Old train station in Provo, taken by me on set
I was on a film shoot today (↑) where someone referred to our location as a serial killer’s den, and it reminded me of all the reasons the American occurrence of serial killers and our subsequent interest in them is misconstrued or used to demonize Americans. I'm sure there's plenty of legitimate points there, but I think there's a core to our fascination that legit makes sense. Hence the hot take.
Listed: Four people I'm not even gonna name because they're so terrible they don't need to be remembered. Just remember not to be a serial killer, guys. It's not that dang hard
First thing to make clear, serial killers are just ... the worst. Seriously. I don't know how much detail all the documentaries and movies and special episodes go into, but read a Wikipedia page for most any serial killer and you'll find they were just some a-hole who wanted to hurt people. Even adding in bad childhoods and possible mental disorders and all the other factors, it eventually boils down to "this guy wanted to hurt people, and then he did, usually many times." They are NOT Sympathetic Bad Guys. They are bad guys who long since crossed the line and need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
So, why do we have all these forms of media around serial killers (besides the obvious potential for drama)? Why do we have a subculture of actively discussing the most despicable and unworthy of being imitated people in history? Well, I've decided ... it's because serial killers have qualities we admire. Not handsomeness or whatever. On a personal level, serial killers are fascinating because they usually have three qualities we admire.
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One, they're self-sufficient. They have to be able to keep their dark side hidden and that requires all sorts of scheming that makes them more autonomous. We like seeing that quality in people.
Second, they're good at blending in. They have to hide who they are, and like when we watch James Bond or Jason Bourne escape the cops, we admire someone's ability to blend in when the heat is on.
And third of all ... they're hunters. They know how to hunt things down and obtain them. They know how to analyze and track and swoop in for the kill. And that's something we like too! Even when the victims don't deserve it. Hunting is how humanity progressed into civilization, and we still deign to notice when someone is good at it.
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So, the truth is that serial killers, while practicing despicable crimes, are doing so with some of the most fundamentally admirable traits in human memory. And that disgusts us, because we're busy being disgusted by them. But we ARE noticing those qualities! And so we're stuck in a contradictory space where we'll hate that person with all our might, but the smallest part of us is wondering how they do what they do, and if there comes a chance to learn about that on TV, we'll take it!
There's more to the issue than this, but I think that explains a lot of it. I think it's easy to be judgemental and say "people like looking at serial killers 'cause they think they're cool", but I think people have enough moral development to understand they're bad. People keep producing TV about serial killers because they're dark mirrors of what we like most, not just the worst of the worst. And as to the other question, "why are there more serial killers in America than there are anywhere else?" Well, the truth is, other countries don't track serial killers as much. And there are a number of countries that are more violent or unstable than the US. So maybe serial killers are just a luxury of living in places where we keep track of murders, have a decent quality of life, and don't have violence on a day-to-day basis. Food for thought
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