Latest news with #Dahmer
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The 12 Best Serial Killer Movies Ever Made, Ranked
Here are the 12 best serial killer movies we've ever seen, ranked in order from least to most great. Mathew Bright's Freeway is as over the top as Henry is grounded: It's a reworking of Little Red Riding Hood with Kiefer Sutherland as Big Bad Wolf Bob Wolverton as Reese Witherspoon as our heroine, who in this case is an illiterate runaway named Vanessa. In a clever, very '90s update of the fairy tale, no one believes Vanessa, even when she shoots Bob to end his reign of terror up and down California's freeways. Related Headlines 15 Stars of the 1970s Who Are Still Going Strong, Thank You Very Much The 17 Most Convincing Movie Couples The 12 Top-Grossing Movies With a Zero on Rotten Tomatoes It's a perfect movie for the era of trash TV and televised murder trials, as lines blurred between death and entertainment. Based on an excellent graphic novel by Derf Backderf, who really did grow up with Jeffrey Dahmer, this utterly chilling, pitch-dark coming of age film by Mark Meyers is stomach-churning not because of anything exploitative — it is very restrained — but because it captures a moment in time when a horrendous serial killer could have been stopped, if only anyone could have anticipated the pain he would go on to cause. The film draws a clear line between Dahmer's lack of empathy for both animals and fellow kids and his eventual murders, without being heavy-handed. (His impersonation of someone with a disability is an early sign of his casual, stupid cruelty.) The entire cast is excellent — especially Ross Lynch as Dahmer and Alex Wolff as Derf — and it will make you think a lot about early warning signs. Released a year before Freeway to far more acclaim, Seven is the quintessential serial-killer-as-mad-genius movie, and takes maybe a little too much delight in all the ways John Doe (Kevin Spacey) dispenses of his victims. Like all great villains, he thinks he has a high-minded purpose — killing practitioners of the seven deadly sins — but it's hard to take the movie as anything but pulp. Still, what well-made pulp. Credit goes to the undeniable craft of director David Fincher and excellent acting all around. Besides great turns by Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Spacey, it was Gwyneth Paltrow's breakout role. Based on the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, the Hughes brothers' stellar adaptation offers what no one thought possible: a fresh take on Jack the Ripper. Starring Johnny Depp as a Victorian-era crime solver and Heather Graham as a sex worker whose circle is targeted by Whitechapel's most infamous killer, From Hell will stop at nothing to draw your lurid fascination: There's even a cameo by the Elephant Man. It also offers a guess at Jack's identity that is grimly believable and narratively satisfying. Patty Jenkins' portrait of real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos is daring and ambitious in a way few films are: It manages to make us understand and even sympathize with its female serial-killer subject before ultimately turning against her. Charlize Theron underwent an astonishing transformation that won her the Best Actress Oscar, and her astonishing character arc takes time to show, in a way few serial killers movies do, that monsters aren't born, they're made. By far the funniest serial killer movie ever made, American Psycho follows Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale in his star-making role), a yuppie who either kills people or vividly imagines killing them, depending on your read of the film. Our read: He killed all those people. Which makes it even more deeply, darkly funny when everyone assumes he didn't, on account of his good hair, designer clothes, great physique, and adequate business card. Perhaps funniest of all is the subversion of the hero-detective trope: Willem Dafoe's Donald Kimball is as much a clout-chasing, phony yuppie as Bateman. The script, by director Mary Harron and co-star Guinevere Turner, does a masterful job of mining many of the funniest parts of Bret Easton Ellis' brilliant novel while excising the parts that would make the film too extreme for most audiences. If you're reading this you might also enjoy our Oral History of American Psycho. And we're very interested in Luca Guadagnino's upcoming adaptation of Ellis' novel, though we can't imagine anyone improving on Harron's version. David Fincher's Zodiac, which we prefer to his Seven, is almost the opposite of a typical serial-killer story: The crimes are never solved. No one receives catharsis. The killer doesn't just destroy the lives of his direct victims. The film captures Bay Area gloom and melancholy like no other, as a small band of men, desperate to find one of the most elusive killers of all, dedicate their lives to unpacking his crimes. Interestingly, a podcast by the aforementioned Bret Easton Ellis offered some ideas about who the Zodiac might have been. Spike Lee's movie about the Son of Sam murders is barely about the Son of Sam murders — though it does feature a truly great, horrifying moment in which real-life serial killer David Berkowitz gets some murderin' orders from a talking dog. What Summer of Sam is really about is how fear turns neighbors, friends and lovers against each other. It's a deeply New York story no one could tell better than Spike Lee. It feels like both a more fiery, passionate, East Coast version of the chilly Zodiac, and like an Americanized version of a German classic that's coming up after