Netflix series careful to portray serial killers as sick, not suave

New Netflix series Mindhunter may deal with serial killers, but the realistic show is careful to portray them as sick rather than suave, writes Ed Power

DAVID Fincher has given us two of the greatest ever serial killer movies: the feverish Seven (1995) and true-crime classic Zodiac (2007). For his third foray into the genre, he is eager to puncture the mystique around ritualistic murderers. The goal with Mindhunter — adapted from the memoir of a real-life FBI agent and just released by Netflix — is to hold these individuals to account as the pathetic, deranged monsters they truly were.

“The mission statement is that he wanted to denude this idea of the serial killer as a genius comic book villain with a twirling moustache, listening to the opera and drinking Chianti,” says Jonathan Groff, the musical and Broadway star whom Fincher requested to play against type when casting him as pioneering FBI behavioural science unit detective Holden Ford.