Extremely Wicked director explains why people are obsessed with true crime stories

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile director Joe Berlinger has explained the increasing obsession with serial killers.

Cannibals, serial killers, and torturous clowns have captivated the collective consciousness in recent months.

Once reserved for Halloween, or scary campfire stories, murderers are being brought to the forefront of our minds and television screens – Ryan Murphy's Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story being a prime example recently.

So, why exactly are we collectively becoming obsessed with killers?

You probably know Berlinger's work well, he's the man behind the Conversations With A Killer series, which traces archival footage and recordings of notorious killers to get a closer look at cases that gripped the world,Ted Bundy being one of his most infamous subjects.

The documentary was then made into an incredibly successful Netflix film, with Berlinger once again at the helm.

So, it's safe to say the man has a pretty good idea why people have recently been so pre-occupied with killers.

His answer? Streaming services, "which push things out with their algorithms and target the right people. And it’s a global audience – internationally a lot of these stories are not known," he says

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He went on to add that the viewing numbers for his Ted Bundy docu-series 'would make your head spin.'

And this, coupled with some pretty scary stats are why Berlinger says the series are so successful. "At any given time, depending on what report you believe, there’s 10 to 25 active serial killers in the world."

We'd really rather not think about that for too long, but as the director told The Times: "America has an epidemic of unsolved murders, particularly of marginalised communities and women. Serial killing, which is the worst crime of all, is part of the human condition.

Maximum Film / Alamy Stock Photo

"As storytellers about aspects of the human condition, do we stop making films about adultery? Do we stop making films about love? Do we stop making films about greed?"

Still, it's one thing to make a film about greed, quite another to fill a streaming service with serial killer documentaries, films, and mini-series.

Regardless of this, though, Berlinger maintains that they're important stories to tell, as he explained: "We want to think that serial killers are serial killers 24/7, that they come out of the shadows dripping in blood. But the reality is that most people who do terrible things, whether it’s a paedophile priest or Bernie Madoff or Ted Bundy, usually present themselves as likeable, trustworthy people."

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