Madison Meeks

Editor-in-chief

Mvm7037@psu.edu

It’s 2023 and now it is time to talk about a concept that is serious: the portrayal of serial killers in media and serial killer media as a whole. This leads along the lines of documentaries, television shows and movies about serial killers and even the portrayal of the disgusting people.

The media has been talking about serial killers since the 1980s. But since at least the early 2000s, these killers have been featured in television and film. Shows like ‘American Crime Story’, ‘Monster’, ‘The Act’, ’The Girl From Plainville’, ‘The Staircase’ and ‘Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile’ are just a few of the shows and films that have had actors portray killers. While the problem does not lie with documentaries that talk about crimes that these killers have committed, it lies with the shows that have famous actors portray killers as if they would be portraying a character and not the life of an actual human being that did a horrible crime. 

‘American Crime Story’ did a season called ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ about the real life serial killer Andrew Cunanan and what led to him killing fashion designer Gianni Versace. The killer is played by actor and singer Darren Criss. When this season of the show came out, all over social media were posting about how similar Darren Criss looked liked Andrew Cunanan and girls were fanning over the killer Andrew Cunanan because of Darren Criss’s portrayal of him. 

The same thing happened when streaming platform Netflix released the first season of ‘Monster’ titled ‘DAHMER: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ which was supposed to highlight the story of the victims but ended up being another one of those shows that highlights the life story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer in this show is played by Evan Peters who is well known and loved for his role in ‘American Horror Story’. Netflix also released the film ‘Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile’ about the life of serial killer Ted Bundy. Bundy is played by ‘High School Musical’ and ‘The Greatest Showman’ star Zac Efron. See the pattern when it comes to shows and movies that have actors play killers.

THE ACTORS ARE ALWAYS WELL KNOWN AND ARE PEOPLE THAT THE AUDIENCE ARE GOING TO FIND ATTRACTIVE! Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who is known for helping plot the murder of her own mother who was making her sick, is played by well-known actress Joey King. Michelle Carter, who is known for going on trial for telling her boyfriend Conrad Roy III to commit suicide, is played by Elle Fanning who is well known for her work. The entertainment industry is causing a trend of people falling in love with killers because they are portraying them as attractive. 

But what about documentaries about these crimes? Documentaries are different because they are telling the story of how they brought justice to the victims of the killer and it is not really about the killer but it is about the victims. Documentaries are not having actors portray killers as attractive for the audience to love. That is absolutely disgusting for an industry to do.

The entertainment industry really needs to stop portraying serial killers as attractive because it’s really gross and insensitive to the victims.