American pop culture right now is obsessed with vampires and zombies. I couldn’t be happier about that because it means that movie studios and publishing companies will be throwing money at zombie and vampire fiction, and maybe a few gems will arise from the inevitable glut. However, what ever happened to the serial killer movie? I realize that within the last five or six years there has been a rash of films like Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Gacy, etc. Out of this pile of mediocrity came the much larger budget, David Fincher directed Zodiac.

Looking back through the years, films on serial killers really have not been that well-made or have been very well-received. What sets Zodiac apart from the other serial killer films of this era is that it isn’t about the Zodiac Killer. It is about the people whose lives are touched by him. Other serial killer films that are successful artistically, if not financially are about fictitious killers. Fritz Lang’s M is wonderful, but more a metaphor on German society than about a pedophile serial killer. Of course, Silence of the Lambs is a beautifully-made movie, but it is only distantly based on Ed Gein. Hannibal Lecter is really the killer showcased in that film anyway.

Henry: Prtrait of a Serial Killer is a great film, but again the killer is fictitious. The question that remains for me is why can’t movies directly based on serial killers ever really be that interesting. I realize that this is a bit of a blanket statement, and I don’t mean to generalize, but in my humble opinion the pattern seems to emerge that the only time a movie about a serial killer is interesting is when it is about a made-up person.

Are serial killers just not that interesting? Do their stereotypically flat affects dehumanize them to the point of being boring? Joyce Carol Oates’ Zombie is far more interesting than anything I have ever read or seen about Jeffrey Dahmer. Have we become disenfranchised with the serial killer? I realize the absurdity of that question, but we do have a tendency to romanticize them to a certain extent. We often find them more intriguing than frightening. They are, for the most part, an American phenomenon, with exceptions, of course.

Supposedly there are (I’ve heard varying acounts of 100-200) many serial killers active in the U.S. at any given time. Yet it has been a long time since we have singled one out to focus on. The BTK Killer had to start his own marketing campaign to get the attention that he wanted.

Serial killers (and embracing them) is as American as apple pie and freedom fries. Where has our interest in these antisocial monsters gone? Are we now more enthralled by diseases and terrorist attacks? Comment and either answer one of the above questions or tell me which serial killer you find the most interesting, horrific, whatever. Or challenge me and tell me how wrong I am.