It's Killer Time!

There is no doubt some of you reading this blog are familiar with the Showtime Television Show Dexter. Now, you may not have seen the show but you likely have heard of it. I would just like to say that I am a big fan of that show; it is very well done. A show about a serial killer who kills killers is an interested but not unheard of idea; see Suspect Zero, where a remote viewer (can tune into what others see) becomes a serial killer, who kills other serial killers. I not just interested in this idea, but in trend of films about serial killers. The first thing to do would be to attempt to find out when this trend began. A big cult film about a serial killer, Henry: Portrait of a Serial killer came out in 1986 and is still a cult favourite today (see also Psycho (1960), Peeping Tom [1960] and Badlands [1973]). Now, of course that was not the first movie about a serial killers, but it was a popular one done in the 80s (late 70s maybe), which is where I am going to plot my starting off point. I am a big Nightmare On Elm Street fan and I would consider the film's villian/star Freddy Krueger as a serial killer; he kills teenagers whose parents burned him to death as an act of revenge for him killing their children (that is his MO; Modus Operandi) and he is a dream demon, so he kills them where he resides (in the dream world). The Nightmare On Elm Street films are often considered slasher films, which they are but they are also horror films. The Friday The 13th films also contain a serial killer; of course I mean Jason Voorhes. Unlike Freddy, Jason kills teens in the real world where he exists as a sort of superhuman undead monster. His MO is killing teens who try to restart Camp Crystal Lake, where Jason drown when he was a boy as the camp counsellors that were supposed to be watching him were busy having sex or making out. Again, The Friday The 13th films were seen as slasher films with regard to their subgenre and genrically were horror films. Michael Myers from the Halloween series is also a serial killer, but his MO gets a little bit hard to pin down after Halloween 2 (remember he is not in Halloween 3: Season of the Witch; do not let the title fool you, there is no witch in this movie) (see also Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I believe that the current trend with regard to depicting serial killers in film and TV is indebted to Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lector book series. Thomas Harris' first Hannibal Lector book, Red Dragon was first adapted in 1986 with the film Manhunter (one of my favourite films), but the trend does not start there, as the film was regarded as somewhat campy. It was an early serial killer film that dealt with psychological profiling. Harris' second Hannibal book, The Silence of The Lambs was released in 1992 and basically made Anthony Hopkins a huge start with American audiences. Some of you may be aware that it won the Best Picture Oscar in 1992. Spawing from this, you get films such as House of 1,000 Corpses (2003) , The Devil's Rejects (2005), From Hell (2001), Suspect Zero (2004), Seven (1995), Zodiac (2007), Saw (2004), Mr. Brooks (2007), Perfume: Story of a Murderer (2006), Identity (2003), "The Profiler" (1996) TV, "Millennium" TV (1996), and a host of others. I am not attempting to discount any novels or graphic novels (From Hell is based on a graphic novel on jack the ripper) that exists as source material, I am simply stating that the trend begins with Harris's Hannibal Lector books and with The Silence of The Lambs having such financial success and literary acclaim. With the continued success of Showtime's Dexter, it is unlikely that the trend in film and TV of depicting serial killers is going to wane or fade out at all. Having said that, some of my favourite serial killer films include the following, American Psycho, Disturbia, Se7en, Zodiac, Manhunter, Mr. Brooks, and Candyman.

I hope that you all have enjoyed my ideas about where this 'serial killer mania' in film and TV began.

Singed,

That Crazy Guy; Fanboy Dave.