ZAC Efron,, Penn Badgley,, Evan Peters,, Michael C. Hall – These actors are not only attractive men who have collected significant fans of high -level projects. They also all played serial killers.
“Do you have something to say to people who say they want to go out with Joe despite the minor defect of people who murdered?” Stephen Colbert once asked Badgley on the overwhelming response of the public to its fictitious character on YouWho kills more than a dozen people on the Netflix series.
“I fight a lot with the conflict of playing such a guy and that he is partially so sympathetic and people with such a response, as we say, a thirsty answer,” he replied.
After his first on Lifetime in 2018, You Quickly became a shattering success, moving to Netflix in 2019 where four other seasons were produced. The last season should be presented on April 24 on the streaming service.
But don’t twist: the presence of hot serial killers on television is not a new phenomenon. Dexter Created in 2006, and Efron has portrayed the infamous Ted Bundy In a 2019 Netflix film. However, America’s craze for the real crime has given way to more and more stories about brutal killers, and the public eats it.
Peters had viewers falling in love with him as one of the most reprehensible murderers of all time in 2022 Dahmer; Patrick Gibson Stars in the prequel last year Dexter: Original sin; Tom Bateman Incitated new bands of fans to pass out on him in the Meta True Crime series by Peacock Based on a true story And Dennis Quaid represent Keith Jespersenwho formerly claimed to have up to 160 victims, in the next paramount + series Happy face.
In the case of Bateman, LIENA LIBERATOThe character of Tory falls in love with his character Matt – despite the fact that she is well aware of his status as a fictitious serial killer in the west of the west.
“Playing someone who does these terrible things is interesting because it evokes a moral dilemma,” said Bateman The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 Based on a true story. “But I felt myself [that] He was so large in such a comical way that she sort of allowed a lightness of contact and a kind of parody. »»
We can all agree that the actions of these characters are horrible, deplorable and contrary to ethics, but fans covet them nevertheless. (If you don’t believe WeLook for “Dexter Morgan Edit” on Tiktok – you scroll for hours.)
“I call it bad boy syndrome,” said the criminologist Scott BonnPHD, which is written Why we love serial killers: the curious attraction of the wildest murderers in the worldsaid US Weekly Of the phenomenon, noting that the murderers locked up in prison or the fictitious killers on the screen provide a risk without risk to viewers. “This attraction does not make them the potential for physical damage because this individual is controlled. They are behind bars or on television. The fantasy in your mind is very different from Ted Bundy which really appears at your door. »»
Blanch pink gypsy. Anna Delvey. Erik and Lyle Menendez. In recent years, killers and crooks have gone by names that you hear in news for figures more similar to celebrities with reality TV shows, hundreds of thousands of social media and everyday followers invested in all aspects of their lives, their […]
Bonn, who noted that 75 to 80% of participants in his National speech visit On serial killers are women, warns of viewers to take representations of murderers with a grain of salt, calling them “popcorn entertainment”. He said projects “[dilute] The real story by definition. It is not reality, even if it is based in the truth, and it is served to provide mass attraction. »»
He continued: “Insofar as you represent the aggressor as someone who has a kind of buy-back qualities and even sex appeal, so I think you are not doing a bad service to the victims.”
Like any production, it is logical that a beautiful actor is presented as the main man, whatever the character’s moral compass. And it is not surprising that their fans would flock to see their last work. But, recalls Bonn WeBy giving the stories of real crime the Hollywood treatment, “you have lost part of the integrity of the case itself.”
So, even if we can have a pleasure to look at our favorite stars breaking badly, let us remember that all of this is part of the narration – and the reaction they hope!
