The Top 11 Movie Serial Killers
Steve Barton
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Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
Oftentimes we’ll see serial killers set on their murderous rampages by an egregious wrongdoing. That could not be more true than in the case of Sweeney Todd, or Benjamin Barker as he was known before that nasty ol’ Judge Turpin stuck it right up his can, stealing his wife and setting him out to sea to die. Barker was a mild-mannered barber before being set on a path of vengeance. Most recently represented by Johnny Depp in the 2007 version of the story directed by Tim Burton, Sweeeny Todd actually has quite the history, with the original tale being told in a 1936 film, although the Burton/Depp tale much more resembles the 1979 Steven Sondheim musical. Todd disposes of unwanted men in his barber chair (which is advantageously positioned over a trap door), and his literal partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett (played in ’07 by Helena Bonham Carter and by Angela Lansbury in the musical) grinds the bodies up and makes meat pies out of them. Which, surprisingly, the people of London circa 1846 can’t get enough of. As will often happen, the murders get out of control, and things end up going horribly wrong for Todd in this musical tragedy. But a beautiful tale it is.
Curt Duncan (When A Stranger Calls)
Although we’re not privy to much of his past, one has to assume that anyone as creepy as Curt Duncan, who was shipped off to the asylum for literally ripping children apart with his bare hands, had to have a trail of bodies in his wake. Duncan was portrayed by Tony Beckley in When A Stranger Calls; however, while playing the role, Beckley was terminally ill and died in 1980, shortly after the film was completed. Although the killer is not even seen in the iconic opening 20 minutes of the movie outside of a shadow, we find there is just something off-putting about him as we get to know him throughout the rest of the picture. We know the brutality he’s capable of, and when we watch him try to blend into society after his escape from custody, we see just how unsettling he can be. Curt Duncan simply makes the viewers uncomfortable. He’s the kind of guy that makes your skin crawl, and isn’t that the goal? Not to mention he scores huge points for helping make the line “Have you checked the children?” legendary.
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