Tropescilloscope: Serial Killer

The Trope: Someone who murders many people in separate incidents. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Award-Bait Song Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Funny Background Event Death Seeker Video Credits Death of a Child Bare Your Midriff The Alleged Car Big Brother Instinct Index of Film Westerns Up to Eleven Revenge In the Back Accidental Murder Psychopathic Manchild Anti-Villain N-Word Privileges Due to the Dead Brick Joke Real Life Paper-Thin Disguise Freudian Excuse Horror Films Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Action Genre Evil Counterpart Almost Kiss Death by Sex Abusive Parents Dull Surprise Naked People Are Funny After the End Big Fancy House Pet the Dog Deadpan Snarker Overprotective Dad Calling the Old Man Out The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Silent Movie Madness Mantra Henpecked Husband The Chick Mistaken for Gay Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Boom, Headshot! The Reveal Mugging the Monster Male Frontal Nudity Hero Antagonist Sadistic Choice Adorkable What Happened to the Mouse? Face–Heel Turn Drill Sergeant Nasty You Killed My Father Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil World of Ham Same Language Dub Contrived Coincidence Big Applesauce Mind Screw Loophole Abuse Large Ham Real Life Writes the Plot Leave the Camera Running Neck Snap Epic Fail Ax-Crazy Kubrick Stare Genre Throwback And Starring Stealth Hi/Bye Laser-Guided Karma Implacable Man Faux Affably Evil Alas, Poor Villain Everyone Has Standards Take That! Chekhov's Gunman Honor Before Reason La Résistance Novelization Beauty Is Never Tarnished I Did What I Had to Do Spiteful Spit From Nobody to Nightmare Major Injury Underreaction Random Events Plot Despair Event Horizon Arch-Enemy Badass Grandpa Public Domain Feature Films Sci-Fi Horror The Ghost Anti-Hero Sole Survivor "Shaggy Dog" Story Authority Equals Asskicking Sinister Minister Artistic License – Law Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Took a Level in Badass Reasonable Authority Figure Small Name, Big Ego Redshirt Army The Stinger Blackmail Evil-Detecting Dog Punch-Clock Villain Logo Joke Dies Wide Open All Men Are Perverts Our Zombies Are Different Artistic License – Biology Japanese Films Mythology Gag Adaptation Dye-Job Historical Villain Upgrade Flashback Truth in Television Even Evil Has Loved Ones Rousing Speech Victoria's Secret Compartment Heel–Face Turn Not Even Bothering with the Accent Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Actually Pretty Funny Agony of the Feet Reality Ensues It Will Never Catch On Eye Scream Adaptational Attractiveness Together in Death Driven to Suicide Smug Snake Animated Credits Opening Roaring Rampage of Revenge Chiaroscuro Historical In-Joke Expository Hairstyle Change Men Are the Expendable Gender The Starscream All There in the Manual Reality Is Unrealistic Match Cut Exact Words Hypocritical Humor The Alcoholic Call-Forward Bound and Gagged Adaptational Heroism Does Not Like Shoes Hooker with a Heart of Gold Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Badass Longcoat Becoming the Mask Villain Song Pyrrhic Victory And I Must Scream Disguised in Drag Karmic Death Monumental Damage Psycho for Hire Five-Man Band Redemption Equals Death Cool Old Lady Bald of Evil Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Suspiciously Specific Denial The Ace Ambiguous Disorder Belligerent Sexual Tension True Companions Improbable Aiming Skills Adults Are Useless Captain Ersatz A Date with Rosie Palms Punny Name The Dragon Off-into-the-Distance Ending "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Bottomless Magazines No OSHA Compliance Historical Hero Upgrade Vampire Fiction Leitmotif '80s Hair Mr. Exposition Hair-Trigger Temper Stealth Pun Throwing Your Sword Always Works Bolivian Army Ending Smoking Is Cool Moment Killer Dark Reprise "Well Done, Son!" Guy Suddenly SHOUTING! Defrosting Ice Queen Bloodier and Gorier Corpsing Hero of Another Story Guile Hero Evil Cannot Comprehend Good The Hero Dies In Name Only Bullying a Dragon Improbable Weapon User Femme Fatale Only in It for the Money Poor Communication Kills Villainous Breakdown Last-Name Basis Not So Different Danny Peary Cult Movies List Never My Fault Only Known by Their Nickname Riddle for the Ages I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Intrepid Reporter Kill 'em All Red Oni, Blue Oni Ship Tease Diabolus ex Machina The Film of the Book Fan Disservice Heel Realization Demoted to Extra