Serial Killer

"Serial killer", a term whose origin is commonly attributed to FBI profilers of the 1970s, usually refers to compulsive multiple murderers whose crimes are almost aways characterized by a recurrent modus operandi. The FBI classifies serial killers into three broad categories: "organized" (lucid, methodical, intelligent), "disorganized" (impulsive, chaotic, socially marginalized), and "mixed" (exhibiting both organized and disorganized characteristics). There are four generally recognized categories of motives which drive a serial killer:

1. Visionary motives: a compulsion generally born of delusional ideations (suffering psychotic breaks, these killers may believe they are someone else, or are driven to kill by Satan, God, or other entities);
2. Mission-oriented motives: a drive to "rid the world" of a certain class or category of people they perceive as undesirable (often linked to perceived moral and/or religious convictions);
3. Hedonistic motives: a desire for pleasure, lust, thrills, comfort, profit ("profit" includes killers such as "Black Widows" who act for material gain and a comfortable lifestyle);
4. Power/control motives: a desire to gain and exert power over their victims (such killers were sometimes abused as children, leaving them with feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy as adults).

 
Serial killers have exerted a powerful influence on the artistic universe. Horror movies in particular wasted no time churning out an endless string of films emphasizing the most disturbing, shocking, and even disgusting aspects generally associated with this type of crime. Additionally, the psychopathological component typically characteristic of the serial killer's personality and conduct often encompasses popular horror-related themes such as mental illness, cannibalism, and paraphilias.

This Tag will unite motion pictures featuring one or more serial killers with the above-mentioned characteristics, whether they're based on real-life events (such as the numerous films dealing with the lives of criminals such as Ed Gein or Ted Bundy), or are purely fictional characters, such as Dr. Decker in "Nightbreed" (1990). By extension, films whose narrative structure is consistent with a detective story within a horror setting will also be included here, even if the killer is ultimately revealed to be other than a human being.

Some illustrative cases:

The events described in "Dark Angel" (1990) and "Split Second" (1992) thoroughly embody the unwritten cinematic rules regarding the hunt for a serial killer (the dynamics of the investigation, the killer's modus operandi, the attempts to piece together the killer's identity, the final twist, etc.), despite the fact that in these films, the parties responsible for the murders turn out to be a bleach-blonde alien and a disgusting mutant, respectively. Both films, then, receive the "Serial Killers" Tag. A similar argument serves for "Predator 2" (1990), which also receives the same Tag. Its predecessor ("Predator", 1987) however, is a different story, being an action-adventure film completely outside the above-mentioned criteria.

Interesting side note: three childhood behaviors (collectively known as the "Macdonald triad") are generally considered predictive of, or associated with, future violent tendencies, particularly with relation to serial offenses: cruelty to animals, obsession with fire-setting, and persistent bedwetting (however, some studies indicate there is in fact no statistically significant link between the triad and violent offenders).