A.K.A. Serial Killer (1975)

Street of Shame

The lives of five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

American Beauty

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Joker

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

Cries and Whispers

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.

Monkey Business

Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.

Back to the Future

Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and the social order it protects.

Oppenheimer

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…

Vermiglio

Set in the small, mountainous village of Vermiglio during the waning days of WWII, a series of dramatic, consequential events unfold after the arrival of a taciturn Sicilian soldier, who hides out in town after deserting the army. While there, the soldier develops a romance with a provincial family’s eldest daughter.

The Shawshank Redemption

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.

Rope

Two young men attempt to prove they committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party for the family of a classmate they just strangled to death.

Chungking Express

Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant.

Shutter Island

World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.

Pierrot le Fou

Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.

The Two Popes

Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict. Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.

The Breakfast Club

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

Mirror

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

Autumn Sonata

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

Badlands

An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.

Lost Highway

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

In the House

A sixteen-year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher. Faced with this gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, but the boy’s intrusion will unleash a series of uncontrollable events.

Rashomon

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

Last Tango in Paris

A recently widowed American begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot

On the rocky path to sobriety after a life-changing accident, John Callahan discovers the healing power of art, willing his injured hands into drawing hilarious, often controversial cartoons, which bring him a new lease on life.

Green Book

Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.

La Dolce Vita

Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.

The Year of Living Dangerously

A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.

RoboCop

In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.

The Man Without a Past

Arriving in Helsinki, a nameless man is beaten within an inch of his life by thugs, miraculously recovering only to find that he has completely lost his memory. Back on the streets, he attempts to begin again from zero, befriending a moody dog and becoming besotted with a Salvation Army volunteer.

Brazil

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

The Godfather

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

Love at First Fight

Arnaud, facing an uncertain future and a dearth of choices in a small French coastal town, meets and falls for the apocalyptic-minded Madeleine, who joins an army boot camp to learn military and survival skills to prepare for the upcoming environmental collapse. Intrigued and excited by Madeleine’s wild ideas, Arnaud signs up for the boot camp himself. They soon realize that the boot camp is harder than they’d imagined, but the experience nonetheless cements them together as the couple continues to explore their young love.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.

Barry Lyndon

An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.

Julieta

The film spans 30 years in Julieta’s life from a nostalgic 1985 where everything seems hopeful, to 2015 where her life appears to be beyond repair and she is on the verge of madness.

Torn Curtain

During the Cold War, an American scientist appears to defect to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the formula for a resin solution—but the plan goes awry when his fiancee, unaware of his motivation, follows him across the border.

In Bruges

Ray and Ken, two hit men, are in Bruges, Belgium, waiting for their next mission. While they are there they have time to think and discuss their previous assignment. When the mission is revealed to Ken, it is not what he expected.

Love and Death

In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant.

Ivide

A police officer investigates a series of killings involving IT professionals in Atlanta. He develops a rapport with the CEO of an IT company and the two join minds to stop the spree.

Creature Fear

In a small Wisconsin lake town, a poverty-stricken felon contracts Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease after ingesting diseased venison. As his descent into madness intensifies, he targets a Chicago musician and a mysterious singer, whose dream of recording an album together is threatened by the felon's violent unraveling.

Son of Sam: The Hunt for a Killer

A shocking serial murder case terrorized New York 40 years ago. Surviving victims, families of the deceased, and the detectives who worked on the case recount their stories.

The Killer Must Kill Again

Giorgio Mainardi, a womanizer, plans to rid himself of his wealthy wife Norma. He happens to see a sinister figure disposing of a body and seizes the opportunity to make a deal in which the killer will murder Norma. The deed is done but a young couple, Luca and Laura, unwittingly steal the killer's car, complete with Norma's corpse in the boot. They head for the beach and break into an abandoned old house. The killer tracks them down and while Luca is out having sex with a blonde stranger, he terrorises and rapes Laura. When the young man and the blonde turn up for a threesome they are both quickly despatched. After a struggle, Laura manages to fatally wound her attacker. Back in the city, the police become increasingly suspicious of Giorgio Mainardi...

