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Serial killers

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter
  • Posted at 4:42pm
  • 13 June 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT
  • 2 comments

The FBI definition of a serial killer is someone who has murdered three times, with a "cooling-off" period between each. Dr Hannibal Lecter, cinema's most iconic serial killer, has appeared on screen five times, with cooling-off periods of varying length.

His low-key debut was in the 1986 thriller Manhunter, in which, played by Brian Cox (and spelt Lecktor), he helped an FBI agent track down fellow serial killer "the Tooth Fairy". In its sequel The Silence of the Lambs, now played with wit and relish by Anthony Hopkins, Lecter took centre stage, this time assisting Jodie Foster in the capture of another serial killer, "Buffalo Bill".

It was this film that turned him into a kind of antihero; when he escaped we found ourselves rooting for him. Lambs grossed around $272 million worldwide and won five Oscars (including one for Hopkins).

Seven years passed, during which author Thomas Harris wrote a third book, Hannibal, which came out in 1999 and was followed with unseemly, but commercially understandable, haste by a film, this time with Lecter as the protagonist. This might have been enough, but audiences wanted more of the vicious, sadistic, cannibalistic killer with his urbane ways, good taste and cultural sophistication. So Manhunter was remade as Red Dragon, again with Hopkins.

Then the franchise played the "prequel" card and gave us Hannibal Rising, which filled in the early years of our "hero". I don't know about you, but the whole Hannibal cult was sticking in my craw at this point, and even a nice chianti couldn't wash it down.

Fictional serial killers are ubiquitous now, whether on the big screen (Se7en, Copycat, Perfume and The Talented Mr Ripley) or on television (Messiah and Dexter).

As someone who takes an interest in the psychology of real-life killers, I doubt that this mania for murderers adds to our understanding of the phenomenon. As a rule, serial killers are not dashing, entertaining and self-aware; rather, they are unstable, sociopathic, appalling people with a feeble grip on morality.

Those biopics that try to understand the psychology of real serial killers (Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer) are, as a rule, lurid and unhelpful.

How, in fiction, did such monsters become "sexy"? Probably not because of that lipsmacking noise made by Anthony Hopkins.

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Comments

  • Posted on 17 June 2008
  • at 4:21pm
  • by AndrewCollins-RT

I have read Colin Wilson. He is excellent.

  • Posted on 17 June 2008
  • at 3:21pm
  • by paul

Andrew, have you read any of Colin Wilson'd writing on Serial Killers. As ever, I think he manages to deconstruct the mindset better than anyone else I've read.

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