Best Mystery Movies of 1977

Australian lawyer David Burton agrees with reluctance to defend a group of Aboriginal people charged with murdering one of their own. He suspects the victim was targeted for violating a tribal taboo, but the defendants deny any tribal association. Burton, plagued by apocalyptic visions of water, slowly realizes danger may come from his own involvement with the Aboriginal people and their prophecies.

A New York City model with a troubled past relocates to an apartment in a brownstone building where the only other tenant is a withdrawn blind priest. After experiencing strange occurrences, she begins to realize her building houses a sinister evil.

A pair of young vacationers are involved in a dangerous conflict with treasure hunters when they discover a way into a deadly wreck in Bermuda waters.

The film is set in the fictional Utah community of Santa Ynez, which is being terrorized by a mysterious black coupe that appears out of nowhere and begins running people down. After the car kills off the town's Sheriff, it becomes the job of Captain Wade Parent to stop the murderous driver.

A psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, investigates the savage blinding of six horses with a metal spike in a stable in Hampshire, England. The atrocity was committed by an unassuming seventeen-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang, the only son of an opinionated but inwardly-timid father and a genteel, religious mother. As Dysart exposes the truths behind the boy's demons, he finds himself face-to-face with his own.

Over-the-hill gumshoe in Los Angeles seeks to avenge the killing of an old pal, another detective who had gotten himself involved in a case concerning a murdered broad, stolen stamps, a nickel-plated handgun, a cheating dolly, and a kidnapped pussycat.

Berlin, 1923. Following the suicide of his brother, American circus acrobat Abel Rosenberg attempts to survive while facing unemployment, depression, alcoholism and the social decay of Germany during the Weimar Republic.

This anthology tells three stories: a man buys a car that takes him back and forth through time; a tale of vampires; and a distraught mother asks for her drowned son to come back to life and gets more than she bargained for.

At a party, someone goes insane and murders three women. Falsely accused of the brutal killings, Jerry is on the run. More bizarre homicides continue with alarming frequency all over town. Trying to clear his name, Jerry discovers the shocking truth...people are losing their hair and turning into violent psychopaths and the connection may be some LSD all the murderers took a decade before.

Three philosophy professors travel to Prague for a conference. One of them, Anderson, is forced to rethink his ideas on ethics when a former student is arrested by the Czech authorities for writing about individualist approaches to morality.

The police chief of a small town begins an investigation after a young woman, who was supposed to have died several months previously, starts appearing around town just before her parents are found mysteriously dead.

John Cleese is hilarious as the descendant of Sherlock Holmes in this modern detective drama of international power politics and intrigue. Unlike his illustrious grandfather however, he only succeeds in bungling every job he organizes. Also stars Arthur Lowe as the "bionic" grandson of Dr. Watson, Stratford Johns as the Commissioner of Police, and Connie Booth as Mrs. Hudson.

When teacher Simon arrives in a small, secluded village to take over the local school, he is surprised to discover that his predecessor has disappeared without a trace - and that nobody seems too concerned about it. As Simon probes deeper into the disappearance, the inhabitants of a forbidding estate called "Summerfield" take on more and more significance - until events reach a tragic, shattering and unforeseen climax.

Nine people sail a yacht to a deserted rocky island for a holiday in old Uberto's villa. The host is accompanied by a group of family members. The men's only thought seems to be having sex with anyone else's wife. One by one, the guests are killed by an unidentified assailant; Elisabetta, half-mad, claims it's the ghost of Charlie, her lover, who had been killed twenty years before by Uberto and his two sons. The survivors cannot leave the island ( the yacht has disappeared) and are easy prey for the murderer. Vincenzo, now the only one left, discovers the truth...

A houswife, tired of her everyday routine, makes changes in her hair, her wardrobe and her makeup, and begins to take on the personality of a woman who had died five years earlier.

Five strangers awake, finding themselves with no memory in a world resembling the wild west. Their task is to become exempt from being killed - what the townspeople refer to as being "immortal" - by killing twenty of the other inhabitants of the town under the scrutiny of the sheriff (Jack Palance), otherwise they will spend their lives in slavery.

Five camping youths see at night a ghostly woman, which leads them to the castle of Count Kaunitz, in what will reveal itself to be a gruesome trap. Schlingensief was 15 years old when making this film.

After a stunt man dies while he is involved in the making of a motion picture, his brother takes his place in order to find out what really happened.

Howard is mild-mannered and slightly simple-minded, with a habit of picking up teenage hitchhikers while driving his delivery routes. Sometimes the girls admit to being runaways, and if they claim to hate their mothers it drives Howard into a violent frenzy; his sister ran away from home years ago and was never heard from again, causing his desperate, addled mother to tighten her hold on him. Howard never remembers raping his victims or strangling them with wire coat hangers, though his boss does notice missed deliveries and late arrivals.

A newspaper sportswriter has a special connection to the supernatural.

A private detective is hired by a Hollywood agent to find out who killed a beautiful young movie star.

A private detective is hired to find a mysterious girl named Susan. He soon realizes that "Susan" is the girl he spent the previous night with, and with whom he had the best sex of his life. His investigation leads him into a variety of sexual situations.

A young couple move into a remote country house in the middle of a stone circle. They employ workmen who disturb an ancient menhir, unleashing a supernatural force.

After taking a wrong turn, a young man somehow falls into a mysterious cave and becomes hopelessly lost. As he searches for a way out, the journey he experiences forces him to confront the deepest parts of himself.