Best Mystery Movies of 1982

Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman. A conservative American businessman travels to Chile to investigate the sudden disappearance of his son after a military takeover. Accompanied by his son's wife he uncovers a trail of cover-ups that implicate the US State department which supports the dictatorship.

A young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.

Trying to find how a millionaire wound up with a phony diamond brings Hercule Poirot to an exclusive island resort frequented by the rich and famous. When a murder is committed, everyone has an alibi.

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

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'.

Carla Moran, a hard-working single mother, is raped in her bedroom by someone — or something — that she cannot see. Despite skeptical psychiatrists, she is repeatedly attacked by this invisible force. Could this be a case of hysteria or something more horrific?

A frustrated Boston detective searches for the maniac responsible for mutilating a number of university coeds.

Dr. Daniel Challis and Ellie Grimbridge stumble onto a gruesome murder scheme when Ellie's novelty-salesman father, Harry, is killed while in possession of a halloween mask made by the Silver Shamrock mask company. The company's owner, Conal Cochran, wants to return Halloween to its darker roots using his masks -- and his unspeakable scheme would unleash death and destruction across the country.

After a seemingly innocent prank goes horribly wrong, a group of sorority sisters are stalked and murdered one by one in their sorority house while throwing a party to celebrate their graduation.

The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspector Clouseau from France. His plane disappears en-route. This time, famous French TV reporter Marie Jouvet sets out to solve the mystery and starts to interview everybody connected to Clouseau.

New York police are bemused by reports of a giant flying lizard that has been spotted around the rooftops of New York, until the lizard starts to eat people. An out-of-work ex-con is the only person who knows the location of the monster's nest and is determined to turn the knowledge to his advantage, but will his gamble pay off or will he end up as lizard food?

Two cabbies search San Francisco's Chinatown for a mysterious character who has disappeared with their $4000. Their quest leads them on a humorous, if mundane, journey which illuminates the many problems experienced by Chinese-Americans trying to assimilate into contemporary American society.

One year after a young girl dies in a car accident, her sister begins seeing visions of her, while the family home is plagued by strange happenings.

Chinatown, San Francisco, 1928. Former private detective Dashiell Hammett, a compulsive drinker with tuberculosis who writes pulp fiction for a living, receives an unexpected visit from an old friend asking for help.

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

In a rest home for elderly people, a daughter reads her mother's diary. Soon events that are mentioned in the mother's diary begin to happen to the daughter.

A strange young man has a sinister effect on the family of a middle-aged writer.

Clarissa, the wife of a Foreign Office diplomat, is given to daydreaming. 'Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do?' she muses. Clarissa has her chance to find out when she discovers a body in the drawing-room of her house in Kent.

The film version of the same-titled book by Mark Twain. A young printer's apprentice imagines himself back in the days of Guttenberg, helping him to print the Bible. The next thing he knows he has conjured up a young spirit from the future who casts spells over striking printers and causes general mischief.

A locker room janitor at the train station notices that a suitcase was put in a locker by a man, but pulled out by another man. This suitcase appeared to be stuffed with money. This incident allows a police detective to uncover a huge criminal organization responsible for theft, smuggling and murder.

A retired New York cop on vacation in America's West is drawn into a sheriff's investigation of a mysterious series of cattle killings.

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.

A year after his fiancée's death, a playwright schedules a rehearsal for his new play, which proves to be a trap for her killer.

Sir Wilfred Robarts, a famed barrister is released from the hospital, where he stayed for two months following his heart attack. Returning to the practise of his lawyer skills, he takes the case of Leonard Vole, an unemployed man who is accused of murdering an elderly lady friend of his, Mrs. Emily French. While Leonard Vole claims he's innocent, although all evidence points to him as the killer, his alibi witness, his cold German wife Christine, instead of entering the court as a witness for the defense, she becomes the witness for the prosecution and strongly claims her husband is guilty of the murder.

American computer whiz Luke Williams meets elderly Lavinia Fullerton on a London-bound train. She reveals she's discovered the identity of a serial killer in her village and is going to report it to Scotland Yard. When she's murdered after disembarking the train. Williams vows to pursue the case himself

A crisis helpline assistant attracts the attention of a serial killer who delights in feeding her cryptic, nursery-rhyme style riddles when planning his next murder!

A crazed killer stalks college students who gave up their vacation to clean a deserted dormitory.

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.

The young and self-confident Danny bluffs at the local police-station that he will escape from prison within an hour. What follows is a flashback showing his childhood with his uncle and aunt, who are 'vaudeville'-artists themselves.

Ginger Meggs (Paul Daniel) is a young "Dennis the Menace" who first appeared in Australian comic strips in 1921. In this film meant for the pre-teen set, Ginger is constantly getting himself in trouble in spite of his good intentions -- at the same time, he prevaricates, he disobeys his teachers and parents, he skips school, or while in school, fights it out with the bullies -- all activities that are bound to capture the attention of children who can vicariously enjoy the forbidden behavior.

After finding her boss, a private detective, has committed suicide and has left her his agency, Cordelia Gray is asked to investigate the suicide of the man's son. During the course of her investigation, Cordelia becomes obsessed with the young man's memory and his increasingly suspicious death.

Two uneasy friends, a police officer and a TV talk show host, each pursue the mysterious "handcuff killer" with the aid of an artist who sees - and draws - the killer's crimes before they're committed.

Two Aliens visit the Earth in an effort to enlist converts to travel the universe with them.

A disgruntled phone company employee develops a device whereby those answering a phone can be murdered, and it's up to Nat Bridger to stop the killer.

A trio of kids have many exciting adventures while exploring a spooky mansion in the hope of finding their missing friends.

In 1880, a little girl is sent to Nantucket Island to live with her grandmother. She discovers, however, that her grandmother is an odd woman who has some strange habits, one of which is keeping a vigil for a lover of many years ago who went out to sea one day and never returned.

A masked maniac with a penchant for a monster-themed board game is playing his own twisted game with the women of a small American town. Each time the dice are rolled, another victim meets a grisly end. Returning home to mourn the death of her murdered sister, Keegan befriends local cop Roger and reclusive cinema projectionist Billy — but soon finds herself in the killer's sights.

Norwegian sci-fi/mystery series about Roland Marco, a scientist that believes certain sun-symbols can affect human behaviour. He wears an old ring carrying one of these symbols against his father's wishes, when terrible things suddenly start happening around him.

Pretty young Evangeline Parker finds herself stuck on the side of the road after her car breaks down. Parker gets a ride from the sinister Marbus, who turns out to be the leader of a cult of depraved carnal freaks who reside in an old rundown house. Will Parker find a way to escape from the house of sin?

Ellen Pitblado is a widow who lives in recluse in 1930s Gloucestershire. When her scummy journalist nephew, Douglas, tries to force her to give him her money, she calls her mysterious lookalike gentlemen friends to her aid.