the next serial killer movie on our list. The first movie to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter — masterfully played by a pre-Succession Brian Cox, above — Manhunter has a simple and brilliant setup: FBI profiler Will Graham can only solve murders by making himself think like the killer. That may sound old-hat today, but that's only because so many films and TV shows have ripped off Manhunter and the Thomas Harris novel upon which it is based, Red Dragon. Directed by Michael Mann had the peak of his Miami Vice fame, Manhunter is a magnificent movie in that it is both a very '80s time capsule and ageless. It perfectly captures a moment in time, but that time has aged impressively: The film combines grit and '80s slickness in a way that feels knowing and irresistible. Speaking of aging well: Fritz Lang's German mystery thriller gets many points for basically inventing the serial killer movie. But almost 100 years after its release, it is also utterly, chillingly terrifying in a way most serial killer movies just aren't. The black and white atmospheric and the time it takes to show us the killer's routine — including whistling "In the Hall of the Mountain King" — give M a sense of verisimilitude that few films match. And Lang's innovative tracking shots have informed almost as many films as the script he wrote with wife Thea von Harbou. What the film does most impressivlely isn't even tell a serial killer story: It also delves into how suspicion and fear around the killings plunge a community into scapegoating and dehumanization, two things that would soon became a tragic, horrific part of Germany's history. Alfred Hitchcock's serial killer movie is filled with twists, starting with the shower death of its ostensibly lead (Janet Leigh) and culiminating in the shocking reveal of the killer. It's an almost perfect movie, with just one flaw: an annoying bit of exposition at the end explaining the basis of Norman Bates' depravity, and what a "psycho" is. Maybe audiences in 1960 didn't know, but audiences after sure did, thanks to Psycho. Psycho also contains at least one — and perhaps two — of the greatest movie plot twists ever. Are we really putting Silence of the Lambs above Psycho? Yes. Its your humble correspondent's favorite movie of all time, in large part because it isn't just a serial killer movie: It's about empathy, and the catastrophic consequences of its absence. Based on Thomas Harris' follow-up novel to Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs has almost the opposite approach to crime-solving, though it takes some time and reflection to see it. While Will Graham solves saves people by seeing the world through the eyes of the killer, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) saves them by looking through the eyes of the victim. After sharp, captivating talks with Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) about the motivations of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), Clarice finally saves Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith) by visiting the home of one of Bill's earlier victims — and finds a clue countless male investigators have missed. Lecter has endless knowledge but little empathy, while Clarice has endless empathy but — at first — little knowledge. She gains knowledge fast, but empathy wins the day. You may also like this list of Silence of the Lambs Details Most People Missed. Main image: Main image: Reese Witherspoon in Freeway, Republic Pictures; Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, Orion; Heather Graham in From Hell, 20th Century Fox. Related Headlines 15 Stars of the 1970s Who Are Still Going Strong, Thank You Very Much The 17 Most Convincing Movie Couples The 12 Top-Grossing Movies With a Zero on Rotten Tomatoes
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
True crime fans left horrified over shocking revelation in bizarre Hulu series: 'Craziest thing I've ever seen'
True crime fans have been left horrified over a Hulu docuseries about a serial killer who has been dubbed 'worse than Jeffrey Dahmer.' The four part-series, titled The Fox Hollow Murders from ABC News Studios, explores the case of Herb Baumeister, who is thought to have killed around 25 young men during his murderous rampage in the early 1990s. The married father-of-three would meet his victims at gay bars in downtown Indianapolis and lure them back to his 18-acre suburban estate, called Fox Hollow Farm, where he enticed them into acts of erotic asphyxiation before killing them. He would then burn their remains before scattering their bones around the family property before his wife and kids returned home. Once the authorities caught wind of his sick crimes, Baumeister fled to Canada and killed himself, leaving multiple unanswered questions - including whether or not he had an accomplice. Viewers of The Fox Hollow Murders have been left incredibly disturbed by series, which revealed that 10,000 human remains were discovered buried around the property. It is the largest number of unidentified human remains second only to the World Trade Center after the September 11 terrorist attacks. At one point, before Baumeister was caught, his young son even found a human skull in the woods behind the house. 'The Fox Hollow Murders should've knocked Bundy, Dahmer, and Gacy off the front pages. This is crazy!' wrote one viewer on X (formerly Twitter). 