WHY are we fascinated by the darker aspects of human nature?
Streaming services are littered with TV shows and podcasts about mass murderers, psychopaths, sadistic cult leaders and other grisly members of society we’d avoid like the plague in “real life”.
There are even whole channels devoted to true crime, like Investigation Discovery, which I sometimes watch.
Maybe we like to peek at the dregs of humanity from the safety and comfort of our living room.
This macabre fascination is taken to another level in the exhibition Mind of a Serial Killer: The Experience, opening in Perth next month.
• Mind of a Serial Killer: The Experience is coming to Perth in December (Happy Christmas).
A who’s who of depravity, it features 16 infamous serial killers including Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy.
In a world-first, there’s even a room dedicated to Ivan Milat, the notorious Australian “Backpacker Murderer”.
Exhibition Hub marketing director Gilles Colinet says society’s fascination with deplorable human beings is not a new phenomenon.
“True crime has fascinated people for centuries, long before streaming,” he says.
“It runs from mythology and folklore to the penny papers and the documentaries we watch today. What’s changed is access: there are now more ways than ever to explore these stories.
“At its heart, I think it comes down to a very human need to understand. When something as incomprehensible as a series of murders happens, people want to know how and why, and what drives someone to that point.
“And there’s a protective instinct, too. Understanding how these crimes happen helps people think about how societies can protect the vulnerable.”
Across more than 20 rooms, visitors explore the evolution of criminal investigation, forensic science and psychological profiling that helped law enforcement catch serial killers. Documentaries, videotapes, interviews and recreated crime scenes bring the cases to life in an eerie fashion.
Colinet says the exhibition is built around “education and empathy” and while it is immersive, they were at pains to not make it sensationalist.
“Like shows such as Mindhunter, we’re interested in the psychology and the investigation: how investigators, profilers and psychologists work to understand violent behaviour and, ultimately, to prevent it,” he says.
“We worked with subject-matter experts throughout development, so the content is grounded in official investigations, police records, court documents and other verified sources.
“Just as importantly, we made sure the victims are acknowledged throughout, so the human cost of these crimes isn’t overshadowed by the notoriety of the perpetrators.”
A selling point of the exhibition is the VR experience, where visitors step into a reconstructed investigation and experience the process of working a case.
“It brings people closer to the investigative process than ever before, and it captures what the whole exhibition is about: understanding the work of investigators, the psychology behind the crimes, and the pursuit of justice,” Colinet says.
“It’s one of 20 multi-sensory stops across a 90-minute journey, alongside artefact replicas, crime scene recreations, documentaries and digital recreations of case files and psychological profiles.”
The exhibition has been a hit across the world, attracting about 500,000 visitors in New York, Seattle, São Paulo, Montreal, Brussels and Dublin. Gallery shots on the exhibition website include an attendee sitting in a blood-drenched bath and smiling, and a man grinning as he takes a selfie in a serial killer’s lair.
Our complex relationship with true crime remains.
Mind of a Serial Killer: The Experience opens on December 17 at the Northbridge Centre in Perth. For more info and tix see mindofaserialkillerexpo.com.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK