From horror and mystery, to comedy and romance, Johnny Depp is considered one of the most prominent figures in the modern American film industry. His illustrious career began with Wes Craven’s terrifying “The Nightmare on Elm Street,” playing a particularly normal love struck teen, Glen Latz. Nowadays, he is primarily known as Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, garnering an Academy Award nomination for the film and two other nominations in the years to come.

In “Black Mass,” Depp takes on the role of Whitey Bulger, a convicted murderer and former mob boss.

Bulger had immense power as the leader of the Irish-American Winter Hill gang. He paid off countless FBI agents to stay safe and far away from the government’s penitentiaries until he was caught in his web of lies and had to flee his cushy lifestyle in Boston and move to a small apartment in California. Whitey Bulger was on the run from the FBI for 16 years until he was caught at 81 years old in 2011. Whitey killed at least 19 people.

“Black Mass” focuses on Bulger’s heyday as a gangster when he was in charge of almost all of the organized crime in South Boston.

The film joins a genre submerged in violence and gore, which begs the question, why are people so attracted to these films?

The popularity of crime movies is not a new fad. The first documented crime movie debuted in 1903 called “The Great Train Robbery.” In more recent years, Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” follows one of the most loved villains in all of cinema history, the Joker, in one of the highest grossing crime movies in history. Perhaps an alluring element to the film is the joker’s ability to break the rules that society has put on everyone.

“(The audience members) are voyeurs. They get to see crime and awful things without it happening to them,” Steve Zacharias, a film professor at DePaul, said.

Half the fun of going to a movie is experiencing the adventure without it happening to the viewers, Zacharias said.

“When you look at the main characters in most movies, you identify yourself with the them, people like to put themselves in the character’s shoes,” Victor Shollenberger, a DePaul film student said. “In a sense, you are living vicariously through the main character’s stories.”

Crime movies are no different than a comedy or a musical in terms of connecting with a character. If the movie is produced effectively with a compelling plot and complex characters you have a greater chance to connect to a character.

Criminals steal, fight, and kill. For the most part, all audience members can do is, buy, compromise and tweet angrily.

“People like a thrill,” Ashlyn Kelley, a DePaul film student said. “With crime movies they get a more realistic sense of danger. They can walk right up to the edge of the cliff without actually jumping.”

Or, in the case of some movies, jumping right off the edge and taking the audience with them. Crime movies take audience members where they cannot go, be that a train robbery or an action filled explosion. They connect with their audiences by offering them a release from the rules of everyday life, allowing them to experience danger from the comfort of the theater’s seats. So, if you’re feeling in need of a release, head on down to your local theater and check out “Black Mass.” It is bound to give you that adrenaline rush you’re looking for.