10 Movies That Made You Sympathise With Terrible People

Continuing with real-life crimes, the provocatively titled Monster is a biopic of female serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron). Wuornos was a prostitute who murdered seven of her male clients and was executed in 2002. Whereas Dead Man Walking explores life on death row, Monster shows us in detail how a person can find themselves there.

At the start of Monster Wuronos is not yet a killer. She is a vulnerable woman who finds companionship in Selby (Christina Ricci) at a gay bar. They go on a date at the roller skating rink like a pair of teens, and we viewers watch them gradually fall in love. This is the emotional foundation of a Human, not a Monster. Even when Wuornos commits her first killing it is entirely justified in self-defense, killing a sadistic client whilst he is sexually assaulting her.

But each subsequent killing becomes less and less justified. Wuronos descends into madness and callousness. Whether she is convinced her clients are trying to rape her, or she is just using it as an excuse to kill and rob them we will never truly know. Her cruel killing of the elderly cop client is the point of no return for a woman who we have watched be treated so cruelly by the world around her. When Selby testifies against Wuronos in trial, sealing her fate, the tragedy is complete.

Oh, by the way, don’t watch the film Karla about Karla Homolka - it is trashy, exploitative, and its attempts to make Homolka sympathetic are hollow and insulting.