People love stories about serial killers, it’s hard to say why and it’s even harder to comprehend the true nature of it, but folks are drawn to these stories and as a result, so are the actors that take on the roles. There are plenty of serial killer movies that have little if anything to do with a real-life killer, but there are also quite a few that are based on true stories and take on a life of their own. Those stories are perhaps some of the most detestable and disturbing since there’s a possibility that such things really have happened and there is the reality that some of these things did happen in the past, and there were people out there that made them happen. That level of depravity is hard for a lot of people to understand since it tends to take a mind that’s well past the sane mark and a lot of people don’t want to admit that they can entertain such thoughts. But oh, do they enjoy watching the result that comes from such thinking since there are plenty of people that are more than happy to sit down and watch as someone emulates one serial killer or another on screen. In some cases, the actors are so good at what they’re doing that they give people chills. But at the end of the day, it has to be said that a lot of people have a touch of the sickness that it takes to get into this type of material, they just don’t want to own up to it.
Here are a few of the best serial killer movies that were based around true stories.
5. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile
More than a few people had an issue with this story since they believe that it’s not as accurate as it needed to be. This is where people forget that the movies aren’t going to be 100 percent accurate, they’re typically going to go off of what’s there and exaggerate or embellish a bit. Looking for that kind of accuracy in a movie is a bit foolish since if the acts that were committed by men like Ted Bundy were routinely showed in the movies it’s very likely that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to keep watching. It sounds horrible, but the trick appears to be to show just enough to get people to watch, but not enough to make them get up and leave.
4. From Hell
Jack the Ripper is still a legend to this day and while this movie did feast upon inaccuracies only to spit them back out at the audience it did so in a way that was meant to make a movie that was true to some form but was also meant to be more of a legend that pulled from the actual story rather than explain it. The thing about Jack the Ripper is that the murderer was never caught, at least not to public knowledge, so it’s not hard to think that someone would come along with an explanation off the cuff. It wasn’t a horrible movie to be certain, but it was one that made a person sit there and wait for the payoff.
3. Monster
Aileen Wuornos is one of the more recent killers on this list and she’s one of those that some people have actually tried to sympathize with for their own reasons. As a sex worker who was abused she killed a man and then decided to do it again. Eventually she was caught and sentenced to death, and as anyone can see that’s made her a member of pop culture ever since considering that apart from the movie she’s been featured in a couple of different ways over the years. Her name is still mentioned thanks to this movie and her other representations, which isn’t that surprising.
2. Dahmer
A list like this wouldn’t be complete without mentioning one of the most horrific killers that people still recall and make jokes about. Dahmer is only one of the several movies that has been made about this individual, and it’s one of the better ones, perverse as that sounds since it goes into a bit more detail than others and doesn’t get quite as fancy. The truth of telling a story about Dahmer is that the further in one goes on the story, the more disturbing it really gets.
1. American Psycho
This is a looser interpretation since it’s almost like pairing Ted Bundy’s charisma with Ed Gein’s horrid fascination of thinking what people would look like if they were dismembered, but Patrick Bateman is definitely in a class of his own. What’s great about this movie though is that it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s going on in his head. The appeal of the movie is different for everyone, but the overall draw is that Bateman is a smooth talker that turns into a killer at the drop of a hat.
People love these movies, just don’t ask why.
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