Tropescilloscope: Serial Killer

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

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