20 best movies like The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag (1992)

The police force of a remote Midwestern town search for a killer Santa Claus who is picking off citizens on Christmas Eve.

A reality TV director copes with a spoiled celebutante and a show gone haywire when a masked killer starts bumping off the crew in this slasher-movie satire.

Clue finds six colorful dinner guests gathered at the mansion of their host, Mr. Boddy -- who turns up dead after his secret is exposed: He was blackmailing all of them. With the killer among them, the guests and Boddy's chatty butler must suss out the culprit before the body count rises.

Victoria "V.I" Warshawski is a Chicago based private detective who agrees to babysit for her new boyfriend; then he is murdered. Being the detective type, she makes the murder her next case. In doing so she befriends the victim's daughter, Kat, and together they set out to crack the case.

Morgan and Jean work well together as true crime podcasters because they didn’t work well, at all, as a couple. However, when Morgan strikes up a new relationship with the mysterious Simone, their shared interest turns into suspicion, paranoia, and fear.

Trouble erupts in a small, quiet New England town when a man's body is found in the woods. The problem is that almost everyone in town thinks that they had something to do with his death.

Nick and Frank Starkey were both policemen. A scandal forced Nick to leave the force, now a serial killer has driven the police to take him back. A web that includes Frank's wife, bribery, and corruption all are in the background as Nick tries to uncover the secret of where the killer will strike next, and finally must lay a trap without the police.

After Santa Barbara Police Chief Carlton Lassiter is ambushed and left for dead, Shawn and Gus return to help him and find themselves embroiled in a case involving the personal, the professional—and even the supernatural.

Stephanie, a dedicated mother and popular vlogger, befriends Emily, a mysterious upper-class woman whose son Nicky attends the same school as Miles, Stephanie's son. When Emily asks her to pick Nicky up from school and then disappears, Stephanie undertakes an investigation that will dive deep into Emily's cloudy past.

The suicide of a prominent wine producer unleashes a series of mysterious murders.

Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.

It's four years later, and a new group of students has been placed in Saturday detention at the infamous and prestigious Crestview Academy. When Siouxsie, sophomore 'undercrust,' crashes the party to avenge her sister's death, a Saturday detention reserved for the privileged seniors of Crestview Academy turns into a date in hell. It's not long before a naïve pussycat lover, gay drug dealer, smokin' hot preacher's daughter, squeaky-clean senator's son, and the uninvited younger outsider find themselves locked-up in school with no way out, wondering who (or what) has set them up. Hilarity and suspense ensue while each 'bad kid' pits one against the other, and one by one each falls victim to absurdly gruesome 'accidents' while trying to escape.

A ditsy reporter enlists the help of a sleazy private eye to solve a series of gory killings of female strippers at a Chicago nightclub.

LA homicide detective Gene Handsome's knack for solving mysteries is matched only by his inability to make sense of his own problems.

A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.

Spoof of 1960's Beach Party/Gidget surfing movies mixed with slasher horror films. A not-so-innocent girl in 1960's Malibu becomes the first girl surfer at Malibu Beach, only she suffers from dissociative identity disorder and occasionally her alter ego, a sexually aggressive, foul-speaking girl, comes out. During her "episodes" several beach goers are found murdered.

A millionaire fakes a terminal illness to fleece his former girlfriends.

Detective Inspector Richard Poole is transferred to Sainte Marie, an island in the Caribbean. Totally unsuited to the Caribbean way of life, Richard hates the sun, sea and sand and isn't used to the Sainte Marie style of policing. Working with the exotic Camille each week Richard investigates intricate and intriguing murders.

A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows more and more interesting abilities (such as knife throwing) he begins to doubt his first assessment.

An American junior diplomat in London rents a house from, and falls in love with, a woman suspected of murder.

Charlie, a former mobster, is abducted by five privileged young men desperate to raise a $2 million ransom to save the sister of a friend. As Charlie plays mind games, however, his captors splinter -- each wondering whether one of their own had a hand in the crime.

In 1957, Evan Rendell flees after his father is lynched for killing multiple patients in his effort to find a replacement heart for his ailing wife. After 35 years, Evan escapes from a mental institution and returns to town for revenge, killing off residents one by one. When Jennifer and her friends break into the Rendell house out of morbid curiosity, Evan notices Jennifer has a heart condition similar to his mother and decides to make her his final victim.

A former mental patient's repressed anger reaches the boiling point, leading him to embark on a mission of revenge against the thugs who once subjected him to severe physical and mental trauma.

When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.

On their way to Monte Carlo, Monaco, Marilyn and her husband, Neil, meet several other married couples, including Julian and Phoebe, who are traveling with a lost dog they plan to return to its wealthy owner for a large reward. But, when the dog's mistress is murdered, the travelers become the prime suspects, and Inspector Bonnard is determined to track them all down.

Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.

