“Everyone loves fear for its own sake,” smiles Alfred Hitchcock in an archive broadcast in Serial killer, Autopsy of a fascinationthis Friday on France 5. For those who have never succumbed to the guilty pleasure of relaxing in front of “Bring in the Accused” or an atmospheric dark series You, Dexter, Mindhunter Or The Fallthrows out the first drop of blood.
With the growing success of true crimes – crime documentaries told in a thriller style – serial killers are literally flooding popular culture. Series, documentaries, novels, comics, murderers are everywhere… But the obsession does not date from the biopic DahmerNetflix’s stratospheric hit by Ryan Murphy, which has more than 100 million views since its release in 2022.
Ed Gein in “Psychosis” and “The Silence of the Lambs”
Since 1960, Psychosisthe cult horror film by Alfred Hitchcock, shook up the conventions of horror with a grittier aesthetic of crime and an ultra-realistic killer. “Norman Bates is directly inspired by Ed Gein, he is a shy man, good in all respects, very kind, who lives with his mother in a hotel. And behind this image of an angel subject to his mother, hides a killer,” notes Joseph Agostini, psychologist and psychoanalyst, in the France 5 documentary. As a reminder, Ed Gein made the United States tremble at the end of the 1990s. 1950 in particular for having created clothes, curtains and lampshades from the skin of his victims.
“Hitchcock marked a turning point in that he was interested in the psychology of the killer,” underlines Emilie Semiramoth, journalist specializing in cinema and series. We try to get into his head, we try to understand a mode of operation. There is really the notion of spectacle which is very important in the phenomenon of fascination with the serial killer.” The film revolutionized the genre and became one of the master of suspense’s greatest commercial successes.
In 1991, Thesilenceofthelambs by Jonathan Demme brings down a new card in the glorification of the serial killer with the emblematic character of Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), cannibal, necrophiliac and displaying an extraordinary IQ. We find in this masterpiece the shadow of certain great American psychopaths like Ed Kemper, Ted Bundy or – once again – Ed Gein including the character of Buffalo Bill, sought by FBI agent Clarice Sterling (Jodie Foster ), is inspired.
With buttered beans
“Hannibal Lecter left his mark on the whole world because he is this figure of the serial killer who is at once brilliant, extremely brilliant and extremely endearing. He is so brilliant, clever, intelligent that we like him,” analyzes Maxime Chattam, successful detective novelist. Thesilenceofthelambs also passes directly through the cult box and opens the way to a cinema which places the serial killer at the center of its story. On the same model, a wave of killer films are arriving on the big screen with Sevenby David Fincher, Born killersby Oliver Stone or THE Nerves on edge by Martin Scorsese. On the novel side, Bret Easton Ellis follows in the footsteps ofA killer on the road by James Ellroy with American Psychoitself adapted for cinema in 2000.
With the explosion of true crimes, which streaming platforms love, the red line between fiction and reality has been crossed. Ted Bundy has the right to numerous documentaries, he even has his own fiction, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Charles Sobhraj has his series The snake with Tahar Rahim. The journey of Monique Olivier, accomplice of Michel Fourniret, one of the most terrifying serial killers in France, was recently dissected by a Netflix series. Without forgetting the phenomenal (and disturbing) success of the series Monster which traces the murderous journey of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Dahmer’s attitude, which became a meme
Nicknamed “the Milwaukee cannibal”, this chilling character in American criminal history spent more than ten years seducing young African-Americans in nightclubs before attempting to turn them into “zombies” by injecting hydrochloric acid in their brains. After numerous reports from neighbors bothered by the odors emanating from his apartment, the police eventually found remains of his victims in his refrigerator.
“Serial killers are good stories because they have dramatic springs, natural twists and turns, with real raw material,” points out Patricia Tourancheau, journalist specializing in news items in Serial killer, Autopsy of a fascination. This whole hidden side of society deserves to be addressed. We must try to treat it with sobriety, distance and delicacy. There are victims behind.” The world of cinema sometimes seems to lose sight of this, showering spectators with true crimes ultra aesthetic. We almost forget that behind the glamorous image of Jeffrey Dahmer, seventeen young men were violently murdered between 1978 and 1991.
By making them heroes of the seventh art, the cinema industry has gradually freed serial killers from their monstrosity, establishing them as real stars. Jeffrey Dahmer has even become an Internet meme. Teenagers mime scenes from the series in videos, children dress up as “Jeffrey Dahmer” for Halloween, fans have started looking for the criminal’s personal items. Should we be concerned when a society fetishizes psychopaths to this extent?