
The Psychology of Serial Killer Movies - mayiplease
https://gardenofforkingpaths.home.blog/2019/09/22/the-psychology-of-serial-killer-movies/
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ksdale
"This is what violent death is really like. It is unexpected, out of nowhere –
it cuts our stories short. Victims of homicide do not pop into existence three
minutes earlier in order to be killed."

I love this line and I think this is one of the most valuable things
entertainment can provide. Great literature and movies make you feel some
approximation of actually going through the thing that is being portrayed.

I've often thought that we (I'm American) get such a distorted view of
violence from popular media. For every film that displays violence as chaotic,
disorienting, and horrible, there are dozens of super hero type movies that
display violence as utterly ordinary, necessary, and proper, where only the
bad guys die forever and justice is ultimately served.

Additionally, so many stories end at "Happily Ever After" and neglect to
communicate to readers or viewers that 99.9% of life happens in "Happily Ever
After." Presumably "Happily Ever After" contains much less drama than the
movie or book itself, but we never see it, so we are convinced that life can't
happen at all, ever, without the drama that makes up the majority of the
stories we are told.

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krapp
>there are dozens of super hero type movies that display violence as utterly
ordinary, necessary, and proper, where only the bad guys die forever and
justice is ultimately served.

Not just superhero movies - action movies, westerns, ancient myths and
religions in which the heroes were always violent - maybe violent and cunning,
but _always violent_ , and the gods were often as ruthless and petty as nature
itself.

Thinking of violence as anything _but_ utterly ordinary, necessary and proper
has been the exception rather than the rule in human societies. People still
believe in war as a noble adventure that turns undisciplined boys into proper
men... people still believe in holy war.

I think these stories reflect a fundamental need in people to fit a narrative
onto a blind and arbitrary universe. We want there to be heroes and villains,
for good to prosper and the wicked to be punished, for there to be a _reason_
behind it all, even if that reason is aliens or the Illuminati, and a God who
prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. We don't want to
know that the world is capricious and arbitrary, that evil people die in their
sleep surrounded by wealth and comfort while good people die in the street
like dogs for no reason.

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ksdale
You're completely correct, of course. Violence is definitely utterly ordinary.
I suppose I meant something more along the lines of mundane or even gentle?...
I'm not sure what would have been a better way to phrase it, but I think most
people, in the western world, at least, would be shocked at just how violent
real violence is because of how it is portrayed in popular media.

~~~
krapp
>but I think most people, in the western world, at least, would be shocked at
just how violent real violence is because of how it is portrayed in popular
media.

Most of the reason for that, of course, is marketing. Less violent movies can
be rated to reach a wider audience. In the comics, depending on the era,
writer, etc, superheroes could be extremely cynical and violent.

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michannne
One of my favorite movies is The Guest, mainly because it subverts the idea of
explaining to the viewer why the situation is the way it is. All of the main
character's life events have led him to the point he is at in the beginning of
the movie, and there are already concurrent plot threads running by the
beginning, but we're never told or given an explanation as to why the
situation is in the state it's in, just that this is what is happening, how is
our main character going to get out of it, etc.

Another movie with a noteworthy use of subversion is The Thing -- you'd think
something, anything will be explained by the end of the movie. Nope, nothing,
more astoundingly, the end of the movie sets itself up as if it's preparing
for a twist -- you don't even get to _see_ the twist. You just know there is
one, and the movie ends.

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rasz
> The Thing -- you'd think something, anything will be explained by the end of
> the movie

Because its explained in its entirety at the beginning: "Se til helvete og
komme dere vekk. Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting. Det imiterer en
bikkje, det er ikke virkelig. Kom dere vekk, idioter!" ~= "Get the hell away.
It's not a dog, it's some kind of thing. It imitates a dog, it's not real. Get
away, idiots!"

~~~
michannne
I was more referring to the possibility that one character is not what he says
he is at the end of the movie

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the_af
Interesting article.

A nitpick however: "American Psycho" is not really a serial killer movie, is
it? In fact, it's debatable whether any killing occurs at all. (Of course, the
embarrassing sequel completely misses the point, from what I've read -- and I
refuse to watch it).

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cwmma
yeah but it's structured like serial killer movie, even if it's ambiguous as
to whether it might just all be in his head.

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ianai
It’s even more of a serial killer movie because it revolves around a serial
killer story within a story.

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truth_be_told
I hate Horror/Serial Killer movies and avoid watching them. I find them morbid
and do not understand the American fascination with them. To me it is an
indicator of something intrinsically wrong with modern American society. Other
countries/cultures with huge movie industries (eg. India, China etc.) produce
nothing like what Hollywood does in this genre. Psychologically, our minds can
be bent towards the best of the best and the worst of the worst given the
right stimulus and conditioning. For a healthy functioning society we need
systems in place to dampen our worst tendencies and heighten the best ones.
These sort of movies do the opposite.

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topmonk
Japan has far worse. See “Audition” , for example of this.

[https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0235198/?ref_=m_nm_knf_i3](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0235198/?ref_=m_nm_knf_i3)

I was really emotionally affected after that one. Good fun.