Nightstalker

Richard Ramirez, aka the Nightstalker, who terrorized people in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and the police had no clue with him.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

The Vampire of Dusseldorf

A true story of Peter Kurten, a serial killer who committed nine murders and many other offenses in Dusseldorf during the Great Depression era.

Psycho Killer

Following the brutal murder of her husband, a Kansas highway patrol officer sets out on a journey to track down the perpetrator. As the hunt progresses, she comes to realize the man responsible is a sadistic serial killer, and the depth of his mental depravity and his sinister agenda is more twisted than anyone could have imagined.

The Night Stalker

A tough homicide cop is assigned to track down a serial killer who is murdering prostitutes.

The Witness

An ordinary man witnesses a cruel murder and becomes entangled in circumstances out of his control.

The Twelve Step Strangler

When a serial killer starts targeting the members of a small-town Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship, everyone is a target and a suspect.

Vice Squad

An unlikely Hollywood hooker helps a detective set a trap for a mutilator pimp.

The Zodiac Killer

The San Francisco area is beset by a series of seemingly random murders without motive or pattern. The police are taunted by phone calls and letters. Could the maniac be the violent truck driver, or the seemingly mild-mannered mailman, or even a cop?

Damaged

A Chicago detective travels to Scotland after an emerging serial killer’s crimes match those that he investigated five years earlier, one of which was the crime scene of his murdered girlfriend.

Red Rooms

The high-profile case of serial killer Ludovic Chevalier has just gone to trial, and Kelly-Anne is obsessed. When reality blurs with her morbid fantasies, she goes down a dark path to seek the final piece of the case’s puzzle.

The Veil of Twilight

The investigation of a mysterious serial-killer in a mountain village, set in Norway in the mid 1300s.

Death Notice

In Hong Kong, a vigilante serial killer leaves death notices, stating when and how he will murder a victim. Even if the victim reports it to the police and receives protection, the killer can easily break through and execute them. In response, the police set up a special task force and reveals a major conspiracy hidden behind.

Bazaar Bizarre: The Strange Case of Serial Killer Bob Berdella

In 1988, Chris Bryson was found running down a Kansas City street naked, beaten, and bloody wearing nothing but a dog collar and a leash. He told police about Bob Berdella, a local business man and how Berdella had caputed him, held him hostage, raped him, tortured him and photographed him over several days. Police later arrested Berdella and searched his home where they found several hundred polaroid photographs, a detailed torture log, envelopes of human teeth and a human skull. It was soon discovered that Berdella had murdered 6 young men in his home after drugging them and performing his sick acts of sexual torture. Some lived the horrors for only a few days, one for 6 weeks. After death Berdella would cut up the bodies with an electric chain saw and a bone knife, place the body parts in empty dog food bags for trash collection on Monday. Although he denied this, it is believed that Berdella used organs of the victims as in food dishes he would serve at his shop.

Mr. Brooks

A psychological thriller about a man who is sometimes controlled by his murder-and-mayhem-loving alter ego.

Strange Darling

Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.

The Sinister Monk

A hooded serial killer finds a novel way to murder his victims--he lashes them to death with a whip. The police try to track him down before any more murders occur.

Villain

ADGP Mathew Manjooran, returns to work after a seven-month sabbatical, only to take voluntary retirement. His last day has him investigating a case involving triple murder, including a police officer. Soon a pattern emerges and each clue also links Mathew. How is the veteran police officer tied to the murders and who is the real villain?

Bowling Killers

Tony and Simon are bowling champions by passion and hitmen by necessity.

Bluebeard

Paris, France, during the First World War. While thousands of soldiers die every day on the battlefields, Henri Landru, a seemingly respectable furniture dealer, married and father of four children, relentlessly feeds his own sinister factory of death.

Scream

A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.

Murder by the Coast

In 1999, teen Rocío Wanninkhof is murdered. Her mother's ex-partner, Dolores Vázquez, is suspected. Did she do it? A second victim reveals the truth.

Se7en

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

M

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

The Silence of the Lambs

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Monster

An emotionally scarred highway drifter shoots a sadistic trick who rapes her, and ultimately becomes America's first female serial killer.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!

