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Serial Killer Films & TV

Bitter Daisies: A Civil Guard detective, Rosa (Maria Mera) arrives in a small town in Galicia to investigate the disappearance of teen girl. It's one of those towns where everyone has a secret but underneath all of this far darker secrets are kept hidden. Even Rosa has her own secrets. Gradually the detective discovers links between the missing girl and possible murders. The girl had been blackmailing local men and she might have picked on the wrong person to cross. There is a Satanic Worship subplot and the series grows darker as the narrative unfolds. Some violent scenes but the real horror here is psychological as the nature of the secrets is revealed. Showrunner is Miguel Conde. On Netflix, six episodes of approximately 70 minutes each. Second season coning in April 2021. 8/10.

Season 2 is even darker, more violent and disturbing, portrayals of underage prostitution. Maria goes undercover to try and solve the mystery which continues from Season 1. A strange killer cult linked to sex-traffickers is involved. 8/10.
 
No Man Of God
FBI profiler interviews Ted Bundy in the 80s and develops a relationship that goes far too deep for him to handle.
Brilliant performances by Elijah Wood and Luke Kirby. Thoroughly absorbing. Watch it.
 
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The Chestnut Man: Nordic Noir serial killer series. A year ago the daughter of a Danish Cabinet Minister disappeared and is believed to have been killed. Two maverick detectives see possible links to this case and gruesome killings which have just occurred. The police brass are reluctant to accept this. All of the killings might be linked back to a case of mass killings decades ago (this is referenced in the prologue). Tension is maintained throughout with a good sprinkling of red herrings. Some disturbing scenes. Directed and Co-Written by Mikkel Serup. On Netflix. 8/10.
 
Bordertown: Nordic Noir. A detective moves from the National Bureau of Investigation in Helsinki to a border town so that he can spend more time with his family. Things don't work out that way, the town is riddled with corruption in local development projects. There are also cross border Russian conspiracies and sex trafficking. His daughter and the daughter of his ex-FSB colleague get caught up in their cases. Oh, serial killers abound as well. A very dark series. Three seasons and a film on Netflix. 9/10.
 
I Blame Society: Filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat plays a crazed version of herself who gets fed up with scripts being rejected and studio double-dealing. She decides to use her skills to kil off all the hypocritical and annoying people she knows. Things get a bit Meta as she's making a faux-documentary about how good she would be as a serial killer. Some very dark scenes, you know this is black comedy and satire but it still cuts to the bone. Quite literally as she makes her murders look like suicide. She even dresses rooms as murder scenes as she breaks into homes. The chuckle may well die in your throats at times but this is well worth watching, Directed/Written by Gillian Wallace Horvat. 8/10.

Streaming (free) at https://www.channel4.com/programmes/i-blame-society until 15 May 2022.
 
I Blame Society: Filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat plays a crazed version of herself who gets fed up with scripts being rejected and studio double-dealing. She decides to use her skills to kil off all the hypocritical and annoying people she knows. Things get a bit Meta as she's making a faux-documentary about how good she would be as a serial killer. Some very dark scenes, you know this is black comedy and satire but it still cuts to the bone. Quite literally as she makes her murders look like suicide. She even dresses rooms as murder scenes as she breaks into homes. The chuckle may well die in your throats at times but this is well worth watching, Directed/Written by Gillian Wallace Horvat. 8/10.

Streaming (free) at https://www.channel4.com/programmes/i-blame-society until 15 May 2022.
It sounds a lot like Man Bites Dog going by your review? ..
 
Bordertown: Nordic Noir. A detective moves from the National Bureau of Investigation in Helsinki to a border town so that he can spend more time with his family. Things don't work out that way, the town is riddled with corruption in local development projects. There are also cross border Russian conspiracies and sex trafficking. His daughter and the daughter of his ex-FSB colleague get caught up in their cases. Oh, serial killers abound as well. A very dark series. Three seasons and a film on Netflix. 9/10.
Make sure you get through the first episode, as it seems a little cliched, but once it's into its stride it turns out to be nicely done and well acted. The ex FSB colleague is quite the standout in first series.
 
Make sure you get through the first episode, as it seems a little cliched, but once it's into its stride it turns out to be nicely done and well acted. The ex FSB colleague is quite the standout in first series.

I made the mistake of watching the film first, it's good but effectively it's Season 4.
 
