The third season of Monster, dedicated to the disturbing events of Ed Gein and starring Charlie Hunnam, has become one of the most watched titles on Netflix in just a few weeks. As happened with the previous seasons – focused on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers – too The Ed Gein Story has sparked a wave of online debates, both enthusiasm and criticism.
Many viewers accuse the creator Ryan Murphy of having exaggerated the spectacular component of the story to obtain a shock effect, neglecting the boundary between representation and glorification of evil. Others, however, criticized Hunnam’s interpretation, considering it excessively empathetic towards one of the most disturbing killers in American history.
Yet, beyond the artistic controversies, the question that emerges is another: why do we find stories of horror and real violence so fascinating? Is it just curiosity or does it hide something deeper?
What drives people towards true crime?
A recent study entitled investigates the phenomenon “Out of the Dark – Psychological Perspectives on People’s Fascination with True Crime”published on ResearchGate. The survey, conducted on a sample of between 307 and 571 participants, represents one of the first large-scale studies dedicated to the motivations and psychological correlates of content consumption true crime.
The researchers identified some key findings:
These results suggest that the attraction to true crime does not depend only on the taste for the horror or the media spectacle, but also on complex psychological dynamics. Watch a series like Monster: The Ed Gein Story it can therefore respond to the unconscious need to manage fear, explore evil in a controlled way or even measure one’s emotional limits.
The experts: looking at evil to feel safe or to relive the trauma
The psychologist Thema Bryant, in a speech at The Mel Robbins Podcastexplained that some people find watching traumatic content relaxing because they grew up in high-stress environments and associate calm with boredom:
If your idea of relaxing is watching three episodes of Law & Order Before you sleep, ask yourself why you find the trauma reassuring.
A similar position is shared by criminal justice professor Elizabeth Jeglic, according to whom those who have lived through traumatic experiences can be attracted to true crime to relive, in a safe context, what hurt them: a sort of “controlled exposure” to trauma.
Studying too Out of the Dark offers consistent evidence: consuming true crime can be a way of regulating negative emotions and feeling more in control of fear. However, the researchers caution that the findings are correlational, not causal. It is not true crime that creates discomfort, but it can become a lens through which it manifests itself.
So: is watching Monster a wake-up call? Not necessarily.
Psychologists point out that interest in true crime is today a widespread form of cultural consumption, often linked to the desire to understand the human mind or to symbolically confront evil. However, when viewing violent content becomes compulsive or a substitute for daily relaxation, it can signal a deeper distress, such as anxiety or emotional desensitization.
In short, science does not condemn those who look Monster: The Ed Gein Story; rather, it invites you to ask yourself what role that type of entertainment plays in your emotional life.
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