Break the Haughty Shout-Out Daylight Horror Fire-Forged Friends Dogged Nice Guy Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Creepy Child The Dog Bites Back Soundtrack Dissonance Dark and Troubled Past Jitter Cam Cool Old Guy Mexican Standoff Rated M for Manly Evil Laugh Re-Cut Jerkass Be Careful What You Wish For Parental Neglect The '70s Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Outrun the Fireball The Un-Reveal Disney Death Silence Is Golden Sports Stories You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Fourth Date Marriage You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Rule of Three Names to Run Away from Really Fast Jerkass Has a Point Dissonant Serenity Lampshade Hanging Unreliable Narrator Product Placement No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Ass Shove Dramatic Irony Superhero Black Dude Dies First Grey and Gray Morality Bad "Bad Acting" As You Know Sequel Hook Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Scenery Gorn Hypocrite Setting Update Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Evil Is Petty Foil A Minor Kidroduction Not So Above It All He Who Fights Monsters Humiliation Conga Eagleland Grievous Bottley Harm Getting Crap Past the Radar Big Bad Duumvirate Dual Wielding Left the Background Music On Body Horror Lock and Load Montage A God Am I Artistic License – History Deus ex Machina Stylistic Suck Annoying Younger Sibling Pragmatic Villainy Dirty Coward Car Fu Dramatic Gun Cock Police Brutality Your Cheating Heart Male Gaze Nothing Is Scarier Scare Chord Animal Title Index Face Death with Dignity Neck Lift Film Series Cool Car Fun with Acronyms Composite Character Fanservice Gone Horribly Right Took a Level in Jerkass Obstructive Bureaucrat Those Two Guys Batman Gambit Pretty Little Headshots Badass Bookworm Instant Death Bullet Meaningful Echo Blatant Lies Offscreen Teleportation Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Papa Wolf Curse Cut Short Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Room Full of Crazy Catapult Nightmare Berserk Button Shirtless Scene Fatal Flaw Stuff Blowing Up Romantic False Lead Russian Films Early Installment Weirdness Fiery Redhead Would Hit a Girl Villain with Good Publicity Ungrateful Bastard Action Survivor Defiant to the End Eldritch Abomination Man on Fire Facial Horror Pragmatic Adaptation Sanity Slippage Gainax Ending Improvised Weapon Vomit Indiscretion Shot Self-Deprecation Race Lift Cain and Abel Obviously Evil Shower Scene Not So Stoic Stalker with a Crush Our Vampires Are Different Death by Irony Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Shoot the Shaggy Dog Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Foregone Conclusion Rewatch Bonus Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Gratuitous English Knight Templar Green-Eyed Monster Easily Forgiven Film Noir Index Ironic Echo Freeze-Frame Bonus What You Are in the Dark Book-Ends Genre Savvy Mooks Have a Gay Old Time Trailers Always Spoil Cassandra Truth Eureka Moment Black Comedy Author Avatar Mundane Made Awesome My Greatest Failure Christmas Movies Index The Dreaded It Can Think Bloodless Carnage Slashed Throat Only One Name Wretched Hive Reckless Gun Usage Heroic BSoD Only a Flesh Wound Action Girl Narrator Cruel and Unusual Death Amoral Attorney Retirony Earn Your Happy Ending Hollywood Law Fish out of Water Alliterative Name Greater-Scope Villain Call-Back Plot Hole Hidden Depths Music Stories Refuge in Audacity As Himself Death Glare Documentary An Arm and a Leg Anguished Declaration of Love Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Credits Gag Disappeared Dad Double-Meaning Title Apocalypse How Gold Digger Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy The Smurfette Principle Fantastic Racism Meet Cute Auto Erotica I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Decoy Protagonist Pre-Mortem One-Liner The Musical I Have Your Wife Film Noir Cowboy Cop Crucified Hero Shot Mood Whiplash Vitriolic Best Buds Slap-Slap-Kiss Parental Incest Lighter and Softer The Brute Stock Footage Sequel Escalation Straight Gay The Cavalry The Remake I'm a Humanitarian Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Dutch Angle Kick the Son of a Bitch Bi the Way Bond One-Liner Gorn This Is Gonna Suck Bury Your Gays It's Personal Dumb Blonde Never Trust a Trailer Skewed Priorities Eiffel Tower Effect Evil Is Hammy Posthumous Character Ambiguously Gay No Antagonist Combat Pragmatist Red Shirt All Girls Want Bad Boys Didn't Think This Through Age Lift Destination Defenestration