'Did y'all see the documentary about the Fox Hollow murders??? Over 10,000 bones found in the backyard,' wrote another. A third added, 'Okay the Fox Hollow Murders may be the craziest doc I've seen in a while and I'm still on episode one,' while a fourth wrote, 'The Fox Hollow Murders is a WILD story. One of the craziest serial killers you've never heard of.' Another terrifying detail from the series is the fact that the lower level of Baumeister's Fox Hollow Farm was filled with mannequins. 'Mannequins forever ominous after watching The Fox Hollow Murders doc,' wrote one viewer. Another commented, 'I have watched many true crime documentaries, including serial killer series. I have never heard of these murders. This docuseries was one of the most chilling I've seen.' Baumeister's murders remain a mystery as the only person who lived to tell the tale as a victim, a man named Mark Goodyear, has changed his story multiple times. He previously admitted lying about his relationship with the serial killer but denied ever being involved in the murders. Baumeister's crimes came to light when Goodyear came forward to claim he survived an attack by a man he met in a bar in August 1994, who took him out to a huge farm in the suburbs and tried to strangle him. That man was later identified as Herb Baumeister. Investigators have long believed that Baumeister filmed his victims, before, during or after their murders with a secret camera hidden in an air vent in the basement of his home. The father-of-three is believed to have taken this crucial evidence with him when he fled to Canada. His wife said his large tape collection had gone missing from their home and Canadian police spotted a box of tapes inside his vehicle in the days before his death. To this day, the whereabouts of these suspected 'snuff films' remains unknown. Viewers have flooded social media with their thoughts about the 'crazy' docuseries It is unclear what the tapes may reveal about Baumeister's killing spree. It is also unclear if Baumeister disposed of the tapes in Canada or if he had help in hiding them before he killed himself. Decades after the murders, Baumeister's victims are still being identified. Just last week, Daniel Thomas Halloran was identified as the 10th known victim of the man now believed to be one of America's worst ever serial killers. Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison, who has been leading a new push to identify all the Fox Hollow Farm victims once and for all, announced that Halloran had been identified using investigative genetic genealogy. Halloran marks the second victim identified since Jellison launched a new investigation in 2022 to identify all the remains and name all of Baumeister's victims.
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Time of India
Long Island man acquires Jeffrey Dahmer's glasses — could they hold clues to his crimes?
Credit: X/@Carol62292177 A man in Long Island has come into possession of a pair of glasses — and these aren't just any glasses. They once belonged to Jeffrey Dahmer, the alleged serial killer and cannibal whose crimes shocked the nation. David Adamovich , 78, says he recently acquired the gold-rimmed Titmus Z87 5-1/2 General style glasses that Dahmer wore during his 1991 arrest. Adamovich, who runs the website Serial Killer Murderabilia and has spent years collecting items tied to some of the most notorious murderers in history, calls the glasses 'the holy grail of serial killer collecting.' He claims he obtained them from a trusted source and insists the provenance is '100 percent airtight.' 'These have not been passed through multiple hands,' he told the Daily Mail. 'The provenance is 100 percent airtight that those are Jeffrey Dahmer glasses .' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Moose Approaches Girl At Bus Stop And Nudges Her To Follow - Watch What Happens Happy in Shape Undo Credit: X/@serialkillx Dahmer, who admitted to killing 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991, wore the glasses while working at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory and during his time in custody. He later surrendered them in 1992 when he entered prison. Adamovich says he has no intention of selling the item. 'I did not buy them to flip them,' he said. 'I bought them for the historical and educational value as it relates to Dahmer's case. I am in it to tell the story.' He also noted that under close inspection, the glasses appear to have dried residue around the frame and lenses. 'My guess is that it isn't chocolate from the chocolate factory,' he said. 'It is probably a reasonable guess to say it was blood from his victims.' He plans to have the substance tested by a toxicologist to determine whether it is biological material. Adamovich says Dahmer's eyeglass prescription was also quite strong, minus five in one eye and minus four in the other, suggesting Dahmer was significantly nearsighted. He brought the glasses to a local eyeglass shop to have the lenses analyzed and said the optometrist was visibly disturbed upon learning their origin. Credit: X/@MentalidadFeroz Asked whether he's ever tried the glasses on, Adamovich was blunt: 'No. Do I intend to? No! I am not putting them on. Could you imagine all the evil that was seen through them?' He also questioned the authenticity of other Dahmer glasses that have circulated in the past, including those displayed at exhibits. 'The pair in the Serial Killer display are noticeably different than those shown in the Dahmer booking photo from July 24, 1991,' he said. Adamovich's personal archive includes items linked to more than 100 convicted murderers, including Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy. His collection contains thousands of letters, drawings, hair samples, and audio recordings.
