Ten Deep 09.03.09: Movie Serial Killers

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 09.03.2009

Take a walk on the wild side as this week's Ten Deep looks at the best serial killers in cinema history! Come check it out, or just like that stupidly annoying ventriloquist's dummy, "I kill you!"





Welcome to week 45 of 'Ten Deep'! Before we move on to this week's morbid topic, last week's look at the best cult movies had the commenters out in droves, with lots of:

Reactions and interactions

We had a lot of debate as to the ranking order of the list's top three, with a number of people who thought Rocky Horror or Spinal Tap should have beaten out Life of Brian, which shows the virtues of healthy debate. Thanks mainly to the fact that I didn't spend too long defining what was actually to be considered "cult" last week, we had more suggestions than I think I've ever seen for this column. I don't have time to cover each and every one, but let's consider the more frequently suggested contenders:

The Big Lebowski - yes, I completely forgot about this one, and it would have made it quite near the top of the list. Apologies, dudes.

The Crow - a classic cult movie to be sure, and I guess it could have sneaked into the top ten had I been in a different mood when drawing up the list, but I didn't think it had quite the cult following it apparently does.

Blade Runner - you mean the film consistently regarded as one of the finest science fiction movies ever made? Not cult as far as I'm concerned, homeys.

They Live - cut out at the shortlist stage, but I do have a lot of time for Roddy Piper's battle against the alien hordes.

Elsewhere, Bill21GigaWatts has an absolutely huge list of suggestions, half of which I haven't even heard of let alone seen, but judging from a lot of them I think he missed that one of my criteria was no "so bad they're good"-type films, as otherwise I'd have never been able to narrow it down to ten, just as Guest#9054 implies. A few of his suggestions though did make the initial shortlist, like Pink Flamingos ("the greatest movie of all-time", A trailer? Really?) and Freaks.

Lots of people including Torvald and Todd Vote seem to despise Donnie Darko, which is definitely one of those treasured 'Marmite' films, and fair enough. Still, you can't deny its immense following.

Guest#8900 gets the points for being the first to answer the Clockwork Orange question, although Guest#7944 has a somewhat different interpretation of the inspiration for the novel's title. I think Burgess was indeed going more for the whole organic/mechanical dichotomy.

Mister Fear_Inc. misspells a bunch of his decidedly non-cult suggestions and then demands "Correct me!". I have neither the time nor the inclination, sir.

A personal fave of mine suggested by Guest#3290 is Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, which wasn't good enough to make the list, but I have happy memories of getting stoned and watching that film several times over. That's a lot of nuts! Kudos too to the guy who suggested Norbit, which gave me a hearty, healthy chuckle.

Moving on!

Taking somewhat of a lethargically timely theme this week as Rob Zombie's latest attempt to defenestrate the Halloween legacy hits the multiplexes, we'll be looking at some of the greatest serial killers in all of moviedom. Everyone loves a good villain, or even a good antihero, and serial killers represent the worst (or best) facets of that. What constitutes a serial killer as opposed to a mass murderer, or other semantic derivation? Let's say for these purposes, someone who murders multiple people, whether on-screen or not, principally for psychological gratification, since that's similar to what Wikipedia recommends. Real-life and fictional killers are both eligible, but there haven't been all that many truly great depictions of real-world serial killers, or at least not many that will compete with those creations on this list. No TV shows, so no sign of Dexter, more's the pity. Oh, and no supernatural killers either, so bye-bye to Jason, Freddy, Michael and the rest. Is Michael Myers really supernatural, I hear you cry? I think so, but that's really a debate in and of itself and probably one for resident expert Joseph Lee to deal with, so I'll leave that for the comments section.

As always, there's one golden rule: if I haven't seen it, it's not allowed on the list.

This week's golden rule notable omissions: Behind the Mask, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Man Bites Dog, Monster, Peeping Tom





Honorable mention: Mickey & Mallory Knox, in Natural Born Killers

You can't have one without the other and I didn't really want to spoil the concept of the list, but they deserve a mention.