Frenzy

London is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police of being the killer. He goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence.

The Last Breath

A Montreal police officer goes to Arkansas to solve the murder of his brother.

Clay Pigeons

Clay is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend, Earl, kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife, Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with the affair. Clay unknowingly befriends a serial killer named Lester Long who murders the widow in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy."

Retroactive

A psychiatrist makes multiple trips through time to save a woman that was murdered by her brutal husband.

The Boston Strangler

Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story, the film follows the investigators path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.

The First Power

A dedicated L.A. police detective and a female psychic must stop a demonic serial killer who was given the powers of resurrection, teleportation and possession.

The Night Caller

A serial-killer frightens Paris by phoning young ladies at night, telling them insults about their lives. Minos, as he calls himself, wants to prevent the world from free women and he targets at first these ones. Commissaire Letellier is given the investigation and he has hard work with the maniac.

Violated

A Psycho stalks the streets of Greenwich Village, killing and cutting off their hair!

Stolen Identity: The Last Hacker

Genius hacker and murderer Urano escaped from prison and fled to South Korea. Urano was hired by a South Korean anti-government organization to set a trap targeted for the Korea-Japan summit meeting. Sumin is assigned to watch over Urano but is intimidated by his frantic behavior. Urano distrusts her, but gradually their feelings begin to change a little.

Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart

Between 1978 and 1979, the inhabitants of the Oise are in fear of a maniac who kills several hitchhikers and escape the police. He was then dubbed "the killer of the Oise" is actually a shy young policeman who will investigate his own murder, only to lose control of the situation.

The Killing Jar

A stranger armed with a shotgun takes seven patrons hostage in a remote roadside diner. But as the body count increases, the desperate survivors discover that one of the hostages may be even more dangerous than their captor.

Confessions of a Serial Killer

After being arrested, a Texas man begins confessing to the brutal murder of over 200 women. He recounts his random selection of victims and his traveling companions, his friend and friend's sister. But the police can't be sure whether to believe him or not until he locates a body and shows them some polaroids. Based on the true story of Henry Lee Lucas.

America's Deadliest Home Video

A man videotaping his road trip is taken hostage by three criminals and forced to tape their crime spree, including robberies and murder.

El mataputos

A serial killer hunts for gay men in Mexico.

The Green River Killer: Mind of a Monster

Beginning in the early 1980s, Washington state was gripped with fear as the bodies of young women began appearing along the banks of the Green River. As the number of victims grew, investigators created a taskforce and enlisted the help of the FBI, but it took almost 20 years to finally catch their man. Through startling and chilling tapes and video archive of Gary Ridgway’s police interviews, The Green River Killer: Mind of a Monster reveals, in Ridgway’s own disturbing words, insight into his evil: from how his troubling behavior as a child morphed into his morbid motivation to murder as many women as possible.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Part 2

Henry has wandered into a small town looking for work and a place to stay. He gets a job delivering and cleaning porto-potties and moves in with a co-worker until he gets his feet off of the ground. Henry and his new friend soon start to kill.

Deranged

A man living in rural Wisconsin takes care of his bed-ridden mother, who is very domineering and teaches him that all women are evil. After she dies, he misses her, and a year later digs her up and takes her home. He learns about taxidermy and begins robbing graves to get materials to patch her up, and inevitably begins looking for fresher sources of materials. Based loosely on the true story of Ed Gein.

The Women and the Murderer

This documentary traces the capture of serial killer Guy Georges through the tireless work of two women: a police chief and a victim's mother.

The Mind of a Murderer: Part 1

A look into the mind of one of the Hillside Strangler murderers, Kenneth Bianchi.

The Mind of a Murderer: Part 2

A look at the trial and the use of psychiatric evidence in the criminal proceedings of mass murderer 'The Hillside Strangler' Kenneth Bianchi.

Serial Killers: The Real Life Hannibal Lecters

This documentary examines a selection of real life serial killers and compares them to the fictional Hannibal Lecter.

