There are many movies and other forms of media in the world that talk about killers and their stories. What people don’t usually tend to notice is their effect, and how they can sometimes make real killers more appealing, charming, or interesting. This can make their crime seem less serious and not as big of a deal, affecting not only society, but also the victims’ families.
Serial killers like Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez were greatly romanticized and seen as charming or cute due to movies and media. Bundy, however, was known as the lady killer as most of his 30 victims were young women. The movie “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” played by Zac Efron added to this romanization by people calling Bundy hot because of Efron’s portrayal, subsequently starting a fanbase for Ted Bundy. Another Series called “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” focused on his appeal rather than him being a serial killer, stating how he didn’t fit the ‘serial killer look’. Bundy and Ramirez had been sent fan love letters and even had fans trying to marry them. Ramirez was known as the Night Stalker, and he was convicted of murdering at least 13 people and 11 sexual assaults. Many appealed to him because he was seen as dark and mysterious. Fans would even show up to his trials wearing scandalous clothes in hopes of catching Ramirez’s eye. A series called “Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Tapes”, left people saying that they have never seen a defendant with more sex appeal.
Not only do people obsess over killers because of their looks but also because of their strange behavior. People are often drawn to crime stories because the media focuses on the shocking details about killers like Jeffrey Dahmer. After the series “DAHMER” came out, many started to become too invested in Dahmer’s story for the wrong reasons. People started to look into police reports and crime scene photos, acting as if they were dectectives. The case started to become more of a piece of entertainment rather than a real life tragedy, and the situation got even worse when these activities spread to social media like TikTok, with people reenacting scenes from the movie. The recreation of these real life events, and the romanticization of these killers are causing more unneeded pain for the families of victims and reopening past trauma wounds.
When people romanticize killers because they are ‘charming’ or ‘hot’ they don’t realize what they are really saying. They are talking about killers who took innocent lives from mothers, fathers, and friends and are not understanding the effect of what they are saying or doing. They don’t realize how this hurts the families of the victims and brings up topics that are not comfortable to talk about. Treating killers like celebrities takes the focus away from their crimes and the people who suffered because of them.