The spectacle of the wounded body has always had its lurid attrac tions. Coverage of serial killings and graphic accounts of brutal mur ders by various media are part of our" spectacular" culture fascinated by violence and brutality. The television is often the site where private desire and public fantasy meet, and where the fascination regarding dangerous offenders is initiated and nurtured (Knox, 17-18; Lesser). The convening of the public around scenes of violence represents what Mark Seltzer terms the" wound culture," a lethal space in which the public interest in scars and mutilated and opened bodies constitutes a collective fascination with the unbearable aspects of human life. Although television news coverage reports violence and atroci ties of all kinds, movies are the main medium through which dan gerous individuals are presented to the public. The serial killer and psychopathic representations of unexplained violence can be found in such films as Friday the 13th, Halloween, Cape Fear, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Sharrett; Schmid). The empha sis on the hidden danger of the psychopath has replaced the Western, with its more clear-cut images of the dangerous individual, as the most popular genre of film related to the body and to representations of bodily violence in our culture (Corkin). In effect, current horror movies, and their associated prequels and sequels, use an efficient