Daily Mail
22-04-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE A collector bought the 'holy grail' of infamous glasses... and they could hold a clue to a horrific murder
A Long Island man who is the curator of murderabilia from some of America's most notorious serial killers just snatched up what he calls 'the holy grail of serial killer collecting.' The one-of-a-kind item is the metal gold rimmed glasses worn by Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, that he wore during his July 1991 arrest. Dahmer, 34, murdered and mutilated seventeen boys and men during the late 1970s' through the early 1990s'. Some of his prey were victims of necrophilia and cannibalism. In February 1992, less than a year after his capture, he was sentenced to 15 counts of murder in the first degree and life in prison. Two years later, he was bludgeoned to death by an inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin. Last month, David Adamovich, owner of Serial Killer Murderabilia, acquired the vintage Titmus Z87 5-1/2 General style glasses, that Dahmer wore during his sick reign of terror. He explained the thrill to the D aily Mail when the seller, whom he did not identify but described as 'a very reliable source,' called him about the glasses. I said to her, 'you have what?' Then I told her 'I want those.' The rare item was bought by Adamovich for an undisclosed amount. 'These have not been passed through multiple hands. The providence is 100 percent airtight that those are Jeffrey Dahmer glasses,' he said almost giddy. 'They have been sitting in the case for over 30 years and through a series of lucky events I was able to purchase them.' The glasses are now part of Adamovich's treasure trove of serial killer memorabilia - that includes 9,000 letters and writing, artwork, hair samples, jailhouse interviews on audio from more than 100 murderers including Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, among others. On a sunny Wednesday afternoon at his Freeport home and location where Adamovich houses his vast collection, he held the glasses up to the light and shared what he saw. 'What is interesting about them is that if you look closely under the frame and the lens there is a reasonable amount of crud that is all around the glass,' he said. 'My guess is that it isn't chocolate from the chocolate factory - the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory - where Jeffrey Dahmer worked. It is probably a reasonable guess to say it was blood from his victims.' To determine what the grime and dirt on the spectacles are, the curator plans to have a toxicologist look at them. 'If it is blood and not chocolate,' he added, 'it does make interesting dinner conversation.' Interested to find out more about the glasses, he told that he went to a local eye glass shop merely 'out of curiosity.' 'I was wondering how blind Jeffrey was without his glasses,' he said. He appeared amused when he recalled how 'creeped' out the ophthalmologist was when he was told where the glasses were from and then showed him a photo of Dahmer's booking photo where he is pictured wearing the glasses. The ophthalmologist reaction, he recalled was: 'No way!' and Adamovich responded, 'Yes, way!' He later found out that Dahmer's right eye was minus five, minus one and 178 and his left eye was minus four, minus one and two.' 'For someone who understands eyeglasses those numbers mean something - how near or farsighted or how blind he is with or without them.' Studying the numbers, he said: 'This seems to imply that was he was nearsighted and used them for distance. A nearsighted prescription will feature a number with a minus symbol in the sphere box.' When asked if he ever tried on the glasses, Adamovich quipped. 'No. Do I intend to? No!' The question, he said, is one he often gets asked. 'I am not putting them on them. Could you imagine all the evil that was seen through them.' Adamovich explained that the glasses came with a certificate of authenticity. 'There are several other alleged pairs of Dahmer glasses that have been advertised as part of various collections, but most of it not all, have unproven authenticity,' he shared with that is also on his website. 'Very few items are as symbolic of a serial killer as these vintage Titmus General style glasses burned in history's mind as the iconic image of Dahmer,' he said. He referred to a pair of glasses on display at the Serial Killer Exhibit that claim to be Dahmer's, but Adamovich finds it questionable, which he explains further on his website. 'The pair in the Serial Killer Display are noticeably different than those shown in the Dahmer booking photo from July 24, 1991. The upper horizontal bar and nose bridge do not match the glasses worn by Dahmer in the photo.' He states that The Serial Killer Exhibition should provide adequate documentation to support the claims of authenticity if they wish to continue exhibiting the glasses as part of their collection.' Holding up the glasses, he said, 'look they are his. They are real. He was wearing them the night he was arrested. He was chopping someone apart in little pieces and who knows what those glasses saw.' For now, he doesn't plan on selling them to the highest bidder - instead he is adding it to his voluminous collection. 