Honorable mention: Son of Sam, in Summer of Sam

All the more unnerving for being based on a true story.

Honorable mention: Early Grayce, in Kalifornia

One of Brad Pitt's finest performances in an under-seen thriller.

10. Jigsaw, in the Saw series

Despite being seemingly omnipresent in the movie world ever since the first Saw movie did relatively well at the box office and some ingenious exec in a darkened boardroom thought "yes, this seems like a franchise with the creative juice to power five to eight sequels over the course of the next decade", John Kramer the Jigsaw Killer only makes it into the number ten slot since he doesn't actually kill any of his victims directly. Well, with the caveat that I got bored with the series after the third film, but since he dies in that one I figure there's not much chance of breaking that trend in the subsequent sequels. However, while I can't in all conscience allow him any higher in the list thanks to that little stipulation, he's a great example of the absolute prime factor for creating a great villain, as he fully believes that what he's doing is right, and that fervor only makes him more powerful (see also: Magneto, CM Punk). Seeking to right societal wrongs through a series of diabolical tests aimed at teaching others of their sins through extreme mutilation and humiliation, the man doesn't waver in his convictions for a moment. While his apparent masterplan hasn't yet been fully unveiled, it's certainly a work of great strategy, and if you can suspend disbelief enough to accept the boggling quantity of resources, labor and machinery the man has somehow been able to utilize to create his string of deathtraps, it's an eminently worthy quest. Perhaps the character's defining moment comes in the final reveal of the first Saw as he rises from the floor, and the audience realizes what a truly intelligent villain they've been dealing with. It's always better when the bad guy wins... remember that rule, as it'll serve us well later on.

9. Ghostface, in Scream

Now, old Ghostface is certainly an iconic horror movie serial killer, but as with our previous entry there's somewhat of a caveat here, since [spoiler!] he's actually more than one person. Does that break the intangible rules of the list in any way? I'm going with "no", which you could probably have deduced for yourself judging by the fact that, er, he's actually on the list (and yes, I'll be referring to him in the singular). The main antagonist in the original Scream (I'm discounting the sequels since they a) diluted the series and b) were bollocks), Ghosty makes an utterly inspired debut in an extended scene that's still talked about as one of the genre's classics. From the first unnerving call to Drew Barrymore and the spike of suspense provided by the "I want to know who I'm looking at" line, to the life-or-death movie pop quiz to his eventual appearance and slaying of the film's marquee name, rarely has one baddie made such an impact in such a short space of time. The killer's modus operandi within Wes Craven's post-modern storyworld was a breath of fresh air, dispatching sexy young teens (and the Fonz!) with a knowing grin (as if the mask allowed any other kind) and an air of both appreciation and contempt for genre convention. While seemingly weakened in a sense due to never appearing as an indestructible force, as so many horror villains are wont to do, Ghostface was all the more rooted in the real world for the fact that he could be fought off with a quick boot to the happysack, and all the more refreshing a villain for it, making him purely a twisted, real-world killer and not a "force of evil" or anything like that. And of course, the mask allowed for the twist of having the persona inhabited by two people, which may dilute the guy's appeal as an individual killer, but adds to his mystique and capabilities, and cements his place as one of the finest non-supernatural horror murderers.

