Dana Alombro It’s no lie that human interest feeds off adrenaline and curiosity; the desire of wanting to know the unknown. The serial killer narrative in literary fiction has caught the public’s fascination in making these desires feel fulfilled, whether might it be in a 2-hour long movie, or a 400-page book. Fictionised or not, they’re aimed to make the audience distance themselves from reality, but these serial killers are dangerously romanticised to a point where it takes away the seriousness and weight of the situation. My theory on this romanticisation of the serial killer narrative are significant in these texts that I have chosen: the Netflix series “You” and the American TV show “Dexter” which are not based on true events, and the Netflix movie “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” and the American biographical film “My Friend Dahmer” that are true crime movies that humans can dig more into the darker side of their nature from a safe distance. These movies contain characteristics in the serial killer genre including the factual or fiction narrative of the story, past/present conditions that have made them to turn out this way, and the actors that play and act as the murderers in these movies that further perpetuates the concept of romanticizing serial killers, and I have chosen these films to show how my theories on why people love to or would do it. Idea 1: Factual vs fictional Is it worse to romanticise a real serial killer-based movie? Or is it important to show us that serial killers can be real people, as they’re portrayed in fictions? One could say that the former is worse than the latter, as real serial killers exist and their crimes resulted to the deaths of their victims, and the repercussions and struggles that the victims’ families had to go through in the real world. While this is completely valid, both fictional and factual serial killer movies are still susceptible to the same amount of guilt and thrill that the audience would possess after seeing these movies, of a human being’s natural interest and fascination over violence. The public’s sympathetic response for the people who were at the receiving end is overshadowed by their interest in how these serial killers abused or murdered them; how brutal can a human being go with these crimes? In romanticising a real serial killer-based movie, the process starts off with the curiosity of wanting to know what made them that way, or why they turned out to be real serial killers the public would then know about infamously. Once we’ve come into familiarity with their crimes and the wrongdoings they’ve done, it becomes a little less frightening to us. Real life serial killer movies revolve around this stigma that their stories on how they escaped times where they were able to leave traces of their identities in their crime scenes but have still slipped through being caught presents their smart and quick-witted image for thoroughly thinking through and committing these crimes, and as something that would get romanticised by the public. This can be seen in the film “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” where the main character Ted Bundy, who’s a real-life serial killer, was able to escape jail by escaping through the hole in his ceiling (which was done by losing amounts of weight in prison) and escape again his court trial by jumping from the second floor of a library. His quick- wittedness for thinking his plans thoroughly were some traits that appealed the audience, especially his fangirls. One can say that the past of the actor playing the serial killer in these true crimes can also be taken into consideration; this normalisation of thinking that serial killers can be romanticised because of the actors that’re playing their role as, due to their previous works of acting a character that’s romantic and a sweetheart. They’re previous image will stick to them, and the audience would unconsciously associate his character that has a contrasting persona to the serial killer they’re portraying themselves, therefore, romanticising them. Like how Zac Efron, previous main character sweetheart in High School Musical, played the serial killer Ted Bundy in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” in which some journalists covered the topic of “romanticisation of serial killers” and talked about the rise of this issue since Zac Efron played a mass murderer and still received love eyes from it. Or how Ross Lynch, previous main character in “Austin and Ally” where he was considered as a “Disney Prince,” played serial killer Jeffery Dahmer in the film “My Friend Dahmer.” Actor Ross Lynch, made the movie more appealing, due to the fact that he played characters that are more romantic in other films. This gave the audience an image that the serial killer being portrayed in the movie as someone who’s equally attractive and innocent, despite their crimes, giving them a position where they can romanticize the serial killer Jeff Dahmer himself. Both texts serve as something relevant in showing the audience how normal these serial killers can seem to be; how they can be anyone around us, or anyone who we wouldn’t think less of. It creates suspension and fear, which are one of the main emotions that the public is seeking to feel whenever they watch crimes movies like these, therefore, leading to this same thrill that they could addicted to. From this, we could dig deeper into the directors’ motives for these films, which are not only aimed to demonstrate these real serial killers’ past, but also to bring awareness that they’re capable of being murderers and emotionless beings, and how romanticising them could be damaging to the victims of their crimes, because the serial killers’ reputation and their stories get more well-known and recognised than the stories and tragedies of those who suffered. It presents justification to their wrongful doings unintentionally because with romanticisation comes with being unbothered by their crimes, so their casualties sink into oblivion as their killer’s name get known all throughout. As true crimes focus on their ability to think cleverly for their escapes or leaving no evidence, my theory on the romanticisation of fictional serial killer-based movies is the concept of wanting to know the answers for their crimes. We wouldn’t be able to know what runs through an actual murderer’s mind in real life, but in fictions, the writers can portray the backstories and what really runs through their head. For the public who’d want to seek answers from the preparators of the murders in a crime scene, they can turn into the fictional serial killer narrative. These texts that they’re portrayed in deceive us from thinking that they’re just this kind and approachable person that lives through every day like normal people, yet they’re still humans who are capable of achieving these unlawful killings. The 2018 Netflix series “You” portrays Joe someone charming