When many people think of a serial killer they think of Hannibal Lecter, although he is fictional, or Jeffrey Dahmer. A serial killer is someone who murders at least three people that fit a specific category weather it is based on gender, race, wealth, age, religion, or any other characteristic (Serial Killer 2001). Serial killers have intrigued and frightened people in American culture for decades. One of the more horrifying aspects of serial killers is that there is no way of distinguishing them from a normal person based on physical appearance. Normal people cannot comprehend the motives behind serial killers. There murderous behavior has been labeled monstrous in popular culture. What is it about serial killers that has captivated
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This essay will analyze the motives behind serial killers and mental disorders that provoke their need to kill, in addition to why American culture is fascinated by the monstrous behavior of serial …show more content…
Hannibal Lecter is a fictional serial killer who has appeared in multiple books and later films, creating an entire Hannibal franchise. Hannibal Lecter has been the main character in Red Dragon by, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising, all written by Thomas Harris and later turned into films. Silence of the Lambs is about a FBI agent tasked with saving a woman from a killer. The FBI decides to enlist the help of a different killer, Hannibal Lecter, who was once a psychiatrist, to find the women’s kidnapper. In a review of Silence of the Lambs, Ian Dixon discusses how this great work of literature and the five time Oscar award winning movie brings together “Gothic horror and modernistic settings” (Dixon 2014). Silence of the Lambs is a movie that has become apart of American culture. The movie has even been added to the National Film Registry. “Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant” (News from the Library of Congress 2011). The addition of the film to the national registry shows how popular and well made the Silence of the Lambs
This essay will analyze the motives behind serial killers and mental disorders that provoke their need to kill, in addition to why American culture is fascinated by the monstrous behavior of serial …show more content…
Hannibal Lecter is a fictional serial killer who has appeared in multiple books and later films, creating an entire Hannibal franchise. Hannibal Lecter has been the main character in Red Dragon by, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising, all written by Thomas Harris and later turned into films. Silence of the Lambs is about a FBI agent tasked with saving a woman from a killer. The FBI decides to enlist the help of a different killer, Hannibal Lecter, who was once a psychiatrist, to find the women’s kidnapper. In a review of Silence of the Lambs, Ian Dixon discusses how this great work of literature and the five time Oscar award winning movie brings together “Gothic horror and modernistic settings” (Dixon 2014). Silence of the Lambs is a movie that has become apart of American culture. The movie has even been added to the National Film Registry. “Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant” (News from the Library of Congress 2011). The addition of the film to the national registry shows how popular and well made the Silence of the Lambs