The Cane Field Killings: South African crime drama. Reyka who was herself abducted as a child in 1994 and held for 4 years is now (in 2021) a profiler who tracks down serial killers. Her latest case is complicated by a land deal between a white farmer and a local Zulu chief. Her boss wants a quick resolution blaming hitmen but Reyka is unconvinced. All seven victims are young women, they have been dismembered. Witchcraft, traditional power systems, corruption, all feed in to this narrative as does Reyka's troubled personal and her confrontations with her abductor who is seeking parole. Switches between the present and Reyka's time in captivity, Great performance by Kim Engelbert as Reyka and Iain Glen as Speelman, her abductor, Dark, violent, gruesome, very effective and engaging thriller series. Created by Rohan Dickson 8/10.

On Channel 4 and streaming (free) at: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-cane-field-killings
 
Watched Fender Bender on Prime Video last night.
A 2016 slasher/serial killer movie with an original premise.
The killer drives around in his sinister black car, looking for single female drivers. He then causes a minor accident (hence the title) in order to exchange details with the woman, who will then be stalked and become his next victim.
I mentioned the original plot, but the content thereafter* is full of horror clichés. We have the claustrophobic tension of the single female alone in a big house, a stormy night complete with OTT strobing lightning, mobile phone reception on the blink, plenty of false scares followed closely by the real scare, hiding under the bed and of course the old unkillable baddie routine.

* I was about to give it a mediocre rating, but the unexpected and very un-Hollywood ending salvaged the movie somewhat and just about raised it to a 6/10 in my book.
 
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The killer drives around in his sinister black car, looking for single female drivers. He then causes a minor accident (hence the title) in order to exchange details with the woman, who will then be stalked and become his next victim.
Great. Another realistic concern that I hadn't thought of.:oops:

Already, women have to be aware of police officers stopping you in out of the way places. Gah!
 
We Hunt Together: Quirky series about two killers, their backgrounds are explored and this provides some answers as to why they have evolved into the monsters that they are. It's difficult to feel sympathy for some of their victims but this is leavened with the killing of innocent bystanders. Two troubled detectives pursue the death-dealing duo. No cardboard characters in this engaging drama. Season 2 starts Thursday 5 May on Alibi. 8/10.
 
Bored with serial killer TV tbh, I've stopped watching it. :hoff:
 
An interview with Lauren Beukes about her book The Shining Girls, it's TV adaptation and True Crime.

For decades, crime and punishment have been mainstays on our television screens. From long-running procedurals like Law & Order to the more recent boom of true crime movies and documentaries, viewers can’t get enough of sick, twisted crimes, and the sick, twisted individuals who commit them. But just what does our appetite for these gruesome stories say about us? When did killers become anti-heroes to root for, and how did brutal violence become entertainment? Author Lauren Beukes has a few hunches.

Beukes is the award-winning writer of seven books, including The Shining Girls, now launching on Apple TV+ as an incisive adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss. The Shining Girls is the story of Kirby Mazrachi (Moss), a research assistant at the Chicago Sun-Times suffering the aftershocks of a brutal attack that’s left her permanently scarred, both physically and psychologically. With her assailant still at large, Kirby suspects that her attack was not an isolated event; she then teams up with Dan (Wagner Moura), a reporter with demons of his own, to connect the dots between dozens of unsolved crimes. Their investigation reveals multiple women murdered, over multiple decades, by an untraceable man named Harper, whose brutal efficiency defies logic. There’s just one problem: in a stroke of genius added for the television adaptation, Kirby is struggling to maintain her grip on reality.

Beukes published The Shining Girls in 2013, shortly before Serial catalyzed the true crime boom in 2014; ever since, she’s continued writing outstanding crime fiction, and continued to think about how it reflects and creates our culture. Before the show’s premiere, she Zoomed with Esquire from her home in London. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.


Esquire: To what degree were you involved with the series?

Lauren Beukes:
I had long chats with Silka Luisa, the show-runner. We had some conversations about the characters’ motivations, and I shared a lot of my research with her. It was so fun going back through those old files about everything from the Cubs stadium to the Chicago Sun Times journalists I interviewed. When I did my research trip back in 2012, I took a lot of photographs on my phone. Watching the show, some of those photographs became locations for the shoot....

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a39848980/lauren-beukes-shining-girls-interview/
 
An interview with Lauren Beukes about her book The Shining Girls, it's TV adaptation and True Crime.

For decades, crime and punishment have been mainstays on our television screens. From long-running procedurals like Law & Order to the more recent boom of true crime movies and documentaries, viewers can’t get enough of sick, twisted crimes, and the sick, twisted individuals who commit them. But just what does our appetite for these gruesome stories say about us? When did killers become anti-heroes to root for, and how did brutal violence become entertainment? Author Lauren Beukes has a few hunches.

