WARNING: Major spoilers ahead!

What is a serial killer? The Oxford Dictionary defines them as “A murderer who repeatedly commits the same offence, typically following a characteristic, predictable behaviour pattern”. That’s what we saw in Reyka’s first season, with the Cane Field Killer. The second season has delivered the Lover’s Lane Killer. Having killed several people at Lover’s Lane, and usually stealing a pair of fancy footwear to boot, this killer definitely fits the serial bill.

Reyka's killers stand in not-so-esteemed company. Film and television have proffered many creepy serial killers. Often they portray real-life serial killers – like Henry Lee Lucas in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Aileen Wuornos in Monster, and Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile ­­– but sometimes they’re merely the product of the writer’s imagination, much like Reyka’s killers are. Here’s a look back at some of film and television’s most infamous.

Hannibal Lecter

He started his life in the book Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, but it’s his on-screen incarnations that have become the most renowned. He is Dr Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist-cum-cannibalistic serial killer. Even though the character is often automatically associated with Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox was the first actor to portray the deadly doctor, in Manhunter. However, the story focused more on Will Graham, while Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs honed in on Hannibal, played by Hopkins. The latter also went on to win an Oscar for the role, becoming (and remaining) one of the few actors to have won the award for a horror film. He also reprised the role in two more films, Red Dragon and Hannibal. After Hopkins came Gaspard Ulliel’s portrayal in Hannibal Rising, which was a blip of an adaptation, although the actor’s performance was praised. But you’d be hard put to mess up this role, it’s so juicy. And no one made it juicier than Mads Mikkelsen in the TV series Hannibal, which took the cannibalistic element of the character to visually striking new heights. Reyka takes inspiration from this show, as well as Demme’s movie, both visually and musically – even some of the characters can be likened to Harris’s, with Reyka a counterpart to Will Graham, while Speelman is a bit Hannibalistic.

Norman Bates

Psycho’s Norman Bates may be fictional, but he was inspired by real-life serial killer Ed Gein. Based on the horror novel of the same name, this 1960 classic was directed by master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, leading a terrific Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Equally innocuous and eerie, Perkins’s Bates arouses sympathy and disbelief, culminating in sheer terror at that sinister closing shot. What followed was a mixed bag of sequels, all featuring Perkins as Bates, as well as a TV movie called Bates Motel with Kurt Paul as Norman. In 1998, an ill-considered remake of Psycho was released, featuring Vince Vaughn as the famous character. In Freddie Highmore, we received a much younger Norman in the TV series Bates Motel. The setting is moved to the contemporary 2010s, but follows what happens before the events of the original film. Highmore is fantastic, but the show is also memorable for fleshing out Norman’s (still alive) mother Norma, brilliantly portrayed by Vera Farmiga.

Patrick Bateman

Another book-to-film character is Patrick Bateman. Rising out of the pages of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel American Psycho, many thought the book unfilmable until Mary Harron came along and proved them wrong. Bateman’s endless meanderings on everything from Phil Collins to business cards sear on the screen, also thanks in large part to Christian Bale as the axe-wielding, chainsaw-buzzing Bateman. Even though Bale had been acting since he was 13, it was his creepy, crazy, confident Bateman that really put him on a star-bound path.

Beverly Sutphin

This is the first entry not based on a book and the first female. In horror, women are often relegated to being victims or final girls, but in Serial Mom the tables are turned. Brilliantly played by Kathleen Turner, Beverly Sutphin is a perfectly coiffed, cooking, baking, home-running mother and wife who not only happens to be obsessed with serial killers, but is one too. This white-picket-fence mom will do whatever it takes to brighten her day – whether it’s making obscene prank calls or killing people with cars, fire irons, and food. Fun fact: Beverly’s horror-movie-loving son, Chip, is played by Matthew Lillard who would go on to play a horror-movie-loving serial killer in Scream.

Ghostface

Scream’s killer is known as Ghostface, but he’s not one person. In the first movie, Ghostface – the serial killer terrorising the town of Woodsboro – turns out to be two high school students (the aforementioned Lillard, as well as Skeet Ulrich’s Billy Loomis). For the remainder of the franchise, with the exception of the third film, there was always more than one person behind the iconic mask. The best of the lot is undoubtedly Loomis, and his legacy looms large. Of course, no matter who the killer or killers, over the course of six films they all left a slew of victims stabbed, slashed, and sliced.

Will Reyka catch the latest killer she’s been tracking? Watch the season 2 finale on Thursday 29 February at 20:00 on M-Net channel 101. If you’ve missed any episodes, catch up on DStv Stream here. Take a peek at the season finale here:

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