Stolen Stories from Stolen Lives MEGAN TESCH It’s dark, twisted, and not for the faint of heart; a new form of the cautionary tale. While still based on the historical, it is less so centred around what value a piece of entertainment media may bring to the audience, and instead to the producers. True crime is a genre built upon the precipice of having a victim. If there is no death to exploit, there is no story — and if there is no story, there is no money for the producers to reap.
been brought to your knees in grief like their families. The only details we learn about the victims are graphic retellings of their death. The villain of the story, on the other hand, the audience comes to know quite well. Entertainment companies including Netflix and Prime Video are producing expensive works without the consent of those they portray. Evan Peters’ negligence towards the victims of Dahmer and their families in his 2023 Golden Globes acceptance speech for “Best Actor in a Limited Series” is an indication of how far from reality the industry is. These families are the very same ones that Netflix and creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan failed to adequately consult and contain consent from for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022). According to Screen Rant, Zach Efron joined the long list of nine actors to have portrayed Ted Bundy on screen in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), a film
Shock factor is a key offender in the success of true crime. Some of North America’s worst felonies are displayed in a digestible format that removes the sense of reality from the hideous injustices. With each new horrific story we consume, the shock factor decreases. To keep up with demand, entertainment production companies begin their search for a far-grosser horror. Meanwhile, you bear no burden as a witness to the digital screen. You have not been inflicted with pain in the same way the victim has, nor have you
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