Murder at the Movies: Depictions of Homicide within Contemporary Popular Films

• In Event: Crime and Media

Abstract

In popular culture, the portrayal of murder is widespread, graphic and bursting with misrepresentations and stereotypes. The reproduction of murder within popular film is particularly troublesome, as the cinema attracts millions of viewers and in some cases, films become embedded within public consciousness. As such, the purpose of this paper was to systematically study films from 1980 to 2016. For each year, the highest grossing box-office films were reviewed to identify homicides and to analyze historical trends in the portrayal of murder. Demographic characteristics, including race, gender and age of both victims and perpetrators were further examined. In addition, other variables explored included perpetrator motivations, justice outcomes and incident characteristics, such as type of weapon, manner of death and level of graphicness or explicitness. Finally, the portrayal of murder on film was compared with official homicide statistics.

Author

• Kenneth Dowler, Wilfrid Laurier University at Brantford Campus