The 40 most popular german mystery movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


The Name of the Rose
1986 · 2h 10m
country: France
14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2009 · 2h 32m
country: Denmark
Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a male journalist and a young female hacker. In the opening of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged publisher for the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Nevertheless, he is hired by Henrik Vanger in order to solve a cold case, the disappearance of Vanger's niece


The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
2013 · 2h 10m
country: Canada
In New York City, Clary Fray, a seemingly ordinary teenager, learns that she is descended from a line of Shadowhunters — half-angel warriors who protect humanity from evil forces. After her mother disappears, Clary joins forces with a group of Shadowhunters and enters Downworld, an alternate realm filled with demons, vampires, and a host of other creatures. Clary and her companions must find and protect an ancient cup that holds the key to her mother's future.


The White Ribbon
2009 · 2h 24m
country: Italy
An aged tailor recalls his life as the schoolteacher of a small village in Northern Germany that was struck by a series of strange events in the year leading up to WWI.


Shattered
2022 · 1h 32m
country: Germany
Chris, a wealthy divorcee, lives in a high-tech house of his own design in Montana. His life changes when he meets Sky, a mysterious young woman who draws him out of his shell and moves in after Chris is injured.


The Ghost Writer
2010 · 2h 8m
country: France
A writer stumbles upon a long-hidden secret when he agrees to help former British Prime Minister Adam Lang complete his memoirs on a remote island after the politician's assistant drowns in a mysterious accident.


The Physician II
2025 · 2h 22m
country: Germany
1050 AD: Robert Cole returns to England to bring the medical light of the Orient to his countrymen. But he fails because of the intrigues of the established London doctors, who feel threatened by the new knowledge. And it is not only the human body that is full of seemingly impenetrable secrets, the soul also holds its own mysteries.


The Girl Who Played with Fire
2009 · 2h 9m
country: Denmark
Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.


Fanny and Alexander
1982 · 3h 8m
country: Sweden
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.


Two Prosecutors
2025 · 1h 58m
country: France
In 1937, amidst Stalin's Great Terror, a newly appointed prosecutor for the USSR is made aware of alleged corruption in the Secret Police, and takes it upon himself to investigate.


The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2009 · 2h 27m
country: Denmark
After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in a hospital and is set to face trial for attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must prove her innocence. In doing this she plays against powerful enemies and her own past.


Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
2020 · 1h 38m
country: Germany
This remarkable journey across our planet and universe explores how meteorites, shooting stars, and deep impacts have awoken our wonder about other realms—and make us rethink our destinies.


Pride and Glory
2008 · 2h 10m
country: United States
A saga centered on the Tierneys, a multi-generational family of New York City Police officers. The family's moral codes are tested when Ray Tierney investigates a case that reveals an incendiary police corruption scandal involving his own brother-in-law. For Ray, the truth is revelatory, a Pandora's Box that threatens to upend not only the Tierney legacy but the entire NYPD.


No Good Deed
2002 · 1h 37m
country: United States
While doing a friend a favor and searching for a runaway teenager, a police detective stumbles upon a bizarre band of criminals about to pull off a bank robbery.


Emerald Green
2016 · 1h 53m
country: Germany
Emerald Green is the stunning conclusion to Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red Trilogy, picking up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the time-traveling society and learns her fate.


Vampyr
1932 · 1h 14m
country: Germany
Allan Gray, a young man fascinated by the supernatural, goes to a small village where he feels a sinister force descending upon him. There, Allan meets an old man who asks him to protect his two daughters, for one of them has been bitten by a vampire.


Night Train to Lisbon
2013 · 1h 51m
country: Germany
Raimund Gregorius, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves political and emotional intrigue and the highest possible stakes. His voyage is one that transcends time and space, delving into the realms of history, medicine and love, all in search of true meaning to his life.


