History Main / ThemeSerialKiller

* The Origami Killer in Quantic Dream's ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' has a rather unique way of killing his victims. He kidnaps his victims in public places ( a local park for example), though no one ever actually sees him. His victims disappear for four days (still alive throughout the time period) and then are found dead in a wasteland-like environment, drowned in rainwater with an orchid on their chest and an origami in their hand.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Azrael}}'', the Crusader murdered members of [[AncientConspiracy the Order of Purity]] in ways based on the martyrdom of various Christian saints.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** ComicBook/TheJoker once decided to kill everyone in Gotham whose name was a palindrome. Like most of Joker's crimes, this theme was selected on a whim.

-->"I'm not a butcher, I'm not a Yid,
-->"Nor yet a foreign skipper.
-->"I am your own lighthearted fiend,
-->"Yours truly, Jack the Ripper."

* Issue #14 of Neil Gaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' featured a convention of Serial Killers. While a variety of serial killer stereotypes were explored, one in particular fits this trope. At one point, two serial killers (one calling himself "Fuck You!" and the other calling himself The Connoisseur) are comparing victim counts, and when Fuck You laughs at The Connoisseur "score" (he's only killed eight people, as compared to Fuck You's 170+), The Connoisseur admits that he has very refined tastes when it comes to victims.
---> ''"There was something about pre-operative transsexuals that fascinated the Connoisseur..."''

* Plenty of ''Series/{{Millennium}}'' episodes revolve around this type of killer.

* A recurring threat in ''Series/{{Hunter}}'', appearing in episodes such as the three part "City Under Siege", "Lullaby" and the two part "Fatal Obsession" (a.k.a. the one where Molenski gets killed).

The motives of the killer for choosing the set can vary. If the motive is revenge or punishing a sin, then the killer is also a PoeticSerialKiller.

* Issue #14 of Neil Gaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' featured a convention of Serial Killers. While a variety of serial killer stereotypes were explored, one in particular fits this trope. At one point, two serial killers (one calling himself "Fuck You!" and the other calling himself The Connoisseur, are comparing victim counts, and when Fuck You laughs at The Connoisseur "score" (he's only killed eight people, as compared to Fuck You's 170+), The Connoisseur admits that he has very refined tastes when it comes to victims.

* In ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'', the killings follow symbolism from the Literature/BookOfRevelation. [[spoiler:A subversion, however, as it turns out this pattern is a total coincidence.]]

* ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'': In "Muse", Morse investigates a series of murders where the victims are killed using methods inspired by Biblical murders as depicted in Renaissance art. Small wonder that Morse does not twig to the theme until he sees several paintings reproduced in the same book.

[[caption-width-right:325:I'm sensing a theme here.]]

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The murders in [[Recap/SupernaturalS04E05MonsterMovie "Monster Movie"]] are modeled after old monster movies from Creator/{{Universal}} while the murders in[[Recap/SupernaturalS08E08HunteriHeroici "Hunteri Heroici"]] are themed after Animation Tropes and reference western animation.[[spoiler: In "Monster Movie", the culprit is a shape-shifter who found solace in his status as a monster through the old Universal monster movies and sought to emulate them. In "Hunteri Heroici", the culprit is the nursing home doctor of a senile octogenarian psychic. The psychic has major PowerIncontinence and spends all day watching ''WesternAnimation/Looney Tunes'' cartoons, so he has an area of effect where everything within several miles of him functions on CartoonPhysics, which the doctor exploits to rob banks, steal from the other nursing home residents, and kill anyone who gets in the way]].

* There was an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' where the killer based his killings on those in Bones' recent book, but the manner of the killings was different each time. [[spoiler: It turned out it was a StrangersOnATrainPlot.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Se7en}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/se7en.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Se7en}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pride_4.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:I'm sensing a theme here.]]

* There was an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' where the killer based his killings on those in Bones' recent book, but the manner of the killings was different each time. [[spoiler: It turned out it was a Strangers On a Train Plot.]]

* In ''Film/Madhouse1974'', the murderer uses the murders in the ''Dr. Death'' films of actor Paul Toombes as the theme for their killings. This leads a lot of people to figure that the killer probably is Toombes. Even Toombes himself (Creator/VincentPrice) starts to think [[TheKillerInMe he might be doing it).

* ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes'' uses the 10 plagues of Egypt to carry out his revenge.

* In ''Film/Madhouse1974'', the murderer uses the murders in the ''Dr. Death'' films of actor Paul Toombes as the theme for their killings.

* In ''Film/TheatreOfBlood'', Creator/VincentPrice (playing a hammy [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean]] actor) kills theatre critics in the manner of various deaths from Shakespeare's plays. Including ''Madhouse'' and the ''Dr. Phibes'' movies, this is the fourth Vincent Price movie to involve this trope.

* In ''Film/TheatreOfBlood'', Creator/VincentPrice (playing a hammy [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean]] actor) kills theatre critics in the manner of various deaths from Shakespeare's plays.

* Issue #14 of Neil Gaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' featured a convention of Serial Killers. While a variety of serial killer stereotypes were explored, one in particular fits this trope. At one point, two serial killers (one calling himself "Fuck You!" and the other calling himself The Connoisseur, are comparing victim counts, and when Fuck You laughs at The Connoisseur "score" (he's only killed eight people, as compared to Fuck You's 170+), The Connoisseur admits that he has very refined tastes when it comes to victims.
---> ''"There was something about pre-operative transsexuals that fascinated the Connoisseur..."''
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency'', a killer starts murdering members of the Ripperologists (a club of people interested in UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper) in an order based on Jack the Ripper's famous poem:
-->"I'm not a butcher, I'm not a Yid,
-->"Nor yet a foreign skipper.
-->"I am your own lighthearted fiend,
-->"Yours truly, Jack the Ripper."

