I found "The Pledge" pretty moving,but the one film that occupied my mind for a long time is "The Child I Never Was". Between 1962 and 1966 four schoolboys were tortured and killed in Germany's Ruhr District.This film is about their tormentor, Juergen Bartsch 15 when he started 19 when he was caught, and how his upbringing would contribute to him becoming a serial offender.
In my mind reality also hits much harder then fantasy.

Bernd