Anvilicious: The media turns killers into celebrity icons.
Award Snub: Although there was Hollywood talk that Rodney Dangerfield's dramatic performance was worthy of an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, his application for membership in the Academy was rejected. No respect.
The soundtrack is a mix of world music and Broken/Downward Spiral-era Nine Inch Nails. And it's absolutely fucking incredible. The song "Burn" deserves special mention.
Draco in Leather Pants: A deliberate deconstruction of this trope even before This Very Wiki and The Draco Trilogy were ever created, showing how the media can sensationalize the killing spree of murderous criminals. Even the interview segments in the film also play up the physical attractive element of Draco In Leather Pants.
When Mickey delivers a well-deserved "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Wayne shortly before killing him, calling him scum that no one cares about, citing how he only took an interest in them for the ratings and the prestige and mocking his reaction as to why no one sent a team to rescue him after he and Mallory abducted him, saying "That why 'helicopters were not de-ployed'!"
He's Just Hiding: In the Deleted Scene where Grace is repeatedly stabbed with a pencil by Mickey while testifying against him, she is seemingly killed but is also flailing her arms at him after several stabs and has her eyes open as she falls to the ground, leaving a little room for doubt about her fate.
In one scene, Wayne Gale refers bitterly to his audience with the words "zombie land". 15 years later, his film partner Woody Harrelson (Mickey Knox) stars in Zombieland as the Crazy-Prepared redneck.
Robert Downey Jr.'s character is hunting down Woody Harrelson's character for an interview. Given the rights issues involved, this is probably the closest we'll get to an Iron Man vs. Carnage movie. What's more, in 2021 Venom: Let There Be Carnage featured Harrelson's take on Carnage as one half of an Outlaw Couple with Shriek, the two of them on a road trip of murder much like a superpowered Mickey and Mallory Knox.
Misaimed Fandom: So many people think this film is meant to show how awesome the Knoxes are. There are even those who classify it as a love story. Take a look at the list of copycats... which include Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In the novelization, there's an epilogue of 'fan emails' to the Knoxes, and 'news clippings' about copycat crimes that result.
Moral Event Horizon: If Ed abusing his own daughter wasn't enough to convince you he's a bad man, then drunkenly having sex with Mallory and forcibly impregnating her will.
Narm: Dwight McClusky's death already wasn't too tragic of an event given what a bastard he was, but what really makes it this is his scream, which is identical to Two-Face's scream as he falls to his death in Batman Forever. A given as he is portrayed by the same actor. Although in the Director's Cut, we see him being torn apart and his head being carried around on a pike by the prisoners.
Overshadowed by Controversy: The film inspired a number of copycat killers who would get with a lawyer and claim that the movie inspired them to commit crimes in imitation of the fame-seeking homicidal Outlaw Couple in the film. They carefully left out that they were also on acid, but the film became rather controversial because of this, in spite of its intended condemnation ofmedia sensationalism.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Let's put it this way. There's a good amount of Quentin Tarantino fans who want him to remake the film to be true to his script. That Tarantino himself is dissatisfied with how this film came out perhaps cements this trope.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A big chunk of the film deals with Mickey and Mallory's crimes, exploring how psychopathic they are, dealing with their media attention, and what happens in prison. Then you watch other characters like Scagnetti and Wayne Gale, and see that they aren't much different from Mickey and Mallory. Needless to say, the only characters you feel sorry for at the end of the movie are the victims, at least the ones who didn't deserve it anyhow.
The Woobie: Grace, a teenaged survivor of the killing spree who appears in a Deleted Scene, is quite pitiable. Mickey and Mallory kill her friends and her brother during a sleepover, with flashbacks showing that she's distraught and terrified throughout the whole ordeal. When she testifies at their trial (driven by the memory of her friends and brother), Mickey (representing himself) cross-examines her in a way designed to disturb her and dig into the trauma. Then he repeatedly stabs her with a pencil, seemingly fatally.
... which include Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In the novelization, there's an epilogue of 'fan emails' to the Knoxes, and 'news clippings' about copycat crimes that result.