A Little Something to Kill To

What is it with serial killers and music in movies? Has anyone else noticed this? Serial killers always always always listen to one of two kinds of music: classical or heavy metal.

What is this about?

There’s the refined version of the serail killer, the ultra-intelligent, Ted Bundy/Hannibal Lecter who creates his blood opuses to a classical soundtrack to underscore how erudite, how unusual, how brilliant he is (the directors make these choices, that is, not the characters themselves).

The other is the hack and slash serial killer, the extreme fellow often showing up in serial killer movies targeted at teenagers, who really, really seems like to the kind of heavy metal that sells really well on soundtracks and over-programmed “modern rock radio.”

What is this about? I got to thinking about it during the Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival which featured, as I recall, examples of both kind of music-enthusiast serial killer.

What, if anything, do we know about what real life serial killers like as far as music? Does this taste dichotomy map onto the real world at all?

And at least for creativity’s sake, can’t horror movie serial killers, if they have to keep on showing up (and again, moviemakers, I plead with you: do something more original), start listening to country music or folk or Hanson or something new?