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Serial Killer Killer: Difference between revisions
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A violent, psychotic killer with a [[Freudian Excuse]] gets sick pleasure out of the suffering of his victims. It sounds like he's your basic [[Serial Killer]], right?
He would be, but instead of terrorizing the innocent, the [[Serial Killer Killer]] terrorizes the guilty. He spends his life tracking down serial killers so he can give them justice. In short, he's a vigilante, who thinks himself divine justice incarnate. [[Bonus Points]] if he kills them in the same way they'd kill their own victims.
Distinct from [[He Who Fights Monsters]] because He Who Fights Monsters is more about good characters turning evil in the process of hunting evil, whereas this is more about someone who is evil, or crazy, or both from the outset.
Arguably, this guy can be [[Chaotic Good]] and be an [[Anti-Hero]], although he walks a VERY dangerous line to become the [[Knight Templar]] or, worse, a [[Complete Monster]].
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A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[The Hunter]].
See also [[Vigilante Man]], [[Knight Templar]], [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]], [[Hunter of His Own Kind]], [[The Killer Becomes the Killed]], [[Nineties Anti-Hero]].
Compare and contrast with the similarly named [[Wife-Basher Basher]], and note that these two tropes more often than not overlap each other.
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== Film ==
* Ben O'Ryan in the film ''[[
* ''[[The Crow]]'' anyone?
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* [[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter]] at times.
* The main character of the novel ''[[Bad Monkeys]]'' claims to be a member of a secret organization devoted to killing people who are just plain evil and unredeemable. Of course, she could be lying. [[Mind Screw|Or not]].
* [[Philo Vance]] in ''The Bishop Murder Case''.
* A.J. Holt's heroine Jay Fletcher in the two-novel series ''Watch Me'' and ''Catch Me.''
* Jeff Povey's [[POV Character]] in the novel ''The Serial Killers Club'' manages to be invited into the titular organization after he takes down a serial killer...and begins to kill off the membership, one by one. He ''says'' he's not a serial killer himself...but he kills again and again...
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* In ''[[The Inside]]'', the episode "Prefiler"'s titular character, played by a pre-''[[Lost]]'' Michael Emerson, profiled potential serial killers, tracked them down before they got a chance to kill, and killed them using their own intended methods.
* Clifford Banks in ''[[Murder One]]'' is a subversion: although most of his victims were unconvicted serial killers, his first ever victim was his brother, whose murder he forgot and mentally pinned on a burglar. Ironically, this is what led him on the killer-killing path.
* After [[Angel]] gets his soul back, Darla accuses him of being this when he tries to win her back. She says that while he ''has'' been killing, it's only been "murderers and rapists." Then she tried to make him [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten|kill a baby]] to prove himself.
* In the very first episode of ''[[Tales from the Crypt]]'' "The Man Who Was Death" Niles Talbot is an executioner who was recently fired after the death penalty was abolished in his town. As a result, he goes on a killing spree, killing those who murdered people and escaped justice by various means of electrocution. However, eventually karma bites him in the ass when the tables are turned on him and he is executed using his preferred method just as it was reinstated.
* Madame Vastra, a Silurian living in Victorian London in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', ''eats'' [[Jack the Ripper]], apparently with Inspector Abberline's blessing.
* An episode of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' has a woman deceive who can't handle that she killed a torturous murderer.
== Tabletop Games ==
* The Forgotten Realms of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' have this as the encouraged behavior of the priests of the little-known deity Hoar, [[Lawful Neutral]] god of retribution. Specialty priests of Hoar are called Doombringers, and are highly encouraged to kill or otherwise punish (as appropriate for the crime) criminals in a manner befitting the criminal's own misdeeds, especially if they can inflict an ironic punishment.
* Similarly, ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' has the Tradition of the Euthanatos. The Euthanatos view existence as a continual cycle of death and rebirth -- "the Wheel" -- and those who unbalance the Wheel through atrocities must be dealt with so that things can be set right.
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