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''

* Johnathan Doe from ''Film/{{Se7en}}'' bases his victims and deaths on the seven deadly sins.
* In ''Film/TheatreOfBlood'', Creator/VincentPrice (playing a hammy [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean]] actor) kills theatre critics in the manner of various deaths from Shakespeare's plays.

* Stuntman Mike in ''Film/DeathProof'' kills with his [[TitleDrop death proof]] stunt car.
* ''Film/TheRaven2012'' features a series of killings based on Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's works. As it's a 19th-century period piece, Poe himself gets involved in the investigation.

* In ''Film/RipperLetterFromHell'', the Ripper is picking off victims with the same initials as the victim of UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, and [[JackTheRipoff recreating the wounds Saucy Jack left on his victims]].

* In ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'', the killings follow symbolism from the Literature/BookOfRevelation. [[spoiler:A subversion, however, as it turns out this pattern is a total coincidence.]]
* One of the earliest (if not the first) examples in English literature is S.S. Van Dyne's ''Literature/TheBishopMurderCase'', where the killer murders his victims based on classic nursery rhymes.

* The killings in ''Lestrade'' by MJ Trow are all based on the cautionary tales in Heinrich Hoffmann's ''Literature/ShockheadedPeter''.

* The killer in ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'' used the classic 4 elements as a theme to his murders... and for the locations. Earth, Fire and Water were easy; Air took a little creativity. [[spoiler:He punctured the victim's lungs.]]

* The killer in ''Literature/TheBoneCollector'' bases his murders on turn-of-the-century crime novels.

* Parodied in ''Literature/MakingMoney'' with the [[LIsForDyslexia Dyslexic]] Alphabet Killer, who only got as far as A and W.

* The Literature/InDeath series has quite a few serial killers, but the most interesting one would probably be from ''Imitation In Death''. In this, the serial killer imitates other famous serial killers, in methodology, victim selection, and any famous 'quirks'. The first killing is a prostitute, with her uterus removed, and a taunting note is sent to Eve Dallas once she's identified as the investigator: Jack the Ripper. The second killing is identical to the Boston Strangler, another to Ted Bundy. The author eventually switches to fictitious killers, once to provide an opening for Dallas to act, and another who specializes in police officers to up the danger quotient - and yes, the killer intended to imitate the latter in order to take out Eve, as his final 'triumph'.

* There was an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' where the killer based his killings on those in Bones' recent book, but the manner of the killings was different each time. [[spoiler: It turned out it was a Strangers On a Train Plot.]]

* ''Series/{{Lewis}}'': In "Magnum Opus" the killer associates each murder with a stage of a four-part alchemical procedure.

* In the finale of ''Literature/LessonsForAPerfectDetectiveStory'' the serial killer known as the Amateur Detective Serial Murderer kills amateur detectives.
* The serial killer in ''Series/BronBroen'' who kills people in media-attracting ways to highlight social problems in Scandinavia, from class wars, poverty, those weak and vulnerable in society (children and the mentally ill), corrupt police forces, etc.
* Subverted in ''Series/JonathanCreek'', where a series of murders are linked by the media because the victims were all women with flowers for names. The media obsess over the psychology of the SerialKiller (and terrify all women in London with flower names) while it turns out that the killer was actually a disturbed individual killing at random and the flower names thing was a coincidence. Worse, a different, premeditated killer is able to (temporarily) get away with a murder because his intended victim had a flower name and fitted into the other killer's false "pattern".

* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'': In "Murder Under the Mistletoe", the murderer uses 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' as his theme.
* {{Parodied|Trope}} in ''Series/TheITCrowd'', where Moss says if he was a themed killer he'd go by the title of "The Gardener" and he'd leave a rose at the scene of the crime as his calling card. When Roy presses him for what his murder weapon would be, he thinks for a {{beat}} then answers ''[[ZigZaggedTrope "...a hammer."]]''
* ''Series/CSICyber'': In "5 Deadly Sins", the killer uses the so-called '5 deadly sins' of social media (Hate Speech, Porn, Violence, Drugs, & Trolling) as their theme: killing victims guilty of these sins in a manner appropriate to the sin.
* ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}'': Kit Nelson, one of the escaped inmates from Alcatraz, was a [[WouldHurtAChild child killer]] who always performed the same ritual to imitate the way that [[SiblingMurder he murdered his own brother]], who was his first victim. He only targeted preadolescent boys, breaking into their rooms at night to kidnap them, then force them to participate in his brother's favorite pastimes. Eventually, he would strangle them and drop off the bodies back in their room with a flower in their hand.
* ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'', "Off the Record": Kavitsky specifically targets high-profile {{Hypocrite}}s, whom he kills in a manner that matches what he considers their "crime". An environmentalist who secretly owns a private airplane is drowned in jet fuel, and so on.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': In one episode, [=McGee=] realizes that a series of murders being committed are based on the book he is currently writing, and all the victims are patterned off the characters (who themselves are based on himself and his coworkers, placing the whole team at risk). [[spoiler: The culprit is the barista at the coffee shop McGee often writes at, who became obsessed with McGee and the story to the point he believed the story was real, and was killing "characters" he believed posed a threat to the "protagonist" (McGee). Realizing this prevented the killer from killing Abby, who the killer believed planned to kill McGee over being rejected romantically]].