Playing Gertrude Token Minority Parental Abandonment Department of Redundancy Department The Stoner Early-Bird Cameo Camera Abuse The '90s The Casanova Final Girl Vomit Discretion Shot Fanservice Extra More Dakka Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Wounded Gazelle Gambit Storming the Castle Never Found the Body Spell My Name with an "S" Broken Aesop Failed a Spot Check Epic Movie Unspoken Plan Guarantee The Mafia Empathic Environment Maybe Ever After Actor Allusion Crazy Jealous Guy Awesome, but Impractical The Sociopath The Stoic Enemy Mine O.O.C. Is Serious Business Comically Missing the Point Deliberately Monochrome My Beloved Smother Married to the Job Big Damn Heroes Genre Shift Four-Temperament Ensemble Asshole Victim Black and Gray Morality Time Skip Famous Last Words Corrupt Corporate Executive Recycled IN SPACE! Hope Spot Mama Bear Dramedy Black Best Friend Show Within a Show Ominous Latin Chanting Say My Name Gory Discretion Shot The Oner Cold-Blooded Torture Kill It with Fire In Medias Res Big "NO!" Black Comedy Rape Would Hurt a Child Mad Scientist Adaptational Villainy Brother–Sister Incest Butt-Monkey Australian Movies Broken Pedestal The Lost Lenore The Chessmaster Let's Get Dangerous! Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold One Steve Limit Killed Mid-Sentence The Voiceless Not What It Looks Like Adaptation Expansion Drugs Are Bad Badass Normal Love Triangle Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Costume Porn Scenery Porn Only Sane Man Bond Villain Stupidity Curb-Stomp Battle Foreshadowing Closed Circle Dropped a Bridge on Him Extreme Doormat Training Montage No Name Given Psychological Thriller Suspiciously Similar Substitute Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Unusual Euphemism NO INDOOR VOICE The Bad Guy Wins No Celebrities Were Harmed Blonde, Brunette, Redhead B-Movie Sassy Black Woman Disproportionate Retribution Spared by the Adaptation Antagonist Title The Great Depression Adaptation Name Change Based on a True Story Dirty Cop Military and Warfare Films And the Adventure Continues Jerk Jock Manchild Ms. Fanservice My God, What Have I Done? Babies Ever After Betty and Veronica Did Not Get the Girl Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Adult Fear She's Got Legs Anyone Can Die Distracted by the Sexy Establishing Character Moment Red Right Hand Break the Cutie Undying Loyalty Double Entendre Your Head A-Splode Mr. Fanservice Spiritual Successor Zombie Stories Rich Bitch The Power of Love Market-Based Title Gilligan Cut Heroic Sacrifice BFG Card-Carrying Villain Covers Always Lie There Is No Kill Like Overkill Twist Ending Insistent Terminology Better to Die than Be Killed Loads and Loads of Characters Back from the Dead Serious Business An Aesop Bilingual Bonus Protagonist Title Expy She Cleans Up Nicely Anachronic Order Bring My Brown Pants Politically Incorrect Villain Crazy-Prepared Shell-Shocked Veteran The Mole Advertised Extra Once More, with Clarity! From Bad to Worse Light Is Not Good Naïve Newcomer Cat Fight Meaningful Name 20 Minutes into the Future Dark Is Not Evil Hong Kong Films How We Got Here May–December Romance Idiot Ball Informed Ability Title Drop Arranged Marriage It's All About Me Cool Guns What the Hell, Hero? Adaptation Distillation Does This Remind You of Anything? Groin Attack Depraved Bisexual Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Children Are Innocent Sealed Evil in a Can Intergenerational Friendship Damsel in Distress Canon Foreigner Tagline Plucky Comic Relief No Ending He Knows Too Much Fingore Broken Bird Rule of Cool Evil Brit Artistic License – Military Crapsack World Guns Akimbo Frame-Up Star-Crossed Lovers Brutal Honesty Nice Guy Meaningful Background Event Police are Useless Fat Bastard Non-Indicative Name Whole Plot Reference Drives Like Crazy The Place Hell Is That Noise Rule of Symbolism The Hero Retcon Dying Moment of Awesome A.I. Is a Crapshoot One-Word Title Animal Motifs Ambiguous Ending Anachronism Stew Unresolved Sexual Tension Beware the Nice Ones Chekhov's Skill Make It Look Like an Accident Funny Foreigner Needs Wiki Magic Love Bad Boss Really Gets Around Tap on the Head Immune to Bullets Every Car Is a Pinto Yandere Woman Scorned Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Toplessness from the Back Ghost Fiction No-Sell Disney Villain Death Breaking the Fourth Wall Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Taking the Bullet Dark Action Girl Take a Third Option A Father to His Men Kick the Dog Bloody Hilarious The Lancer Dirty