âThe Devil Made Me Do It!â: Representing Evil and Disarticulating Mind/Body in the Supernatural Serial Killer Film

Matt Hills; Steven Jay Schneider

Jump to Content

âThe Devil Made Me Do It!â: Representing Evil and Disarticulating Mind/Body in the Supernatural Serial Killer Film

In: The Changing Face of Evil in Film and Television

Authors:

Matt Hills

Matt Hills
Search for other papers by Matt Hills in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

and

Steven Jay Schneider

Steven Jay Schneider
Search for other papers by Steven Jay Schneider in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 71â87

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401205276_006

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

â¬42.00â¬35.00Â excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

In this chapter we explore the changing fictional representations of serial killers and consider the ways that supernatural horror and the serial killer subgenre have been hybridised in Hollywood films such as Shocker (1989), Fallen (1998), and Frailty (2001). We divide supernatural serial killer films into three categories: 1) those featuring âfranchise killersâ such as Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers; 2) those featuring human killers who return from the grave as supernatural forces, as in Shocker; and 3) those featuring human killers possessed by demons, as in Fallen. We examine representational differences across and within these categories, arguing that such films nevertheless share key properties. Supernatural serial killers are typically âotheredâ as inhuman and their evil treated as metaphysical rather than psychological. A philosophically âdualistâ view of mind/body is consistently expressed in these films, with the killersâ evil âsoulsâ persisting after bodily death and/or leaping from âhostâ body to body.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789401205276/B9789401205276-s006.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

The Changing Face of Evil in Film and Television

Series:Â At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, Volume: 41

E-Book ISBN:: 9789401205276

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2007

Subjects

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	597	213	35
Full Text Views	15	0	0
PDF Views & Downloads	20	0	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

âThe Devil Made Me Do It!â: Representing Evil and Disarticulating Mind/Body in the Supernatural Serial Killer Film

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

The Changing Face of Evil in Film and Television

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics

âThe Devil Made Me Do It!â: Representing Evil and Disarticulating Mind/Body in the Supernatural Serial Killer Film