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Best Crime Movies Alone On A Rainy Night From The 80S And 90S That Will Mess With Your Mind

The Moviepiq team picked these crime films specifically for a rainy night in. No filler. Every film on this list earns its place for exactly this occasion.

The best crime movies alone on a rainy night from the 80s and 90s that will mess with your mind. Includes Glengarry Glen Ross, Lethal Weapon, The Naked Gun: ...

A rainy night alone is one of the few situations that genuinely calls for a great film. No interruptions, no compromises on what to watch, no one talking over the quiet moments.

The 80s and 90s remain a goldmine. Films that were commercially dismissed on release and now considered essential.

The best crime films understand that most criminals aren't monsters. They're people who made a series of choices.

Glengarry Glen Ross movie poster
1
1992 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

Times are tough at Premiere Properties. Shelley "the machine" Levene and Dave Moss are veteran salesmen, but only Ricky Roma is on a hot streak. The new Glengarry sales leads could turn everything around, but the front office is holding them back until these "losers" prove themselves. Then someone decides to take matters into his own hands, stealing the Glengarry leads and leaving everyone wondering who did it.

Lethal Weapon movie poster
2
1987 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

A veteran cop and an unstable detective become partners who must put their differences aside in order to bring down a heroin-smuggling ring run by ex-Special Forces.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! movie poster
3
1988 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

When the bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin investigates events following the shooting of his partner, he stumbles upon an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

Heathers movie poster
4
1989 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

A girl who halfheartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics: by killing the popular kids.

Dolores Claiborne movie poster
5
1995 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.

The crime films worth your time are the ones where the moral calculus is genuinely complicated. Not every villain is a monster. Not every hero is clean.

Cape Fear movie poster
6
1991 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Blood Simple movie poster
7
1985 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.

The Boondock Saints movie poster
8
1999 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.

Days of Being Wild movie poster
9
1990 · ★★★½☆ 7.3/10

Yuddy, a Hong Kong playboy known for breaking girls' hearts, tries to find solace and truth after discovering the woman who raised him isn't his mother.

Batman movie poster
10
1989 · ★★★½☆ 7.2/10

Having witnessed his parents' brutal murder as a child, millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne fights crime in Gotham City disguised as Batman, a costumed hero who strikes fear into the hearts of villains. But when a deformed madman known as 'The Joker' seizes control of Gotham's criminal underworld, Batman must face his most ruthless nemesis ever while protecting both his identity and his love interest, reporter Vicki Vale.

Films that mess with your mind work best when they've earned your trust first. The disorientation only lands if you were fully in. These get you in.

The best crime films stay with you because they refuse to let you feel entirely comfortable about who you were rooting for.

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