I've not seen this movie, but read a news report that a copycat murder was inspired by it, a man tied to a tree then burned alive:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/8022946.stm
I don't really want to see the movie now, but I'm curious to know what people who have seen it think about the news report.
I just read this on another news site and I find it disturbing when prosecutors etc try to blame someone's sick twisted mind on a movie as a motive/reason for murder.
These people were already sick to begin with, and if they hadn't have watched Severance they would have found some other countless horror film for their 'inspiration' or come up with something 'unique'.
It's not horror movies that kill people; it's people that kill people. Stop trying to pass the buck for people's accountability.
"Stop trying to pass the buck for people's accountability"
I'm not passing the buck for anything. I just asked for opinions about the news article from people who've seen this movie.
I wasn't talking about you - I was talking about prosecutor's blaming horror movies partly for their crimes and not the actual murderers 100%
shareAh, ok. I dread to think what a prosecutor would make of this, yes. On the other hand, it sounds like pretty good circumstantial evidence, if it really does match up closely with the movie, given the witness testimony mentioned.
shareStill it's like blaming school massacres on Marilyn Manson etc, or the Matrix. It's not the film makers/musicians fault that their are are people out there that are sick and are easily influenced with a skewed view of reality. Watching some fantasy flick does not give anyone the excuse to murder without accountability.
Did they have horror movies back during the Inquisition for example? Did Cavemen watch 'Clan of the Cave Bear' before clubbing his fellow cave dweller's brains into mush with a stick? I don't think so.
For the one or two people that blame horror movies for their sick minds there are 1mil+ fans that know it's entertainment. Why should one idiot be allowed ruin it for the rest of us?
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The article and prosecutor even got it wrong... Its a woman tied to a tree and she is doused in petrol and lit by a flame thrower.
The film doesn't show it in any graphic detail, we see her doused in petrol and the killer turn holding a flame thrower and her face as she realises she's buggered.
As above, some seriously messed up people out there...
Anyone else notice that the 19 year old Mr Clarke is a father of five?
Yeah defence lawyers always come out with that crap . You see all these bleeding heart do gooders genuinely don't believe people are responsible for their own actions . Everything is the fault of the media or society etc
shareFYI It was the prosecution who offered the connection.
shareAnd can you give me a link to this where the prosecution blamed a movie for the murder ?
shareWhat possible justification would the *prosecution* have for deflecting culpability from the accused?
What the prosecution did was point out to the jury that one of the people of accused of a murder by burning had a watched a murder by burning in a film and said something like, "Wouldn't it be wicked if you could actually do that to someone in real life?".
Search news.google.co.uk for
"three convicted of burning teenager alive"
Premeditation would be a very good motive for the prosecution . It seems to be more and more difficult for the CPS to get a murder conviction , they're very happy if someone pleads guilty to manslaughter since they have to prove premeditation for murder
If someone watches a movie and says " Hey that looks cool " a year before they actually kill someone the prosecution would leap upon this in order to prove a point .
If you want to see a really graphic depiction someone hung-up, doused in petrol and hit with a flame thrower watch 'Don't go in the House'. It is pretty clear where the makers of Severence got their inspiration from for this scene
"For God sakes, buy a better suit, you can come in here dressed like that"
Agreed. There really are just evil, evil people who would find ANYTHING as a source of 'inspiration' for a murder.
What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here
Agreed... "Movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative!"
shareIt's easier for the press to make a straw man out of the entertainment industry when it comes to murders etc. To turn around and say "Person A killed Person B because Person B did something to upset them" is speaking ill of the dead and doesn't go down well in the public sphere. Continually trying to implement entertainment in the actions of such individuals makes for an ongoing debate (which we are currently engaged in here), and this is more beneficial to the press than reporting simple acts of violence perpetrated by one individual onto another because of personal reasons. The press has an ulterior motive in putting forward the whole "monkey see, monkey do" philosophy becaust it means single reports can be stringed together into one longer campaign if you will.
I think the recent attempts to link Old Boy with the Korean student shooting up his school in the US are the most telling. They found photographs where the student was posing with a claw hammer in a similar way to some of the Old Boy promotional material. All this tells us is that the guy was angry and found a character that he used as a symbol, that was particularly relateable because of his background. He didn't, however, go about his murders using a claw hammer.
People who want to hurt other people will do it. Films might give them ideas, so what? As Ice T said of the guy who allegedly sang his song "Cop Killer" while assaulting a police officer; "that guy obviously wanted to do that all his life, all I did was give him a theme tune".
Can you imagine if that scene would have been from a game.
share"Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative"
Maybe it's not the exact quote, but Billy in Scream said something similar.
I think that also reality create psychos and sometimes "sane" people vote for them to go into the whitehouse.
The real question is... which kind of psycho is the most dangerous one? The noticeable one or the sneaky little motherfkar?