The Epidemic Of 'Hot Serial Killers'

Over the last few years in the Film and TV industry, an infectious plague has swept across streaming services worldwide, attracting audiences with its gruesome content and turning every person with a Netflix subscription into a professional detective. Allow me to introduce the hottest genre of 2020; The true crime drama.

It seems as if every streaming service has released a gritty yet gripping rendition of a real-world crime case, with each show getting progressively more violent and brutal than the last. With shows like "AMERICAN MURDER: THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR" accumulating a nifty 52 million views in its first 28 days on Netflix, it's clear to see why media giants such as Sky and Amazon Prime video keep pumping out these 'True crime' stories. People watch them.

However, for every new terrifying true crime series that comes out, there must be an equally terrifying actor chosen to play the part of the sadistic serial killer. Playing the role of a cold-blooded killer isn't easy however it does have the power to turn a C-lister into an EMMY award winning star. Casting directors must pick someone with great range, excellent impersonation skills and a 'leading man' with the ability to scare the viewer through a screen. So why when we look back at all the actors portraying serial killers in recent years does the line-up look more like the shortlist for 'worlds sexiest man' than a bunch of brutal, often psychotic killers?

The epidemic of hot serial killers is Hollywood's most recent phenomenon. For example, In 2017 we had ex-Disney channel star Ross Lynch take on the role of infamous cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer in "My friend Dahmer", shortly followed by Penn Badgley's swoon-worthy depiction of fictional mass-murderer Joe Goldberg in Netflix's "You"- a series I strongly recommend for any fans of the crime-drama genre. However, perhaps the oddest casting of them all was in 2019 when it was announced that teen heartthrob Zac Efron was to play one of the most notorious murderers of all time; Ted Bundy.

Directed by Joe Berlinger, "Extremely wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" was released in the United States on May 3, 2019 by Netflix and starred Efron as Ted Bundy, acting opposite a sweet-looking Lily Collins who plays Elizabeth Kendall; Bundy's ex-partner. While the film received mixed reviews from critics and a rather mediocre rotten tomatoes score of 54%, Efron's performance was standout and praised as 'compulsively watchable' by reviewers. While I agree some parts of the film seem uninspired and stale, Efron's truly harrowing performance in the final few minutes of the film alone make it worth a watch.

After watching the film, I decided to head over to the very opinionated world of Twitter to see what fans thought of "Extremely wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" and I was left laughing at the hilarity of some of the responses. Scrolling through Twitter and seeing comments such as "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile? More like Extremely attractive, Shockingly Sexy and Hot" or "Efron was so good and sexy in that I was giving Bundy the benefit of the doubt" caught me slighty off-guard, but I wasn't surprised.

Casting the handsome Zac Efron as Bundy appealed to the 'Female Gaze' and made female viewers more likely to catch themselves feeling sympathy or even attraction towards Bundy, much like Bundy's real-world victims who were lured in by his personal attractiveness and charming nature. Efron's 'boy-next-door' image helped to make his performance that much more chilling as it completely flipped what audiences have come to expect of him and makes the viewer completely rethink their idea of who a serial killer is. Is he the old, axe-wielding maniac you see on the news or is he the attractive, well-mannered young man who has just moved in across the road?

I expect to see plenty more hot serial killers on our screens in the future, perhaps we will be seeing stars like the Hemsworth brothers or the beloved Timothee Chalamet take on the role of the twisted, cold-blooded killer in the latest true crime drama. In conclusion, This epidemic of hot serial killers is a lesson in just how crucial good casting is and how it has the power to turn a vicious, sadistic murderer into the source of "thirst-tweets" and public adoration.