Evan Peters’ Golden Globe win shows weird pattern in Hollywood

Rachel Spiller, Contributing Writer

Following Evan Peters’ win at the Golden Globes for playing Jeffery Dahmer in the Netflix limited series, the actor received overwhelming backlash.

Tony Hughes was a victim of Dahmer. Shirley Hughes, Tony’s mother, called out Peters and the series for disregarding the families of victims and continuing to play into the fascination of serial killer shows and films.

In an interview with TMZ, Hughes stated Peters should have gone a different direction with his acceptance speech. Peters should have acknowledged the families of those who lost a loved one and are still grieving, as well as encouraged Hollywood to end the fascination of serial killer drama series and films. 

People enjoy this genre of media, but sometimes it goes too far. As a society, we have the tendency to glamorize and romanticize true-crime cases, in part because we are so desensitized to it. 

Peters said in his acceptance speech that he “sincerely hoped some good came out of” the Dahmer series. Hughes responded that nothing good could come from the show or Peters’ award. 

Hollywood has a twisted history of glamorizing serial killers, seldom considering the victims’ families and the repercussions of forcing them to relive this trauma. 

True-crime media has become increasingly popular over the past several years due to the creation of limited-series, podcasts, YouTube channels and even TikTok accounts dedicated to the genre. 

This issue has risen before upon the release of “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” a 2019 Netflix film that starred Zac Efron portraying the infamous Ted Bundy. During this time, not enough backlash was received after viewers romanticized Efron’s role on the internet — some going as far to say that he was the “right man to play Ted Bundy.”

Actors, directors and screenwriters are to blame for the blatant and inappropriate development of films that highlight real, cruel people and the things they have done. 

Actors like Peters and Efron have a large enough following to decline roles that portray such villainous people, and when they do accept the role, they draw more attention to the picture due to their fame. 

Why do we need these attractive and already well-established actors to play these roles?

Currently, there are more than 10 Jeffery Dahmer centered films and TV shows, at least nine for Ted Bundy, and at least five focusing on John Wayne Gacy. This does not even include infamous killers in shows like “American Horror Story” and in copious true-crime podcasts. How many of these do we really need, if any? 

When so much attention is drawn to these stories, we lose sight of the reality of these situations. Many of these films and shows provide backstories and show the childhood of these serial killers, which can be dangerous by leading viewers to justify these people’s actions based on their upbringing, family life and living circumstances. 

By losing sight of the reality of these crimes, viewers begin to lack empathy for the families that are still bearing the grief of their loss. Instead, they contribute to profiting screenwriters such as Ryan Murphy and Joe Berlinger, and the multitude of actors that star in these pictures. 

Families of serial killer victims rarely, if ever, make any sort of profit off of television series or films that feature their loved one’s murder.

Serial killers are not worthy or deserving of so many forms of media to be created surrounding them. Loved ones of victims are still working to heal and don’t need to be constantly reminded of the tragedy that changed the trajectory of their lives.