Beukes is the award-winning writer of seven books, including The Shining Girls, now launching on Apple TV+ as an incisive adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss. The Shining Girls is the story of Kirby Mazrachi (Moss), a research assistant at the Chicago Sun-Times suffering the aftershocks of a brutal attack that’s left her permanently scarred, both physically and psychologically. With her assailant still at large, Kirby suspects that her attack was not an isolated event; she then teams up with Dan (Wagner Moura), a reporter with demons of his own, to connect the dots between dozens of unsolved crimes. Their investigation reveals multiple women murdered, over multiple decades, by an untraceable man named Harper, whose brutal efficiency defies logic. There’s just one problem: in a stroke of genius added for the television adaptation, Kirby is struggling to maintain her grip on reality.

Beukes published The Shining Girls in 2013, shortly before Serial catalyzed the true crime boom in 2014; ever since, she’s continued writing outstanding crime fiction, and continued to think about how it reflects and creates our culture. Before the show’s premiere, she Zoomed with Esquire from her home in London. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.


Esquire: To what degree were you involved with the series?

Lauren Beukes:
I had long chats with Silka Luisa, the show-runner. We had some conversations about the characters’ motivations, and I shared a lot of my research with her. It was so fun going back through those old files about everything from the Cubs stadium to the Chicago Sun Times journalists I interviewed. When I did my research trip back in 2012, I took a lot of photographs on my phone. Watching the show, some of those photographs became locations for the shoot....

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a39848980/lauren-beukes-shining-girls-interview/

I've watched the first 4 episodes and paused whilst my wife catches up. Fantastic TV, any compelling. Jamie Bell is brilliant.
 
Alone: It's a well worn trope - the serial killer who hunts on the road, watching out for lone female drivers to prey upon. this one rises above most of it's ilk through good acting, direction and the way the hunted isn't prepared to just be a victim. Jessica (Jules Willcox) is moving home with a U-Haul trailer following a bereavement, she overtakes a car and the driver seems angered, speeding up. She keeps encountering the same car and we discover this is no road rage when the driver (Marc Menchaca) kidnaps Jessica. It is soon obvious that he does this as a hobby. Jules escapes and the hunt is on. The forest wilderness, a river and other obstacles make nature also an opponent for Jessica as her hunter seems to possess survivalist skills. Her tenacity and will to live is palpable though and helps to maintain the tension throughout the film. Great performances by Wilcox and Menchaca. Directed by John Hyams, from a screenplay by Mattias Olsson. On Netflix. 7.5/10.
 
Keanu Reeves is going to star in the TV-series The Devil In The White City, about a serial killer in 1890s Chicago. As an immortal, I'm sure Reeves will have some useful insider knowledge of the 1890s.
 
Good Morning, Veronica: Veronica witnesses a woman's suicide in her homicide unit and what starts off as an investigation into a conman who drugs and robs women soon takes a grimmer turn. A serial killer is also at work. Noir isn't a dark enough word to describe this Brazilian drama which is replete with disturbing scenes of violence, torture and murder. A tale of conspiracy and police/political corruption stretching back for generations unfolds. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart. Created by Raphael Montes who wrote the novel it's based on. Eight episodes, on Netflix. 8/10.

If anything season 2 of Good Morning, Veronica is even better. The conspiracy deepens as Veronica has to combat a powerful Religious Cult leader with mafia links. The cult runs human trafficking, infiltration of the police and government. Children at an orphanage run by the Cult are trained to fill these positions or become mercenaries, those who don't make the cut are trafficked. Veronica is on the run but she has helpers. Her family and the world at large believe that she is dead. Some horrifying scenes, again not for the squeamish. The constant tension is maintained throughout the narrative as Veronica uncovers more dark secrets. Some of this disturbing hidden history is personal to Veronica. Six episodes on Netflix. 8.5/10.
 
I Came By: When a serial killer is a recently retired High Court Judge, Hector Blake (Hugh Bonneville), it's more difficult to get the police to take your suspicions seriously. Especially when he plays squash with the local Police Superintendent. This killer is skilled enough to provoke a detective into arresting him before she has any real evidence. The judges secrets are first discovered by a graffiti artist Toby (George McKay) who raids the homes of the rich and tags them. He finds a dishevelled, starving man but is unable to free him, As the police can't act he involves his mother (Kelly Macdonald) and a tagger friend Jay (Percelle Ascott). Bonneville is suitably satanic as a member of the elite who poses as a friend of the underprivileged. His mansions provide battlegrounds as he hunts and is hunted with multiple shifting POVs and protagonists. some rather disturbing scenes outline his hunting techniques and motivations as well as the disposal of his victims. The director is never afraid to sacrifice a major character as the narrative unfolds and the body count rises. The basic plot isn't particularly original but a nice twist on the trope is delivered here, Great performances all round. Directed and Co-Written by Babak Anvari. On Netflix. 7.5/10.
 