'I did not buy them to flip them. I bought them for the historical and educational value as it relates to Dahmer's case. I am in it to tell the story,' said the curator, 78. Part of that story is when Dahmer was sentenced and sent to the Wisconsin prison, he had to surrender his metal-framed glasses and was given plastic frames. The 6ft. tall blue-eyed blonde-haired Dahmer, who at a glance looked like the boy next door, was demonic. Over a 13-year-period, he lured men, one victim was as young as 14, back to his home with the promise of money if he could take nude photographs of them. Most of the men were young, gay African American men. Dahmer would drug his victims before strangling and dismemberng them. In some cases he would have have sex with their dead corpses and cannibalize their bodies. Tracy Edwards was one of Dahmer's victims, who managed to escape and later helped the police with his capture. On the night of July 22, 1991 Milwaukee Police Department patrol units saw a man that was partially clothed stumbling down the road near an apartment building on North 25th Street, according to the FBI. The young victim had a handcuff dangling from his wrist. He told police that he had been inside the apartment building and was threatened with a knife. When police went into the apartment they made the truly horrifying discovery when they found body parts in Dahmer's refrigerator. The FBI said there were remains of eleven victims. Dahmer was arrested on July 22, 1991. After his arrest, he confessed to committing more than a dozen murders that included the torture and mutilation of his victims and the abuse of their corpses. At his 1992 trial, he entered a plea of guilty but insane, jurors found him sane and he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences. Dahmer, who grew up in the Midwest and served in the U.S. Army was stationed in Germany. He had also had lived in Ohio, and Florida, and at one point investigators were trying to link him to other unsolved murders. In 1994, while serving his sentence in a Wisconsin prison, Dahmer was bludgeoned to death by a fellow inmate named Christopher Scarver, 55, who is serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. True crime fanatics continue to be fascinated with the cannibal killer. In 2022, Netflix launched the true crime drama, 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,' directed by Ryan Murphy. It was one of the most watched shows on the streaming platform. According to IndieWire, the show garnered a staggering 196.2 million only hours when it made its debut during its first week of availability.
Forbes
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
A Very Unexpected Update About ‘Adolescence' Season 2 On Netflix
Adolescence Netflix You know what they say, a limited series is only a limited series until a lot of people watch it. That's what's happening with Adolescence on Netflix, which has rocketed up to become the fourth most-watched English-language series on the service as of this week. It's about to be third, its 114 million views right behind Dahmer's 115 million. And so, now, somehow, the conclusively-ended story may in fact get a season 2. Deadline is reporting that Brad Pitt's Plan B production company is in talks with director Philip Barantini about the prospect of a season 2, called the 'next iteration' of the show. Plan B co-president says they want to 'widen the aperture, stay true to its DNA [and] What we should take away from this is not that the show will return to once again focus on Jamie and his trial or prison time or anything like that. A 'next iteration' definitely sounds like it would follow another teen (I mean, if they're going to keep the show name) with some sort of inherent crime or trauma. Adolescence…but starring a girl! Something like that. It's important to remember how the stars aligned for the first season of this show. It was carried by powerhouse performances including one from co-creator Stephen Graham (who would obviously not return for a new story) and first-time actor Owen Cooper as Jamie, a miracle that would be hard to replicate. Adolescence Netflix And of course there's how it was shot. It's extremely obvious a second season would have to also use the signature one-take-episode concept, one that spanned four hour-long installments and used every trick in the book, with no cheating, to make that happen. An enormous amount of staging, writing and acting all had to come together to make that work. Trying to force a second iteration could be like demanding lightning strike twice. I mean it's not the worst push for a limited series into more seasons. I can see how you could follow a new teen/crime story with the same concept, even if sure, I think we could all live with this being a one-season production without a demand for more. But Plan B and Netflix? They're going to pull out all the stops to make this happen as you don't produce the third most-viewed series in streaming history and not attempt to squeeze more out of it, for better or worse. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
