The Last Hoorah for "The Last Horror Movie"

There's always been a debate here in america between the kooky right wing conservatives and the more liberal types on whether or not on-screen violence contributes to real life violence. While I think the idea of blaming movies, or other forms of entertainment for the actions of people in real life is totally dumb, retarded, and the like....apparently the very very weak-minded amongst the human race do indeed get influenced every now and then by what they see in the movies. Example, a situation currently taking shape in the UK where a teenage boy is currently on trial for a double murder.

The kid who viciously killed two people two years ago, admitted that he had watched the film repeatedly over a span of four days before commiting the slayings. So Tartan Video has decided to stop press on making anymore copies of the film, which involves an amateur filmmaker who distributes his own snuff movies via a video rental store. Interesting eh? Tartan has said they don't think it's fair to profit from a film that may have contributed to the deaths of two people. At the same time though, Tartan is not saying that they are doing so because they believe the movie is in any way directly tied to the boys actions.

Either way, I think this sends a bad message. Granted, it is a respectful thing Tartan is doing, but if someone sends weird dolls to an ex girlfriend and then butchers her soon after claiming they got the idea from the newest horror release "Dead Silence"...then do we yank that movie from theaters?? And say something like, "we're not saying that the movie urged this person to kill but we are just pulling it out of respect for the victims". Look, people die every day, via guns, knives, etc. Some people get the idea to kill from entertainment, some don't. The majority however don't, and those who do are already on the brink and a rap video, movie, or video game might be the straw that breaks the camels back.

In that case, it's still up to the person to exhude some self-control and up to their family to pay attention to what may be happening with Junior and get him or her some help before it's too late. At any rate, yeah this took place in the UK today, but how long before certain groups in the U.S. start pressuring congress and other entities to make distributors and movie studios take the same action here? And you know how riled up folks here can get about certain films: (See Passion of the Christ, The Da Vinci Code, Black Christmas, Saw 3, for examples). While what happened in the UK was tragic, I just hope we here in the U.S. don't follow suit. Art is art, and just because one or two wackos might get set off to kill by a form of entertainment..doesn't mean something should be taken away from us responsible people who can enjoy it while at the same time, separate fantasy from reality.





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