Killer Rich People: Unpacking the Dark Horror of Wealthy Elite in Movies & TV, Explained

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00:00Horror has a long history of creepy villains of all sorts,

00:04from vampires to ghosts to straight-up ghouls.

00:07But one of the genre's favorite villains of the modern era

00:10brings a whole new level of terror.

00:12Wealthy elites with a taste for blood.

00:15Metaphorically, and sometimes literally.

00:18Whether it's a group of disturbingly like-minded one-percenters

00:21or a deranged family focused on safeguarding their generational wealth,

00:26these are actual psychopaths with a desire to bring harm

00:30to everyone who isn't in their in-group.

00:33So let's take a deeper look at this growing trend of killer rich people,

00:37how their economic status makes them an even bigger threat

00:40than your typical villain, why characters in their position

00:43have these disturbing desires in the first place,

00:46and what it says about our own fears of being at the mercy

00:49of the most powerful.

00:51The horror genre loves a family that slays together.

00:54The idea of a loving family coming together to participate

00:57in such horrific acts is as disturbing as it gets.

01:01It takes something that's typically upheld as pure and central

01:04to our society, strong family bonds,

01:07and turns it into something grotesque.

01:09Historically, these dangerous families often appeared in so-called

01:12hillbilly horrors, where they're depicted as inbred,

01:15mutated, or deformed in some way.

01:18More often than not, they were also cannibals, like Leatherface

01:21and the deranged Sawyer family in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre,

01:25and the Jupiter clan in the Hills Have Eyes.

01:28The latter seemingly kidnap and kill because that's how they survive

01:31out in the Nevada desert after being victims of radiation.

01:35But other horror families are more hedonistic,

01:38simply taking pleasure in depravity, violence, and hurting innocent people.

01:42Their grisly appearances and barbaric way of life depict them as feral animals,

01:47rather than human beings.

01:49The horror of their stories essentially rests in the idea that being poor

01:53molds one into something nearly inhuman,

01:56and thus they become terrors for normal, a.k.a. not poor, people to flee from.

02:02On the highest end of the socioeconomic spectrum are the wealthiest of monsters,

02:07those who have the means and endless resources to do whatever they want,

02:12and the status to get away with it.

02:14Being unassuming lets them seamlessly integrate into society,

02:18exemplified by so many of the real-life all-American serial murderers

02:23that populate true crime media.

02:25They're not living in rural areas where their evil deeds are hidden from prying eyes.

02:30Instead, they exist in a bubble of privilege, armed with money, shelter, and education.

02:36The most well-known conception of rich people hunting humans

02:39comes from Richard Connell's short story

02:41The Most Dangerous Game, first published in 1924.

02:45In it, Rainsford, a big game hunter, falls off of a yacht

02:49and swims to an island for refuge.

02:51He finds a chateau owned by General Zaroff,

02:54a fellow hunter who has grown bored of targeting animals.

02:57He tells Rainsford that he's invented a new sensation,

03:01hunting people, who he believes are the scum of the earth.

03:06And because he sees these people as essentially less than human,

03:09he argues that he's actually helping them by giving them a place to stay,

03:14while he hunts them for sport, that is.

03:16Take half-drowned men from ships you've wrecked,

03:19and drive them out to be hunted.

03:21I give them every consideration. Good food? Exercise?

03:25Characters like Zaroff, who become disillusioned with regular hunting,

03:29and seek something more challenging, have become their own trope in horror media.

03:34The Hostel franchise's elite hunting club exists to give rich people

03:38the chance to act on their most twisted fantasies of violence,

03:42with the stipulation that they must kill their victim by the end.

03:45Despite the name, the members don't go out and find people to kill.

03:49Instead, they bid on potential victims.

03:52Hostel Part 2 sees American art student Beth Salinger

03:55using this exclusive service to her advantage.

03:58Don't tell me what I can't afford. There's nothing I can't afford.

04:02I could buy and sell everyone in this room.

04:04She buys her freedom with her inheritance,

04:07and gets the satisfaction of maiming and killing the man

04:10who was about to do the same to her.

04:12Similarly, in Fresh, a man makes his living off selling the flesh and body parts

04:17of women he lures to his secluded home.

04:19I'm gonna sell you meat. People pay me a lot of money for it.

04:23And your hair. And weird shit like that.

04:26Like Zaroff, he tries to claim his victims live, inhumane, even comfortable conditions

04:31before, you know, killing them.

04:33Another offshoot of the trope has emerged that meshes with our modern interest

04:37in game shows and winning big.

04:40Except here, the contestants aren't often just playing for money, but also their lives.

04:45The killer rich people in these stories essentially get off on exploiting

04:49these people's desperate need for money, and use it for their own entertainment.

04:54Netflix's hit South Korean series Squid Game is just that,

04:58an old billionaire tired of the usual privileges afforded to him

05:01who wants to play schoolyard games.

05:03Yes, the participants are willing to go along with it, but they don't initially know

05:22that elimination means death.

05:24And once they do realize what's going on, they feel that they are too far in to give up.

05:29The problems and stressors of their regular lives also mean their lives

05:33could be over at any moment, and so they wager that at least here

05:36they have the opportunity to change things.

