Why Is Hollywood Hunkifying Serial Killers?

Last year, Netflix released two hit-making TV shows about America’s legendary serial killers: Manhunt: The Unabomber and Mindhunter. Both plot lines center around lead FBI agents who are played by good looking actors, no surprise here. Both also tell the stories of real psychopaths on murder sprees, including Ed Kemper, Richard Speck, Jeffrey Dahmer, and eventually in an upcoming season of Mindhunter, Charles Manson. So, it wasn’t long until Hollywood executives realized that it’s time to tell these stories in the perspective of the psychopaths themselves.

But of course, according to Hollywood’s rule book, lead actors should strike as attractive — as hunks. Enter Ross Lynch as Jeffrey Dahmer in My Friend Dahmer, Zac Efron as Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, and Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Three young studs re-enacting some of history’s deadliest serial killers.