Chasing Ghosts

A serial killer targeting the city's mobsters taunts police with clues and photos left behind at the crime scenes. A veteran cop takes on a rookie partner hoping to crack one last case before retiring. As the web of deception and lies unravels, the truth slowly begins to reveal itself.

Blood Dried Hands

A reluctant serial killer grapples with his base desires and longs for his own death, as a small town Detective closes in on his trail to stop the killing spree while dealing with her own debilitating trauma.

Frisk

A first person narrative of the exploits of a gay serial killer in deeply disturbing, controversial drama about violence, sexuality, and the imagination. Dennis, the main character, whose lead we follow on this path between what is real and what we can only hope is surreal. His friends attempt to determine if he's truly a psychopath.

The Night of the Generals

A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.

Man in the Attic

London, 1888: on the night of the third Jack the Ripper killing, soft-spoken Mr. Slade, a research pathologist, takes lodgings with the Harleys, including a gloomy attic room for "experiments." Mrs. Harley finds Slade odd and increasingly suspects the worst; her niece Lily (star of a decidedly Parisian stage revue) finds him interesting and increasingly attractive. Is Lily in danger, or are her mother's suspicions merely a red herring?

Dating Game Killer

Rodney Alcala commits a series of grisly murders in the 1970s. While the mother of one of his victims desperately searches for answers, Rodney maintains his intelligent, smooth-talking persona, even appearing as a bachelor on "The Dating Game."

The Honeymoon Killers

Martha Beck, an obese nurse who is desperately lonely, joins a "correspondence club" and finds a romantic pen pal in Ray Fernandez. Martha falls hard for Ray, and is intent on sticking with him even when she discovers he's a con man who seduces lonely single women, kills them and then takes their money. She poses as Ray's sister and joins Ray on a wild killing spree, fueled by her lingering concern that Ray will leave her for one of his marks.

Summer of Sam

Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American Northeast Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.

Virtuosity

The Law Enforcement Technology Advancement Centre (LETAC) has developed SID version 6.7: a Sadistic, Intelligent, and Dangerous virtual reality entity which is synthesized from the personalities of more than 150 serial killers, and only one man can stop him.

Under Suspicion

A lawyer is asked to come to the police station to clear up a few loose ends in his witness report of a foul murder. "This will only take ten minutes", they say, but it turns out to be one loose end after another, and the ten minutes he is away from his speech become longer and longer.

He Went That Way

Set in 1964, a three-day journey along Route 66 begins when Bobby Falls, a 19-year-old serial killer, hitches a ride with Jim Goodwin, a celebrity animal handler travelling with his precious cargo: his TV chimpanzee, Spanky.

Kalifornia

A journalist duo go on a tour of serial killer murder sites with two companions, unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.

Striking Distance

Coming from a police family, Tom Hardy ends up fighting his uncle after the murder of his father. Tom believes the killer is another cop, and goes on the record with his allegations. Demoted to water-way duty Tom, along with new partner Jo Christman, navigate the three rivers looking for clues and discovering bodies. This time the victims are women Tom knows, he must find the killer to prove his innocence.

Split Second

In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner and has haunted him ever since — but he soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human.

Blue Remedy

A man comes to sit alone at an isolated bus stop. Followed by a stranger. Then they both converse about how they once killed someone.

The Card Player

Policewoman Anna Mari is forced to play a dangerous game with the title serial killer. If she loses, she witnesses the maniac's tortured victims having their throats cut in explicit close-up detail via webcam. She teams up with British cop John Brennan to find out the identity of the murderer.

Mindhunters

Trainees in the FBI's psychological profiling program must put their training into practice when they discover a killer in their midst. Based very loosely on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

Serial Killer Culture

Serial Killer Culture examines the reasons why artists and collectors are fascinated by serial killers.

The Dying Game

A detective on the trail of an unstoppable serial killer falls in love with a beautiful sorority president who has been tapped as the killer's next victim.

Tell Me Something

Detective Cho, a cop on the edge, is mourning his mother's recent death while under investigation for graft; on top of that he is suddenly put in charge of a seemingly-impenetrable mystery.