05:39In Would You Rather, a wealthy philanthropist Shepard Lambric gathers a group of people,

05:45each in need of money for various reasons, life-saving medical treatments,

05:49paying off debt, etc.

05:51Again, no one is aware of the deadly game they have to play in order to receive money

05:55when they first agree to join. Shepard's son Julian looks down on everyone,

06:00and even though they're being tortured, he still expects gratitude.

06:04You agreed to be here. You're basically asking my family for a handout.

06:09The least you could do, pig. You show a little respect.

06:14For these ultra-wealthy villains, they know that choosing people in lower and middle classes

06:19for their games will usually guarantee they'll get away with harming

06:23and even straight-up killing them, because society so immensely favors the rich

06:28that they can get away with anything.

06:30Ready or not, Grace marries into the affluent Ladomas family,

06:34who made their fortune on board games.

06:36As a former foster child, she really wants a family of her own

06:39and is actually excited to join their brood.

06:42However, the Ladomas' plan is to make her play a sinister game

06:46and sacrifice her to the supposed demon they owe their lifetime of success to.

06:52I'm really sorry about all this. It's true what they say.

06:55The rich really are different.

06:57They'd rather murder someone than potentially suffer financially because of a curse,

07:02a curse that not all of them are even certain is real.

07:05There are also a number of staff members who die by mistake

07:09and are given very little concern and are essentially seen as disposable by the family.

07:13Like Grace, Get Out's Chris is an orphaned outsider entering a wealthy family.

07:19Except even more horrifyingly, the Armitages don't just want to kill him.

07:23They've been kidnapping black people for decades

07:25and implanting their bodies with the brains of rich white people,

07:29who desire their characteristics and talents.

07:32With your natural gifts and our determination,

07:36we could both be part of something greater.

07:38Something perfect.

07:40In American Carnage, fictional Governor Harper Finn

07:44orders all undocumented immigrants be detained.

07:47Their children are sent to work at a nursing home caring for the elderly,

07:51allegedly to earn their parents' freedom.

07:53But beneath the already heinous act, there's an even worse motivation.

07:57Young detainees are injected with a hormone that tenderizes their muscles until they rapidly age,

08:03and eventually get used for hamburger meat.

08:06Despite whatever lies they may have initially used to cover their evil doings,

08:11it becomes clear that this horrifying facility is really only a vehicle to get rid of everyone that the rich deem to be unworthy of living.

08:19In The Purge franchise's alternate America, ruled by a fictional political party known as the New Founding Fathers of America,

08:28citizens have one 12-hour period a year where they get free reign to commit any crime, murder included.

08:35The annual holiday supposedly leads to lower unemployment rates and crime,

08:40but as we find out, these stats stem from intentionally targeting specific communities.

08:45While the government-sanctioned Purge isn't an exclusive right for the wealthy,

08:50their income clearly gives them a huge advantage over others who can't afford protection.

08:55The first installment centered on the Sandens,

08:58an upper-class white family hiding out in their house with a state-of-the-art security system.

09:03When their son gives refuge to an unhoused black man,

09:06the group of purgers he was fleeing from invade their home.

09:09Mr. and Mrs., the man you're sheltering is nothing but a dirty homeless pig.

09:14A grotesque menace to our just society who had the audacity to fight back.

09:18The follow-up film The Purge Anarchy expanded the world,

09:22showing how and why people decide to purge.

09:25While we see plenty of lower and middle-class communities relishing in the temporarily legalized violence,

09:30we also see wealthy elites as they bid on people at auctions,

09:35allowing them to kill in the safety of a secure venue or their protected homes and property.

09:40It's how the wealthy purge, baby.

09:43They buy poor and sick people, and they take them into their homes,

09:47and they kill them where they're safe.

09:49The first purge takes us back to its inception,

09:52the experimental stage when they paid people to participate.

09:55But when not enough people were purging,

09:57the NFFA sent in mercenaries disguised as civilians.

10:01We learn the main reason for this annual holiday was to get rid of the lower classes completely.

10:07This country is overpopulated, Doctor. There's too much crime, too much unemployment.

10:11Is that even true, or did you falsify those numbers?

10:13We also see how, despite the mayhem the rich had expected,

10:17the participants mostly engage in low-level crimes.

10:20The rich have to deliberately ratchet things up to get the kind of large-scale violence they had been hoping for,

10:26the kind that would then allow them to justify their decision to eliminate those same people.

10:31Throughout the franchise, there are characters who band together

10:34and take down the elites, benefiting from their suffering.

10:37Horror movies about the monstrous elite showcase our very real fears and anxieties

10:43about how much control and leeway billionaires are afforded in our society.

10:47We all know on some level, and see it play out every day,

10:52that wealth allows people to play by very different rules from the rest of us.

10:57Killer rich people horror stories just make the violence inherent in immense wealth more readily visible.

11:03And while that is horrifying to see, these stories often also end with a normal person

11:09fighting to end the cycle of violence and save themselves, which is vicariously fulfilling,

11:14but also reminds us that while the security of wealth may seem impenetrable,

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