and humorous in front of the girl he’s met in the bookshop and comes to like, and to the viewers as well, until we see him as a serial killer when fell deep in love with this girl. These fictional serial killers are often depicted as someone appealing to the audience, and perhaps this very depiction can be very damaging as well. Take for example the fictional serial killer Dexter in the American TV Show named after him as well, “Dexter,” where he also possesses the charm of being humorous and appealing all throughout the show, when in reality, he’s also a murderer. This impacts our own reality as well, because it further proves how naive the public can be from justifying their attractive traits as who they really are in these fictional movies, and how people around us who possess the same appeal could also be a potential harm, and that everyone could also be susceptible victims. Moreover, this fictionalised romanticisation stems off the idea that one could easily romanticise someone who portrays to be charming and funny, and that’s where it gets damaging as well. To show these characters in movies as serial killers and likeable at the same time drives our senses to become more familiar and comfortable when they’re in their charming character, then accept them for the way they are when they’re onto murdering people. This could result to their killer persona being normalised, or even, disregarded, just because they’re also good people. The danger that we could feel from someone in real life wouldn’t be recognised clearly if this process of appealing serial killers prevails within the romanticisation of the public, because our senses would get accustomed or more drawn into their positive traits more rather than their worse ones. -----Idea 2: Past/Present conditions Trying to find reasons behind their murders ties into finding ways to justify them as reasonable for turning out that way, as the public is likely to think that they’re being misunderstood, even if they’ve killed a lot of people and have done more inhumane acts (killing pets intentionally, torturing and abusing their victims before killing). The audience could gain the impression that from learning these real serial killers’ backstories in the factual films, they’d be less vulnerable from being targeted or being a victim as well, and this uncanniness from their unpredictability also leads to romanticising the murderer for their perplex yet clever mind. My theory around glamourising them also relies on that feeling of curiosity, of wanting to know what made them that way, or why they turned out to be serial killers; how far a man can go to commit murder. As the past conditions slowly get revealed to the audience, their connection between the serial killers can grow as they feel trusted for learning why they turned out the way they did, consequently, inducing the public to look at them at an understanding a romanticised way. This can be supported by Dexter in the series “Dexter” yet again, where his past triggered his desire to kill people. Looking at it objectively, one can understand why seeking revenge from your traumatic childhood through killing murderers would make the public feel fascinated about Dexter, but that doesn’t change the fact that he committed murder, and that he’s a serial killer. Yet romanticising them for having a neglected childhood, to then being this killer as a sign of redemption is something that can make us reflect about people in real life that we would have tried to romanticise or admire if we knew their past. Not only is this theory relevant in their past motives, but it also remains significant in present conditions that are driving them to do these murderous acts because it still lies within the realm of seeking revenge or finding a source of output for their bottled-up feelings, therefore, resulting to the romanticisation of these serial killers. This can be seen in the movie “My Friend Dahmer” about real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and how he was shown as someone who had no friends and was always lonely and the “awkward one,” which put this underlying pressure to be someone who was the funny and crazy guy which, accordingly, made his feeling of rejection motivate him to cruelty. Being seen as this social reject made him desperate in receiving attention that he didn’t get from home, and became known wellknown in school, just for his acts of “having spasms,” which you could see, made him uncomfortable in the end and only seemed like it was forced. The audience were able to sympathise with the killer and romanticize him, because the movie showed him as someone who wanted someone else to love him and give him attention without the needs of doing “abnormal” things. These present conditions can also be seen in the series “You”; we’re seen of Joe Goldberg as someone who kills people who got in the way of her relationship with his new obsession, Beck. Despite this rough and toxic behaviour, the movie gave depictions of his past girlfriend leaving him for someone else. This might trigger something to the audience that he was just being overly- protective of Beck because he didn’t want the same thing happening to him all over again. The audience found a reason to sympathise with his past, and how he just wants to receive love even if he sacrifices his morality, giving us the position to romanticize him. This highlights how blinded we can turn out to be if we keep on justifying their killings from the way they felt that day, until they just keep on doing these murders, and we’d still romanticise them because they have a reason behind why they killed that person. ----------------- Ultimately, we should have knowledge about the consequences that’ll come along with romanticising these serial killers; whether we continue to put them under this glorifying light or not, the subtle microaggressions towards the victims who were affected of their crimes will continue to prevail. Placing these killers on a pedestal for exploring the dark instincts of human beings reflects the types of beings the audience are because only guilt would separate those others from committing the same crime as well. Even if fictional and real-life serial killers have their own aspects of being a strong influence in romanticising serial killers, I could say that true crime is, to an extent, more damaging compared to the former because these serial killers genuinely affected people’s lives. From romanticising serial killers, we should be aware of how it shouldn’t be normalised or to be some sort of trend, as it dehumanises the victims who fell prey to these actual serial killers. Additionally, I want to suggest that it’s as damaging as any other factors that I’ve said in my theories, that the media gives them room to be romanticised by the public. The appealing character that they’ve put these serial killers in are damaging the immoral and sinful perceptions that the audience should have on them.