Old Man Framing Device Cat Scare Manic Pixie Dream Girl Flipping the Bird The Quiet One The '80s Tempting Fate Attempted Rape German Films The Smart Guy Those Wacky Nazis Italian Films Sir Swears-a-Lot Noodle Incident Insane Troll Logic No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Half the Man He Used to Be Artistic License – Physics Reality Has No Subtitles French Films Chekhov's Gun Villain Protagonist For the Evulz Affectionate Parody Aside Glance Determinator Camp Gay All Just a Dream Not Quite Dead The Bully Author Appeal Rule of Funny Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience An Axe to Grind Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality The '60s Retired Badass Adaptational Badass One-Man Army Very Loosely Based on a True Story Unwitting Instigator of Doom Heterosexual Life-Partners Running Gag Canadian Movies Precision F-Strike Karma Houdini Abhorrent Admirer Bittersweet Ending Line-of-Sight Name Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Get Out! Cluster F-Bomb Motor Mouth Word of God Mystery and Detective Films Bar Brawl "The Reason You Suck" Speech Properly Paranoid Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Cool Shades Worthy Opponent The '50s Badass Boast Woman in White Made of Explodium Slasher Movie Big Eater Taking You with Me Developing Doomed Characters Captain Obvious Super Strength Shut Up, Hannibal! Sacrificial Lion The Atoner Nice Hat Those Two Bad Guys As the Good Book Says... Cloudcuckoolander Action Prologue "Awesome McCool" Name Villain Ball Evil vs. Evil Evil Sounds Deep Love at First Sight Happily Married Bowdlerise Accidental Misnaming Interrupted Suicide Catch-Phrase The Faceless Good Is Not Nice War Is Hell Morality Pet Wicked Cultured Artistic License – Geography Darkest Hour Horror Comedy Extremely Short Timespan Wham Line Casting Gag Offscreen Moment of Awesome Soft Glass Deal with the Devil Pretty in Mink Manly Tears Oh, Crap! Overly Long Gag Pay Evil unto Evil Older Than They Look Darker and Edgier Mercy Kill Spanner in the Works Unusually Uninteresting Sight folderlabel Obfuscating Stupidity You Have Failed Me Television Movie Index The End... Or Is It? Race Against the Clock Continuity Nod Determinator aka: The Determinator Downer Ending Homage Deliberate Values Dissonance Important Haircut Even Evil Has Standards Handicapped Badass Domestic Abuse Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Well-Intentioned Extremist Arc Words The Ditz timeperiod Alpha Bitch The Big Guy Translation Convention Serial Killer Chase Scene Science Fiction Films Death by Adaptation Armor-Piercing Question Wrong Genre Savvy Blood Knight Fainting Faking the Dead Hate Sink As Long as It Sounds Foreign Manipulative Bastard Central Theme Pimped-Out Dress Hollywood Darkness Fatal Family Photo Badass in a Nice Suit Jerk with a Heart of Gold Malevolent Masked Men Peek-a-Boo Corpse Stepford Smiler Irony All for Nothing Fantasy Films Celebrity Paradox Off with His Head! For Want of a Nail Red Eyes, Take Warning Aluminum Christmas Trees Big-Bad Ensemble Evil Plan Fate Worse than Death All There in the Script Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Heroes Want Redheads Ripped from the Headlines Rape as Drama Exactly What It Says on the Tin Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Bitch in Sheep's Clothing MacGuffin I Need a Freaking Drink Ascended Extra Not Using the "Z" Word Here We Go Again! Bunny-Ears Lawyer British Films Missing Mom Martial Arts Movie Deconstruction Sexy Discretion Shot Works Set in World War II Knife Nut Humans Are Bastards Beard of Evil Gender Flip Amusing Injuries Parental Substitute Biopic Bait-and-Switch Romantic Comedy Bavarian Fire Drill Put on a Bus Demonic Possession Creator Cameo Beta Couple Creative Closing Credits Vacation Films Historical-Domain Character Mighty Whitey Shown Their Work Made of Iron Fake Shemp Coming-of-Age Story Eyepatch of Power Brainless Beauty Drowning My Sorrows Wham Shot Blood from the Mouth Rasputinian Death Character Development Chewing the Scenery Kids Are Cruel Visual Pun Air-Vent Passageway The X of Y Conspicuous CG Red Herring Jump Scare Friend to All Children Dressing as the Enemy The Vamp Shipper on Deck Big Bad Insult Backfire Villain Opening Scene Thriller Artistic License – Gun Safety Affably Evil Hoist by His Own Petard Leaning on the Fourth Wall Scary Black Man Totally Radical Bland-Name Product The Load Dwindling Party Adapted Out Slasher Smile Daddy's Girl Country Matters Tranquil Fury Laughing Mad Imagine Spot The Cameo Too Dumb to Live