman responsible for the horrible crime. Bradley Whitford, James Franco, Evan Peters, and Scott Eastwood are also featured in the troubling crime drama.

Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Dylan McDermott, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, and the late Carrie Fisher are just a few of the notable actors who starred in 2003's Wonderland. In the late 1970s, a Los Angeles group of drug dealers, known as "The Wonderland Gang," robbed gangster Eddie Nash. Days later in an act of revenge, Nash ordered the brutal and gruesome murders of the gang members responsible. The film tells the true story of the Wonderland Gang and gives a glimpse at the events that led to such a horrible demise.