8. Buffalo Bill, in The Silence of the Lambs

By all rights, Buffalo Bill should be higher in this list, right? After all, he's feature in probably the most critically lauded movie in the list, possesses some of the most memorable tics and quirks (no first-time viewer of The Silence of the Lambs is ever likely to forget his rather striking vagina dance - someone should really bust that out on Dancing with the Stars - or "it rubs the lotion on its skin"), and is certainly extremely brutal with his killings. Unfortunately for him, he's not even the best serial killer in his own movie, let alone in this list, and when you add to that the fact that I was never over-enamored with the film itself, he scrapes in at number eight. Still, it's a respectable showing, and he certainly has his place in cinema history. While not a sympathetic character in any way - sure, we've all fantasized about killing a fattie at some point, but none of us would ever actually go through with it - nevertheless there's a horrible fascination inherent in watching Bill in action, whether in trying to puzzle through what's going through his mind when he's stitching together his woman-cloak, or in the almost visceral thrill of seeing him hunt down Jodie Foster in night-vision goggles, a terrifying climax to a serial killer hunt if ever there was one. While he may be outwitted, and outgunned, by a rookie Fed, there's no denying that his impact is felt throughout the movie and he remains a real cult character. We'll overlook the responsibility for the number of poor attempts at spoofs throughout the years, and instead concentrate on the man's legacy, which is still keenly felt to this day. I'm not going to talk myself into placing Bill any higher in the list though, as there's some even more gross murderers to come. Yay!

7. Leatherface, in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Perhaps the most sympathetic of the horrible list of murderers, if indeed someone who wears a dead skin mask [Slayer reference FTW!] and butchers people with a chainsaw can in fact be described as "sympathetic". But, as far as I'm concerned, he's really just a big retarded kid lumbering around, a product of the world's most dysfunctional family more than anything, and while there may be some of you who don't read the film that way, to me it seems that he only kills out of fear and confusion that a bunch of annoying kids have essentially broken into his house. Of course, that doesn't make him any less terrifying or proficient with his butchery, it just means he's in a different psychological headspace to most of this week's other killers and that marks him out as special. It's a far different take on the mind of a killer to consider him as a confused child, even if it's true that most mongoloids don't get armed with chainsaws during playtime at retard school, then it is to consider him a simple sociopath. Still, there are plenty of points gained both for iconic imagery (as I've said in recent weeks, Leatherface remains one of the most superbly visually designed characters of the 1970s) and brutality of kills - the distant sight of the hammer to the skull of the first poor unfortunate to cross his threshold remains as shocking as his impaling a girl on a meathook. While the character may be somewhat disarmed by subsequent additions to the Texas Chainsaw mythos (both the inferior sequels and remakes, and the "origins" comic book), in the original film he remains a scary foe indeed. While Leatherface may or may not dance with the dead in his dreams, he seems pretty comfortable dancing with his chainsaw in the waking world.

6. Norman Bates, in Psycho

Now, before you start thinking to yourself "hang on, Bates is essentially the prototypical contemporary horror/thriller serial killer, twinning a completely twisted mind with murderous instincts and one of cinema's great reveals -why on earth isn't he higher on the list?", just have a think - he doesn't actually do all that much killing, does he? I'll freely admit it's been a long time since I last watched Psycho (and even longer since I watched the notorious Van Sant remake... *shudder*), but I can only remember him actually offing two people in the course of the movie. Compared to the carnage wreaked by some of this week's other misfits, that's positively good behavior, and only barely scraping into our actual definition of "serial killer". Well, alright, one of those kills may well be one of the most famous moments in cinema history, and the fact that we subsequently learn he did the whole murder dressed in drag adds a creepy subtext... perhaps I should cut Stormin' Norman a little slack. He's not moving any higher up, mind. Possessing a mother complex that could provide a lifetime of study for a Freudian scholar, and which supplied The Simpsons with years' worth of running gags at Principal Skinner's expense, Bates is arguably the most mentally disturbed of all this week's nutjobs, embodying both schizophrenia and sociopathy, and it's played off superbly against Anthony Perkins' charm and the slightest hints of something's-not-quite-right. As with so many other great characters, including some on this very list, Bates has to some degree been watered down and reimagined by various sequels and remakes, but the power of the original portrayal remains unadulterated. However, the Bates Motel remains a synonym for a cinematic house of horror, and Bernard Herrmann's legendary violin shrieks mean that old Norman will remain in our minds for some time to come as the greatest black-and-white serial killer of them all.