Creep
2004 · 1h 25m
country: Germany
Trapped in a London subway station, a woman who's being pursued by a potential attacker heads into the unknown labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city's streets


The Devil's Bath
2024 · 2h 1m
country: Austria
In 1750 Austria, a deeply religious woman named Agnes has just married her beloved, but her mind and heart soon grow heavy as her life becomes a long list of chores and expectations. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts, until the possibility of committing a shocking act of violence seems like the only way out of her inner prison.


Cut Off
2018 · 2h 12m
country: Germany
A coroner finds a capsule in the head of a heavily mutilated corpse, containing a phone number and single word: the name of his daughter.


Mirrors No. 3
2025 · 1h 26m
country: Germany
After a car crash kills her boyfriend, piano student Laura is taken in by Betty, who witnessed the accident. Living with Betty's family brings comfort, but Laura starts questioning their intentions as time passes.


The Countess
2009 · 1h 40m
country: France
Kingdom of Hungary, 17th century. As she gets older, powerful Countess Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614), blinded by the passion that she feels for a younger man, succumbs to the mad delusion that blood will keep her young and beautiful forever.


Boogeyman
2005 · 1h 29m
country: United States
Every culture has one – the horrible monster fueling young children's nightmares. But for Tim, the Boogeyman still lives in his memories as a creature that devoured his father 16 years ago. Is the Boogeyman real, or did Tim make it up to explain why his father abandoned his family?


The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
1933 · 2h 2m
country: Germany
After a detective is assaulted by thugs and placed in an asylum run by Professor Baum, he observes the professor's preoccupation with another patient, the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse the hypnotist. When Mabuse's notes are found to be connected with a rash of recent crimes, Commissioner Lohmann must determine how Mabuse is communicating with the criminals, despite conflicting reports on the doctor's whereabouts, and capture him for good.


A Perfect Enemy
2021 · 1h 29m
country: France
Famed architect Jeremy Angust is approached on his trip to the Paris Airport by a chatty girl named Texel Textor who needs a ride. He obliges and after they part ways at the airport entrance, he misses his flight. As he settles in the lounge, he encounters the mysterious young Texel again, who insists on telling her strange story — and the conversation grows stranger and more twisted until it turns sinister and deadly.


Melancholie der Engel
2009 · 2h 44m
country: Germany
Upon learning that his days are numbered, a man and an old friend return to an old house that connects them by a dark secret. Along with three women and a mysterious old man, the group journeys into a horrifying abyss of debauchery and moral mayhem, leading to a fatal turn of events, during which the darkest human depths are revealed.


New York November
2011 · 1h 40m
country: Austria
A man arrives at JFK-Airport in New York on a cold November morning. In the airport bathroom he cuts his hair and changes his clothes. He owns a small and odd looking linen bound book. The printed pages are covered in notes, written in a woman's pale handwriting. He has carried this book for many years. He had no idea that it will bring his entire past into question.


Human Factors
2022 · 1h 42m
country: Denmark
To escape mounting tensions at the advertising agency they co-own, French-German couple Nina and Jan whisk their kids, Max and Emma, away to their seaside vacation home. The couple has signed a new politically charged client, forcing them to confront their clashing priorities. But what’s meant to be an idyllic off-season retreat turns sinister when burglars tear through the house, unseen by anyone except Nina. Though at first the aftermath brings the family closer, it’s short-lived once Max reveals he glimpsed his father hiding during the break-in. As the police investigate and the evidence doesn’t add up, the account of what took place begins to unravel alongside the couple’s faith in each other.


The Blood Countess
2026 · 1h 59m
country: Austria
The Blood Countess and her maid embark on a quest for the red elixir of life and a book that threatens the vampire realm. Hot on their heels are a police inspector, two vampirologists, a vegetarian nephew and his therapist.


