Dexter

Enjoying Horror:

The American nation is obsessed with death, killers, murder. We have numerous forms of murder mystery, who done its and horror films. Dexter, a TV show in its fourth year at Showtime takes all of them together into one well designed creation. The show is based around the lead character, Dexter, who grew up as a troubled child and thus his dad a police officer for the Miami police department decided to train Dexter to become a serial killer, to take justice into his own hands and kill people who were unpunishable or catchable by the American Judicial System. Thus, dexter is a serial killer who kills serial killers. What is documented in the show is a tremendous attention to detail, and preciseness to his actions and a toss up in personal emotions about whether or not to like the character of Dexter, as one side Dexter represents a murderer or the other side which is the vigilante we all desire. Another interesting twist, is the development that dexter is crime scene investigator so he is able to tamper, follow and prowl his victims. The show in general carries a creepy tone with a overshadowing inner monologue as we watch dexter live all fascets of his life.

For this sense of horror we can look at the writings of Berys Gaut, as he writes that "interpretations of horror fictions are used to express personal sexual fears, fear of death (297)" and so on. Dexter represents that little voice in our head that would love to take action into our own hands, kill those who are guilty and suspicious. We all have our inner problems and his are far worse than many of ours. We find similarities that make us happy to watch his struggles. CSI gives us the good guys solving crime, Prison break gives us the bad guys trying to escape. Dexter gives us the bad guy working for the good guys who kills the bad guys. And we love it.

http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do