5. Patrick Bateman, in American Psycho

Even after watching the film several times over, the question remains, was Bateman's murderous spree a hideous reality, or the product of his deranged imagination? It's no less horrendous either way, really, so choose to believe what you will (my own vote swings towards the imagination side of things, but I haven't read the source novel by Bret Easton Ellis, so maybe that offers a different perspective on the macabre tale). Taking a black comedy approach - and I mean, just like Nigel Tufnel, none more black - to the misanthropic and malevolent misadventures of a murderer in the high-powered executive world of 80s investment banking, Bateman's narcissistic lunacy and ambition drive him to commit a string of murders each more despicable than the last, but always with a knowing sideways glance in the mirror. In a way, it's almost like Bateman is the killer you wish you could be, all musical elitism, banging hookers and snorting coke by day, and stabbing tramps and slicing up poseurs by night. I mean, if you were the kind of person who wished you were a serial killer, that is. Ahem. As Bateman's sanity wears thinner and thinner, he's just as unsure where the blurred line between fantasy and reality lies as we are, and it's as entertaining to watch his mind disintegrate as he tries to distinguish the two as it is to watch him deliver a discourse on Huey Lewis whilst preparing to axe someone in the back. For sheer popcorn value and derangement, and for Christian Bale's awesomely manly display of winking at himself in the bedroom mirror as he boffs a slut in the ass, Bateman secures the number five slot. Incidentally, I look forward to the day they film a prequel exploring the origins of Patrick's killing fancy, titled Bateman Begins.

4. John Ryder, in The Hitcher

I must be quick to assert that this is the version of Ryder portrayed by Rutger Hauer in the original film, not by Mr. Bean in the latter day remake that proved such an utter travesty for all concerned. What is it about classic horror movies that prove so ripe for the abusing by Hollywood? I guess that clichéd sentiment is a matter for a different column entirely, so let's instead whizz back to 1986 and remind ourselves of why the original Hitcher was so damn good. Somewhat reminiscent of Spielberg's Duel thanks to its desert highway setting, and just as tense as that suspenseful masterpiece, herein we witness a young C. Thomas Howell finding out that picking up ominous European-looking hitchhikers just isn't a good idea in the movies, as the aforementioned Ryder steps into his car and proceeds to wreak havoc. Ryder is perhaps the closest any of the entrants this week come to breaking the supernatural clause in our killer criteria, as he exhibits a tenacity and apparent indestructibility that gives our young hero considerable cause for concern. However, while Ryder can certainly be said to represent a force of evil or whatever you want to call it, which is what I wanted to stray away from, there's enough grounding in reality, for me at least, to consider him a straightforward human adversary, albeit one who's horrifically persistent in his mind games. Let's face it, you couldn't finish off a true force of evil with a shotgun blast at the denouement of a more straightforward horror movie. Rutger Hauer is a scary man at the best of times, but here he's utterly freaky as the calm, titular hitcher who sees Howell as his ultimate nemesis, and is more than happy to serve up finger pudding in deserted diners and tear girls in half between two trucks. Much like the first Terminator, Ryder can't be bargained with, can't be reasoned with, and apparently doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear... and that's certainly something to fear.

3. Hannibal Lecter, in The Silence of the Lambs

Yes, that's right, only number three. Let's face it, he comes top of most of these sorts of compilations, and it would be pretty boring for you guys if you read the same thing over and over and didn't have anything to debate. Incidentally, this month's 'Empire' magazine has a lengthy and interesting interview with Anthony Hopkins where they rank this as the best performance of his career, despite the fact it lasts little more than quarter of an hour. It's certainly hard to argue with that, as Hopkins' incarnation of Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs trumps every other role in his back catalog. Despite my aforementioned semi-apathy towards the film, it's hard to ignore the brilliance of this portrayal of a chillingly intelligent and well-spoken killer whose only real social shortcoming is his tendency towards eating people's faces. Not exactly the most effective party trick. Most of what we need to know about Hannibal the cannibal is established in the wonderfully disturbing introductory scene where Clarice finds him waiting for her appearance in his cell, and he proceeds to regale her with a by now well-told anecdote about the time he ate some poor chap's internal organs with a few sophisticated culinary accompaniments. Go on, ask anyone sitting next to you if they can do a Hannibal impression, and I guarantee they'll try and pull off a "thththththt" noise while trying to remember what sort of beans he prefers with his light snacks. Thankfully though, there's much more to Lecter than a funny noise, even in this scene, which goes some way to establishing the man as a truly frightening killer, fully at peace with his actions and capable of much more intelligent thought than most anyone here this week. The character himself remains powerful in other Thomas Harris films, too, but none are so vivid as The Silence of the Lambs in showing off Lecter's truly evil side.

2. Scorpio, in Dirty Harry

Forget the wishy-washy portrayal of the infamous Zodiac Killer in David Fincher's recent flick Zodiac - a great film, to be sure, but not really one for those of us who think serial killers aren't quite as memorable when stripped down to a cold, hard procedural - Andy Robinson's take on the man behind the myth is much more cinematic, and fitting for Eastwood's seminal role as law enforcer Harry Callahan. Robinson's Scorpio is a wild-eyed maniac cop-killer utterly devoid of humanity, happy to shoot up random strangers for shits n' giggles and a wee bit of ransom money on the side, not adverse to a spot of rape or burying girls alive now and then, and more than willing to use innocent children as hostages or bulletproof vests. When this man kidnaps a busload of school kids and slaps them silly until they sing nursery rhymes for no reason other than to placate his sick fancies, you actually believe he'd be more than cheerful about slaughtering them one by one if it came to that, which is a far cry from most films where the death of a child is a subject as untouchable as Elliot Ness. When he protests about his injuries at Eastwood's hands to the press, it's so morally bankrupt you can hear the audience booing and hissing, and can't help but cheering when Harry sarcastically informs the chief he's "all broken up over that man's rights". The fact that he has little to no back story, looks about fourteen years old and is as physically intimidating as cotton candy only adds to his monstrousness. The out-and-out evilest mofo in our list by some considerable distance, Scorpio is as menacing as killers get, which is pretty necessary when you're up against a cop as tough-as-nails as Dirty Harry, and that he remains so memorable in a film that introduced the world to one of the great film protagonists is testament to his malice.

1. John Doe, in Seven

Remember what I said earlier? It's always better when the bad guy wins, and few baddies win as utterly convincingly as Kevin Spacey's John Doe in Seven. Although only appearing onscreen for the film's final act, Doe's influence holds the rest of the film utterly in thrall as his bizarre plan unfolds to convince the world of the ugliness of sin and atone on their behalf by exacting an evil vengeance. Although of course, the details of his motives remain open for question. Another factor touched on earlier is that villains are more powerful and more, well, bad when they believe wholeheartedly in their convictions, and Doe's desire to rebalance in the inequity of a world that embraces apathy is as painfully honest as it is twisted in its methodology. The parallels between Doe's motivations and his pursuer Somerset's own opinion of the world make the man's machinations and the head-to-head between the two all the more compelling. There may be some degree of hypocrisy here in allowing Doe's victims as genuine killings but not Jigsaw's, but the difference is that Jigsaw at least allows the chance for redemption, rather than placing his victims in forced suicide situations. Responsible too for one of the movies' great "jump" moments (you know the one I mean), the real reason Doe takes the number one slot is that his plan is both meticulously constructed and proceeds without a hitch, from his first killing right down to his final laugh and fate at the hands of Mills. It's rare that a film allows the baddie that degree of complete victory, and that dramatic convention makes Doe's win all the more powerful, and brings him the coveted top spot.

Now, let's all take a moment to enjoy the film's shocking denouement once more:

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And finally…

Feeling aggrieved or elated at this week's ten picks? Then let me know! The magic of the interweb allows you to post your comments right here on this very page, and if they're especially insightful (or idiotic), I may even respond in the next column. Be sure to tune in next week for another edition of 'Ten Deep', but until then - keep watching the skies.