Surveying the array of whimsical, funny, and scary costumes fellow students wore on my college campus, my eyes were immediately drawn to those who decided to use Halloween as an opportunity to pay homage to some of America’s most feared and renowned serial killers. Now, I am not talking about some of our guilty pleasure fictional characters such as Dexter Morgan from “Dexter”, Patrick Bateman from “American Psycho” or TikTok’s favorite, Ghostface from “Scream.” Rather, what I saw were adult-age students theatrically strutting about as real-life serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and even Parkland shooter, Nikolas Cruz.
While I was thoroughly irked and disgusted, I sadly can not say I was surprised. In light of Netflix’s recent release “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” I anticipated many people jumping at the opportunity to dress as Evan Peters’ portrayal of Dahmer. This addresses one of the main issues with these sorts of costumes: these “characters” are not characters at all, but rather they are real killers whose actions took the lives of real people. We may get caught up in the storytelling of it all as we watch some of our favorite actors step into the role of these very real serial killers. This is exhibited by Ross Lynch’s portrayal of Jeffrey Dahmer in a prior rendition of Dahmer’s story, “My Friend Dahmer,” and Zac Efron’s depiction of Ted Bundy in Netflix’s “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” which shockingly had many fans of theirs swooning over their on-screen performances. When their character is being played by a dreamy-eyed celebrity like Ross Lynch, it can be easy to forget that their real-life persona murdered and mutilated seventeen boys.
Though, this is not the first time we have observed the romanticization of serial killers. In fact, this phenomenon has taken place on a global, greatly more severe scale with a thread of young-adults lusting over “attractive” killers. Tumblr has been a social media platform for younger people, most specifically younger girls, to share posts about their celebrity crushes and repost the latest fanfiction they have read. The use of the platform took a drastic turn when users with names like “jeffrey-is-a-babe” and “ted-buddy” began forming what is now known as the “serial killer fandom.” Many accounts will post pictures of infamous killers like Nikolas Cruz or Ted Bundy followed by captions claiming their attractiveness outweighs any of the accusations positioned against them.
While these are examples of a more extreme case of romanticization in which people blatantly ignore the crimes committed by these killers in order to fantasize about their appearance, many who dress up as their “favorite” serial killer for Halloween follow this same line of reasoning. They ignore the significance of the killer’s acts in order to use them for aesthetic or entertainment purposes. However you may look at it, romanticizing serial killers is incredibly harmful and highly problematic. The victims and their families are real people who suffered severe and irreparable damage by a killer; a killer who some will decide to parade around as for a night. However, you’re not just throwing on a costume. You are stepping into the persona of the outfit you are wearing and choosing to make light of their real and heinous crimes for one night of fun and partying. As much as you may love Evan Peters, you are not paying homage to him by wearing one of the outfits he dawned in his show “Dahmer,” you’re paying homage to Jeffrey Dahmer. There are many creative and scary costumes to choose from when Halloween shopping, but be mindful of the “character” you are stepping into and the very real people you may be harming by something as simple as a costume.