Bone-Chilling Version of ‘Dahmer’ in Netflix’s New Trailer


Evan Peters is the latest actor to take on the role of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and, as expected, his performance looks quite chilling.

Netflix released the first trailer on Friday for Ryan Murphy’s latest series, “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” In it, Peters’ version of Dahmer is determined to make sure his neighbors don’t find out about his nefarious activities.


The video opens with Dahmer bringing a man back to his apartment, who immediately complains about the smell emanating from the room. Behind him, Dahmer locks the door and closes in on the man and, while his murder isn’t shown, it’s heavily implied.

https://www.thewrap.com/evan-peters-jeffrey-dahmer-ryan-murphy-netflix-series-trailer/

maximus otter
 

Bone-Chilling Version of ‘Dahmer’ in Netflix’s New Trailer


Evan Peters is the latest actor to take on the role of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and, as expected, his performance looks quite chilling.

Netflix released the first trailer on Friday for Ryan Murphy’s latest series, “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” In it, Peters’ version of Dahmer is determined to make sure his neighbors don’t find out about his nefarious activities.


The video opens with Dahmer bringing a man back to his apartment, who immediately complains about the smell emanating from the room. Behind him, Dahmer locks the door and closes in on the man and, while his murder isn’t shown, it’s heavily implied.

https://www.thewrap.com/evan-peters-jeffrey-dahmer-ryan-murphy-netflix-series-trailer/

maximus otter
Have you seen Evan Peters? He always has a scary intensity about him. I think it's his eyes. He would do a good Dahmer. I do like Evan Peters works.
 

Bone-Chilling Version of ‘Dahmer’ in Netflix’s New Trailer


Evan Peters is the latest actor to take on the role of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and, as expected, his performance looks quite chilling.

Netflix released the first trailer on Friday for Ryan Murphy’s latest series, “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” In it, Peters’ version of Dahmer is determined to make sure his neighbors don’t find out about his nefarious activities.


The video opens with Dahmer bringing a man back to his apartment, who immediately complains about the smell emanating from the room. Behind him, Dahmer locks the door and closes in on the man and, while his murder isn’t shown, it’s heavily implied.

https://www.thewrap.com/evan-peters-jeffrey-dahmer-ryan-murphy-netflix-series-trailer/

maximus otter
 
I felt the Dahmer drama with Evan Peters was good. There was one change/embellishment to the story, which I felt was unnecessary given how horrific the actual case was.

The neighbour who tried to get the police to take action/tried to save at least one victim didn't live in the flat next door.

I am sure there were other embellishments I didn't pick up on.

I don't know how true to the victim's characters the portrayals were, or if they were embellished. I did find it interesting to get a perspective of the men's lives and their families/friends.

The actors were very good in this.

One weird detail I would love to know the "truth" of - or was it just an embellishment for dramatic purposes? -
Did Jeffrey Dahmer's mother really have an obsession with UFOs and did she actually go out UFO hunting? Or was this just an embellishment added to support the mental health crisis she was going through?
 
I felt the Dahmer drama with Evan Peters was good. There was one change/embellishment to the story, which I felt was unnecessary given how horrific the actual case was.

The neighbour who tried to get the police to take action/tried to save at least one victim didn't live in the flat next door.

I am sure there were other embellishments I didn't pick up on.

I don't know how true to the victim's characters the portrayals were, or if they were embellished. I did find it interesting to get a perspective of the men's lives and their families/friends.

The actors were very good in this.

One weird detail I would love to know the "truth" of - or was it just an embellishment for dramatic purposes? -
Did Jeffrey Dahmer's mother really have an obsession with UFOs and did she actually go out UFO hunting? Or was this just an embellishment added to support the mental health crisis she was going through?
I found the portrayal of the parents odd. Never have I ever seen anything written nor reported at the time that as I recall reflected negatively of them. Other than they had a bitter divorce. If you see some of Dahmer's actual interviews, he mentions nothing about his parents other than they did nothing to influence his behaviour.

I also found the taxidermy angle odd as I had not heard that either. And the odd surgery story that the father related as being a pivotal point in noticing that his son is not right.

I did feel that the show tried to fit in possibly "as based on a true story" questionable scenes to try to make it easy to see the why of Dahmer. I took a lot of it with a grain of salt.

People like to think that evil people can be spotted if we see certain life issues. Kind of like Freud always fell to the "cold mother" theory of why people are the way they are :rolleyes:.
 
I've only watched the first episode of the Netflix Dahmer series and found it compelling and uncomfortable viewing.

I've also been following the reports of the victims families and their criticisms and a couple of youtube videos about the alteration of known facts about the case.

Who would have thought that murder, dismemberment, cannibalism, and homosexual sex would be such a draw!?
 
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