Within the past years, a phenomenon has formed around crime, unsolved mysteries, and serial killers. Every week some platform releases a new mini-series or documentary about one of these topics. Sundance Film Festival recently had the premiere of the new Ted Bundy movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and Netflix just released the Ted Bundy Tapes. Our attention and shows that are most popular are talking about are in some way: gruesome and dark. To say the least, they are extremely wicked, shockingly vile and evil. So why are we so hooked, so entertained and keep coming back for more? Why do we want to watch such scary things that can very easily happen to us? What does that say about us as a whole? Are we just looking for ways to scare ourselves? Or are we trying to understand the mindset of the people who go through with these horrible, horrible things?
Being a young female adult, I do watch these shows and love them. I even have gone through phases of just watching documentary after conspiracy after podcast about serial killers and huge unsolved cases. But I also know it’s not just me. It’s my best friends, it’s the girls living down the hall from me, it’s people I run into in the dining hall. We all can’t get enough of it. And the media knows it, realizing television show after movie about true crime. They know how to target us because we are the ones being targeted. I love these shows because of the sense of fear it places in my body. The chills it sends up and down my spine. I can’t look away. I could be the girl in the show just as easily as she could be me. I think the reason they are becoming so popular is that they’re relatable. And that is something that is never really talked about.
When I watch Law and Order SVU, Zodiac or The Ted Bundy Tapes I get so invested and can’t bring myself to look away. But it’s because I am afraid to. The media is just showing new ways of women being attacked and that is something that could potentially happen to me It seems like the stories are larger than life, so fabricated that it could never happen. But that is what makes it so interesting. That is why we’re latching on because we know it could be. We know that if a girl is walking home alone late at night she should be more scared than a boy, we know that there are sick people out there who want to hurt young girls, we know that organizations like Incels are a thing. 1 in 4 women have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime according to The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). We know it is a legit fear and something you should always be conscious of. So why do I want to go home every night, throw on my PJs, get in bed and watch another girl go missing and suffer from abuse? If this is happening and more and more shows keep coming out about it, how do we know it’s not just sparking more of an interest? It feels like every week some new true-crime saga is released. All these people watching episode after movie about true crime, are they feeling the fear too? Why does it feel like no one is doing anything about it? That was all just so invested in watching it play out that it feels like nothing is happening to stop the violence or teach people to not attack women. Instead, we are just showing what will happen if you do, and what to be afraid of. I want to know why we are watching the same thing happen over and over again before we make the changed to fix the problems. Because I want to see the change happen before I become the next season on Serial.