A former high school student who always wanted to be a cheerleader decides to reopen the cheerleading program at her former high school after years of closure for being targeted by a serial killer.

Scotland Yard investigators have to prevent the murder of Victoria Dickman when her name is found on a death list.

Apprentice lawyer Robin Weathers turns a civil suit into a headline grabbing charade. He must reexamine his scruples after his shenanigans win him a promotion in his firm, and he must now defend a college professor who is appearantly guilty of murder.

Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

When young Poindexter "Fool" Williams breaks into the creepy, immense old home of his family's greedy and uncaring landlords, he uncovers a disturbing scenario underneath the stairs.

After attending a gathering on a billionaire's yacht during a European vacation, a New York cop and his wife become prime suspects when he's murdered.

After making a 3-hour fiasco about New York City's water supply, a two-man film crew decides to take it up a notch by documenting life in the private investigator offices of "Boone and Murphy". Cheating husbands and missing dogs fail to bring in the big bucks however, and after sleeping with the wife of one of their clients Murphy leaves. To stop Boone from having to close down the business the two film-makers must resort to a hands-on approach in the investigations to ensure the completion of their movie.

Mafia hitman Tommy Spinelli (Joe Pesci) is flying to San Diego with a bag that holds eight severed heads, which he's bringing to his superiors to prove that some troublesome rival mobsters are permanently out of the picture. When his bag gets accidentally switched at the airport, Tommy must track down his duffel bag and the 8 heads it contains.

A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.

Based primarily on the first game in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the film focuses on rookie defense attorney Phoenix Wright, as he strives to protect his clients in various murder trials, including the death of his mentor, Mia Fey, and the accusation of rival prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth. Phoenix's greatest ally is Mia's younger sister Maya, a spirit medium whose body is posessed by Mia to communicate with him.

Counselors are being killed off at summer camp, and Sam (Fran Kranz) is stuck in the middle of it. Instead of contacting the cops, he calls his friend and slasher-film expert (Alyson Hannigan) to discuss his options.

The complete innocent, Michael Jordon, is drawn into a web of secrecy and government secrets when a girl carrying a mysterious package gets into a taxi with him. When she is later murdered, Michael is the chief suspect and on the run.

After spending decades living in the shadow of his more famous and successful sibling, Consulting Detective Sigerson Holmes (Wilder) is called upon to help solve a crucial case that leads him on a hilarious trail of false identities, stolen documents, secret codes... and exposed backsides.

In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with an unhappy sponsor, an overbearing boss and a soon-to-be ex-husband who desperately wants her back. As the broadcast begins, a mysterious voice breaks the broadcast and suddenly members of the cast turn up dead. It's up to her husband Roger, to find out whodunit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN.

To the Los Angeles elite, Ford Fairlane is known as "Mr. Rock 'n' Roll Detective." This loudmouthed ladies' man serves an exclusive rock star clientele, who depend on his keen eye and smug discretion. So when a heavy-metal musician dies mid-concert, Fairlane is on the case before the lights come up. But things turn shocking when radio personality Johnny Crunch hires Fairlane to find a missing groupie mere hours before he is electrocuted live on air.

When legendary treasures from around the world are stolen, including the priceless Pink Panther Diamond, Chief Inspector Dreyfus is forced to assign Inspector Clouseau to a team of international detectives and experts charged with catching the thief and retrieving the stolen artifacts.

When a murder occurs in a small town in Southeast China, a local mechanic, known for his honesty, comes under suspicion. When the police target him to take the fall, he’s forced to try and exonerate himself, uncovering a number of disturbing facts, most much bigger than the initial crime.

Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.

A stressed-out police officer struggles not to give in to the paranoia that grips his small mountain town as bodies turn up after each full moon.

A middle-aged couple suspects foul play when their neighbor's wife suddenly drops dead.

A couple experiences a defining moment in their relationship when they are unintentionally embroiled in a murder mystery. As their journey to clear their names takes them from one extreme – and hilarious - circumstance to the next, they must figure out how they, and their relationship, can survive the night.

19 years after President Timothy Keegan was assassinated, his brother Nick discovers a dying man claiming to have been the gunman. While trying to avoid his wealthy and domineering father's attempts to control his actions, Nick follows the clues that have been handed to him. As he progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the real trails from the dead ends, and increasingly dangerous as unknown parties try to stop Nick from uncovering the truth.

When a U.S. congressman's daughter passing through a small town in Mississippi dies in a mysterious triple homicide, a team of F.B.I. agents descends to investigate, the team's brilliant but jaded lead agent battling demons both past and present, as his beautiful, tough-as-nails partner tries to hold him and the case together. They find a struggling and corrupt sheriff's department, a shadowy and much-feared figure, who seems to be pulling all of the town's strings from his mansion on the edge of town and a local victim with a strange connection to a number of the town's most prominent figures.

A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.