Tag: Chris Newell
Gacy (2003): The American Jekyll and Hyde
In 1993 on death row in Chester, Illinois, John Wayne Gacy said: “If you serve other people, it will come back to serve you.”...
Blue Caprice (2013) and the Child Soldiers of America
Societal shock gripped the Washington, D.C. area in October of 2002. Over the course of twenty days, ten people were shot and killed by...
Cults, American Xenophobia and Outsiders in Borderland (2007)
America’s never had a rosy image of Mexico, seeing it either from a flawed economic perspective— assuming everyone south of the border is poor—...
Citizen X (1995) and the Failure of Soviet Bureaucracy
Not long ago, Serial Killer Celluloid took a look at Joon-ho Bong’s Memories of Murder (2003)— a fantastic film about South Korean police’s first...
ZODIAC (2007): Never Let Ethics Get in the Way of a Good Story
Anybody who’s serious about appreciating film, and filmmakers, can admit that David Fincher— whether you like him or not— is one of the great...
The Riverman (2004): Staring Into the Murderous Abyss
So much is made out of the lives of serial killers— the men who hunt, rape, torture, and kill. What about the men and...
Black Fly (2014): The Shock of Serial Murder in a Small Town
In the city, people are often scared by serial and spree killers because of the anonymity involved— amongst a large population, a multiple murderer...
Gun Violence, Small Town Stability and the Cauterized Wound in Out of the Blue...
America’s all but resigned itself as a nation to being rocked every week or so by new gun massacres. People who’ve seen it as...
The Police Incompetence and Widespread Societal Misogyny of The Chaser (2008)
Apart from the loss of lives, one of the saddest parts of any serial killer investigation is often realizing many of the victims were...
Fact Versus Fiction: Trusting a Killer in Happy Face Killer (2014)
In 1990, Keith Hunter Jesperson would turn thirty-five years old. He had recently received two major blows to an already dangerously fragile ego. The...
Rewriting History: Karla (2006) and the Morality of Adaptation
It was July 6th of 1993 when Karla Homolka was convicted on two counts of manslaughter for her involvement in Paul Bernardo’s spree of...
Reality, the BTK Killer, and the Conservative Community in The Clovehitch Killer (2018)
SCRIPTOPHOBIC NOTE: We don't normally do spoiler warnings, however The Clovehitch Killer is a recent release, so be warned!
The Clovehitch Killer (2018) is a great...
The Limitations of Law in Memories of Murder (2003)
During the mid-1980s, serial killers were already a staple of American media— everybody knew the names Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez and...
The Untreated Psychopathy of I, Olga Hepnarová (2016)
We’re unsettled by anyone who kills another human being. The idea of taking a person’s life, to the vast majority of us, is morally...
Paranoia, Marginalization, and Race in Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam (1999)
In the summer of 1977, New York City was suffering after a year of young people being murdered. An unknown man - a human...
The Abyssal Sadness of Tony (2009)
Gerard Johnson’s 2009 indie film Tony is about a meek Englishman living alone in a flat on a council housing estate and harbouring dark...
Perspective, Realism, & Fighting the Death Penalty in 10 Rillington Place (1971)
When 10 Rillington Place was released in 1971 the disturbing sting of serial killer John Reginald Christie was still lingering in the United Kingdom’s...
The Cinematic Faces of Ed Gein
In this week’s Serial Killer Celluloid, we’re going to cheat— just a little. Ed Gein isn’t classified as a serial killer. The man was...