From Joe Goldberg To Ted Bundy, Why Are We Lusting After Serial Killers?
Netflix would like to remind viewers the people they're thirsting after are, you know, serial killers.
Really, we're doing this again?
One week after Penn Badgley scolded You fans for lusting after his murderous character, Joe Goldberg, Netflix viewers are pining after another serial killer — a real one this time. A real-life, cold-blooded murderer. I wish I was making this up.
When the documentary Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes hit the streamer, it wasn't too long before viewers started calling the infamous killer "hot."
If your definition of "hot" is someone known for kidnapping, rape, thievery, and necrophilia (in short, a freaking monster), then sure, Ted Bundy is "hot."
These fans were obviously blinded by Bundy's "good looks," which poisoned their minds and caused them to tweet unspeakable things about the murderer.
Bundy is infamous for slaughtering numerous women in the 1970s. He was put to death after he confessed to 30 homicides (that number may actually be higher, but there's no way to prove it at this point). He was known for luring women, charming them with his looks, and attacking them once they felt safe. He raped and murdered his victims, and would sometimes decapitate and incinerate their heads, which he sometimes kept as mementos in his apartment.
When Netflix got word of the widespread reaction to Bundy, it took to Twitter to remind subscribers there are thousands of other hot men on the platform — men who aren't serial killers. Ever heard of Peter Kavinsky? Charlie Young? Zach Dempsey? I could go on!
Part of the reason Bundy (even writing his name gives me chills, not gonna lie) is getting so much attention is due to the Sundance Film Festival release of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, in which Zac Efron — one of the original internet boyfriends, might I add — stars as Bundy. If you're projecting Efron's attractiveness to Bundy, that I might understand. However, Netflix's take is a documentary that features actual footage of Bundy, including one in which he confesses his abominable crimes.
How can you still find him "hot" after watching and hearing all of that?
Ew.
The Bundy obsession is eerily similar to the You debacle. Fans — even after numerous lectures from Badgley — went gaga over Joe Goldberg, a character who stalked and eventually killed his girlfriend and everyone close to her.
Maybe we can trace it to charisma. Efron and Badgley are both good-looking actors so it's not surprising that people are drawn to them.
It's just so, so creepy that anyone would be that attracted to a dude who took off people's heads for fun.
