Movies have always been a way to escape reality. They allow us to see the world through different eyes, and experience things we would never be able to in real life. Some of the most famous serial killers from movies are ones that still haunt our nightmares years after their release.
This list includes seven of the most twisted and vile murderers to ever grace the big screen. From Hannibal Lecter to Norman Bates, these killers will make your skin crawl. So pour yourself a bowl of popcorn, sit back, and get ready for a chilling ride.
Serial Killer Movies: A Brief Information
Serial killer movies can be creepy, suspenseful, and entertaining all at the same time. They offer a glimpse into the mind of a psychopath and the horrifying crimes they commit. While it’s important to remember that these are fictional characters, they can still provide insight into real-life serial killers and their motives.
1) Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre)
When it comes to the serial killers, Leatherface is one of the most famous ones. Leatherface is one of the antagonists in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror film series.
He is a mentally unstable cannibalistic killer who wears masks made of human skin. Leatherface was born to a family of criminals. When he was still very young, his parents were executed for their crimes, and Leatherface was left to be raised by his sadistic grandmother, who taught him how to butcher people and use their skin to create masks.
He eventually began kidnapping and murdering people himself, using their skin to make more masks. He is a vicious and brutal killer, who takes great pleasure in inflicting pain on others. When its come to the psychological disorders most obvious one with Leatherface is intellectual disability. He constantly controlled by his grandmother because of that. Also we can consider his cannibalism as a psychological disorder as well.
2) Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)
Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character, the antagonist in the novels by Thomas Harris. The two most famous portrayals of Lecter are Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal in Red Dragon(2002) and Michael Mann’s film adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Hannibal Lecter is a talented psychiatrist serial killer and cannibal who is on the FBI’s most wanted list. While Lecter is fictional, there are real-life murderers who have been inspired by him. His most prominent psychological problem is Antisocial Personality Disorder. Lecter’s high intellect, as well as his sociopathic tendencies, make him a highly lethal combination of recklessness, cunning, and psychopathic tendencies.
3) Norman Bates (Psycho)
Norman Bates is a popular fictional serial killer and the main antagonist of the 1960 suspense novella Psycho and its sequels. He is depicted in these stories as an intelligent psychopath who lives with his passive mother, Eleanor, in an isolated house in the middle of nowhere. Bates is suffering from a very crucial mental disorder which is dissociative identity disorder.
4) Albert DeSalvo (The Boston Strangler)
Albert desalvo, also known as the “Boston Strangler,” was a serial killer who committed murder in the Boston area during the early 1960s. Though he confessed to 13 killings, only 11 of these murders have been confirmed.
He portreyed in the 1968 movie The Boston Strangler by Tony Curtis. As almost all of the serial killers, Albert DeSalvo also has a major mental disorder, which is depicted as “schizophrenia of the paranoid type”.
5) Henry (Henry: Portrait of a Killer)
Henry is the first feature-length film directed by John McNaughton. Released in 1986, it tells the story of a serial killer who lives his life according to what he calls “the American dream” and depicts him hunting down victims.
Henry is loosely based on real life serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. He is basically a psychopath, in other words a person who is unemotional, morally depraved and callous. But most of the time he is an example of pointless, meaningless evil.
6) Aileen Wuornos (Monster)
Although relatively unknown compared to more famous serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, Aileen Wuornos is one of the most notorious female murderers in recent history. She was a murderer who killed seven men, all of which she claimed were in self-defence.
The movie Monster portrays her story of early abuse, emotional neglect and an inability to establish relationships with other women. All these possible causes seem like they would make good fodder for a good, old fashioned psychology lecture on factors affecting personality disorders.
As for the mental disorders, she evidenced a psychopathic personality and also met the main criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder.
7) Michael Myers (Halloween)
With new Halloween movies, the legend of Michael Myers still continues. As you know, Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He was originally played by Nick Castle in the original Halloween movie, and has been played by multiple actors since then.
The character is a relentless, emotionless killing machine who murders people in cold blood for no reason other than to satisfy his own twisted desires. He represents pure evil, and is one of the most iconic and feared movie villains of all time. But what about his mental disorders?
The first of all these disorders is catatonia or conversion disorder, the both are suggested by many different psychologists. Also he has antisocial personality disorder and also zoosadism.
Last Updated on December 21, 2021 by Lucas Berg
