SERIAL    KILLER

      Horror is the parent genre for the serial killer films. The very first serial killer film is dated back to 1931 in Fritz Lang’s, “M”.   The real-life killer in the 1920's, 'Vampir von Düsseldorf' (the vampire of Düsseldorf) Peter Kürten became the inspiration for the very first serial killer film- Fritz Lang's 1931 movie 'M'.” The idea of serial killers featured in film was also influenced by two classic pieces of literature that later developed into their own sub-genre’s: Dracula (Bram Stoker) and Frankenstein (Mary Shelley).   

    In 1943, another serial killer film was released entitled Shadow of a Doubt, by the great Alfred Hitchcock.  Some researchers argue that this was in fact the first serial killer movie ever made while others insist that M is the true original Serial Killer film.   Several films began to emerge after the infamous Ed Gein murders in the 1950’s. Psycho in 1960 and thirty years later, The Silence of the Lambs was released loosely based on Ed Gein. 

    The killers were known as psychopaths, psychotics, maniacs or a mass murderer until the 1980’s when the term serial killer was adopted. During the late 1980's and early 1990's  serial killer films began to evolve into slasher films.  That is why some people classify them together (serial killer/slasher).  With the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street series the true serial killer films were lost and slasher films were dominant.  The sub-genre estranged itself from psychological terror to just random killings. It wasn't until the early to mid 1990's that film makers went back to the original formula that M and Psycho introduced . The Silence of the Lambs and Seven attracted the audiences attention once again. Seven being credited as the greatest serial killer film of all time. 

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I met him, fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blind, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes... the DEVIL'S eyes! I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up for I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... EVIL!- Dr. Loomis (Halloween 1978)