Vicious Fun is a horror-comedy about a horror movie fan who accidentally finds himself in the middle of a support group for serial killers. As we are introduced to each of the serial killers, I was struck by how well they fit the colors of Magic. (Watch on Shudder.)

Mild spoilers below.


Zachary is the host and convener of the group. He manages the meeting and tries to control the others to maintain order. He kills through his job, as an agent of the government, eliminating foreign threats to the US but relishing in it. He comes through as too sadistic to be pure white (he says his career has been impeded because he's too "messy"), whether it is that he grew sadistic over time in the job or he found the job to enact his homicidal tendencies, but still, white.


Fritz is your torture porn killer, focused on ever increasing his efficiency as a killer and described as "more like a lizard in a skin suit." Although his analytical veneer wears thin as he slips further into his murder clown persona, he stays relatively methodical. He attacks people with a paralyzing agent in the film, carrying syringes with him, and then finishes them off while they're helpless. He is constantly taking notes and says he has a 17-point plan for disposal and concealment. Blue.


Bob is your charming sociopath hidden in plain sight. He is the one most acclimated to normal life, passing himself off as a man of various high-prestige careers. He seduces and kills women. As the most fleshed-out character, he has elements of other colors, but I think he is ultimately killing out of narcissism. He sees himself as superior to others and is also just the biggest ****. He combines intelligence and duplicity with impulsivity and fun, so veering into blue-black-red territory, but still centered on black.


Hideo is probably the one that I struggled the most to put into a color. He is a cannibal ninja, essentially, so he does not fall into a trope as easily and he also has less dialogue and screen time to flesh out his motivations. He demonstrates some qualities that had me switch his and Bob's colors a few times, including his apparent patience and self-mastery. Ultimately, I decided he has a romantic and aesthetic approach toward murder. He does not seem to look down on his victims but rather sees it as a contest. Although all the killers love killing, Hideo seems to see it as an expressive act, an opportunity to prepare and consume raw human flesh (and silence the voice within). Red.


Mike is your slasher movie mass murderer, clearing out sorority houses and campgrounds with his machete. He describes killing as embracing his essence animal, the shark, living by only pure instinct. "Is it my fault society rejects that?" Green.

So I doubt the writer, James Villeneuve, was thinking in terms of Magic when writing the script. But I think he was trying to create a nice cross-section of murderer tropes and it's so happens that Magic's color wheel is also a nice cross-section of human motivations and methods.

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.

Another reason to be sad I don't have a specific streaming service.