Of all the villains in all the horror films I've ever seen, I think I feel the most empathy for Kenny. He was just an awkward kid who thought he'd be having the time of his life and instead he was driven insane by a cruel prank.
shareYes, but not much after his killing spree. I'm surprised Doc never faced criminal charges, not to mention kicked out of college.
http://www.freewebs.com/demonictoys/
Doc may've had connections that he could fall back on, and the others could have covered for him somewhat. Plus it was 1980.
shareYes. Same thing with Marty from Slaughter High.
Horror_Metal
I felt more empathy for the killer in The Burning. The dead woman prank is bad, but getting set on fire, losing 5 years of your life in recovery and looking like a monster is much, much worse.
shareI feel the most empathy for the twin brother killer in Prom Night.
shareWhat about Jason Vorhee's mother?Her son drowned at a summer camp,because the two teenagers weren't watching him because they were too busy making love.
shareI think Angela from 'Sleepaway Camp' kind of edges her out.
share"What about Jason Vorhee's mother?Her son drowned at a summer camp,because the two teenagers weren't watching him because they were too busy making love."
OK, so sue the camp for a sh!tload of money instead of murdering people that had nothing to do with it 22 years later.
*beep* spoilers god damn it. Prom nights the only slasher I've never seen
shareEveryone's already mentioned obvious ones like 'Slaughter High' and 'Prom Night' and you have to agree, don't you? So many slasher films from this period feature protagonists who can't really complain too much about being stalked and murdered by a lunatic, considering they were essentially responsible for the events that drove the killer to murder in the first place.
'The House On Sorority Row' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' are two others that spring to mind.
[deleted]
Kenny was hardly sympathetic. He was already mentally disturbed when the prank happened and had even killed someone years before.
share[deleted]
I agree on the latter. but there were mitigating factors in 'The House on Sorority Row.'
. the house mother was semi-abusive
. the killer was genetically unstable/prone to violence, irrc
. that blonde girl was told that the gun was empty & basically knew nothing of gun safety
. all of them were visibly shaken by the event (not stone cold killers or anything)
. people were killed kind of indiscriminately during the film
My vote for number one tragic villain (And I use the word "villain" loosely here) is definitely Sissy Spacek's Carrie White. She was sweet, vulnerable and asked for so little in life. She had to deal non-stop with mean-spirited classmates at school and then with a bat$hit crazy "Mama" at home, things just got worse. The poor girl could not get one good break. Except for the gift of telekinesis!
shareNo, not really. I know that's not the typical response. Every trace of sympathy I had for his character was wiped away the minute he made that speech at the end to Jamie Lee about the magician "not knowing how to cut a woman into pieces." Ew, what a piece of garbage. As vile and stupid as that prank was, there must've already been something twisted and broken in the guy for him to even go to the level of all-out massacre to begin with. Even murdering a totally innocent magician? Nah. Lots of people in the world go through unbelievable trauma and they don't go on wild killing sprees. In the character's mind, what made his trauma any more special or important to push him to that level? Kenny was abnormal and evil. Maybe his classmates got a hint of that and that's why they didn't like him to begin with.
***********************************************************
'Divas, Damsels & Smudged Mascara' - classic film reviews of movies w/female protagonists & thoughts on women in film
http://divasdamselsandsmudgedmascara.tumblr.com/
I can tell you this from being made fun of growing up and sometimes being laughed at and talked about where I can hear them talking about me……..I always wished and felt that the people doing that to me deserved a taste of their own medicine or sometimes worse. Especially when I never meant any harm or wanted to hurt or bother anybody. It always did bother me that by me giving them the same hurt back to them would make me wrong even though they deserved it. It's like…how much nonsense must one take, and if they want to take matters into their own hands, they are in the wrong. Movies like Carrie, Terror Train, First Blood always made me think….they started with me and I didn't bother them, so now I will get them back…….I'm not saying death, but just enough to even the score so they won't bother me again……that's my 2 cents.
shareDidn't they say at one point that he had killed someone, though? They didn't specify whether it was before or after the prank, but it may have been before. If that's the case, he's not so sympathetic.
share