The Silent Forest
2022 · 1h 35m
country: Germany
As a forestry student doing an internship, Anja Grimm ends up in that remote area in the Upper Palatinate Forest, where she went on vacation with her parents as an eight-year-old girl and her father disappeared without a trace. Her job is to take soil samples to create a soil map. At one point in the forest floor she comes across abnormal irregularities. Not long after their arrival, a brutal murder occurs. Anja soon arouses suspicion and hostility not only among the villagers with her suspicion that the perpetrator knows something about her father's fate and with her questions about the atypical soil composition in the forest clearing. Even the police react extremely reservedly to their investigations. And when it turns out that the young woman can read the signs of the forest like an open book, forces mobilize in the village who are apparently ready for anything because there is a dark secret that needs to be kept.


Exit Plan
2019 · 1h 30m
country: Belgium
Insurance broker Max's life is about one thing - keeping his walnut brain tumour in check. He eats properly, exercises and lives properly, but all of this self-consciousness makes him more and more depressed. When he realises that his beloved wife plans to leave him, he decides to take his own life.


The Serpent's Egg
1977 · 2h
country: Germany
In 1923 Berlin, following the suicide of his brother, an American acrobat struggles to survive while facing unemployment, depression, alcoholism, and the social decay of Germany during the Weimar Republic.


Narciso
2026 · 1h 41m
country: Paraguay
Paraguay, 1958. The charismatic Narciso returns from Buenos Aires with rock ’n’ roll in his veins. Under the suffocating military regime, his radio show becomes a music sensation and a symbol of freedom.


White Pillow
2017 · 1h 25m
country: Unknown
When Leonie, Emmas colleague and best friend, dies, she has to take over the nightwatch in the hospital. Emma doesn't believe in Leonie having committed suicide, as everybody assumes, so she tries to investigate herself. Doing that, she finds Leonies diary that documents reports of various encounters of supernatural kind. And all are closely connected to Friedrich Grau, an entrepreneur, who fell in vegetative state, when his little daughter committed suicide.


Fedora
1978 · 1h 49m
country: France
Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement, only to discover the horrifying truth behind her success.


Milk Teeth
2024 · 1h 37m
country: Germany
Skalde lives in a small rural community, far from a world that may no longer exist. She is an interloper in her own home, having been born to an ‘outsider’ mother and therefore marked by a social stigma she cannot easily erase. Displaying a loyalty to the codes of the community, she has earned the respect of the village elder. However, when she encounters a mysterious girl in the local woods, Skalde risks everything by befriending her, eventually giving the girl a home.


Thabo and the Rhino Case
2023 · 1h 37m
country: Germany
Eleven-year-old Thabo wants to become a private detective like in the movies. If only his home, the small African village of Hlatikulu, was not the most peaceful savannah paradise. But things take a sudden turn when a rhino is murdered in the neighboring safari park because of its precious horn.


Momo
1986 · 1h 41m
country: Germany
Momo is a young orphan girl who lives in the ruins of an old Roman amphitheater and becomes friends with everybody in the neighborhood. But when a powerful international corporation starts stealing everybody’s time, nobody has any time left for her, let alone their friends or families. Momo, together with Master Hora, the custodian of time, are the only ones who can go up against the time thieves before all is lost forever.


The Perfumier
2022 · 1h 36m
country: Germany
To regain her sense of smell and get back her lover, a detective joins forces with a perfume maker who uses deadly methods to create the perfect scent.


Kiss Me Monster
1969 · 1h 27m
country: Germany
On an island somewhere in the Caribbean a professor is experimenting with mankind. Meanwhile, The Red Lips are moonlighting on a striptease world tour, but as soon as they hit the stage, the girls are up to their pasties in stiffs, Satanists and Sapphic sadists, all after the professor's secret formula for human clones!
German cinema's two great periods bookend the century: Weimar-era Expressionism, whose shadows and angles built the visual grammar of horror and noir, and the New German Cinema of the 1970s under Fassbinder, Herzog, and Wenders.
Mystery films are structured around withheld information, trusting the audience to work alongside the investigator. The genre ranges from cozy whodunits to bleak, unresolved character studies.