This movie terrified me because when I was a kid I had an...incident, let us say, with a boy who was just like Jack. To this day I remember him. I was a 4th grader, he was a year older but had been kept back a year so he was considerably taller.
Everyone was terrified of him. He did not speak. At times he would grin at his victim-of-the-week and it never ceased to send a chill down my spine. Already he had been expelled from many a school because no one could quite handle him. We were so afraid of him that no one would ever approach him alone each kid only spent a few days in the desk next to his, we had to rotate because those poor kids who sat next to him were bound to get attacked.
One day he stole a friend of mine's metal pencil box. My friend was too scared to speak to him directly so he asked me to tag along...which I did although I too was afraid. We asked him to give the box back. He looked at the box, looked at us, looked at the box again and then smashed it on my friend's head with such strength that it was completely crumpled and the screws actually fell out. My friend nearly collapsed.
For some reason the school protected him because he was troubled and apparently we all had to put up with him. Until the incident with me happened. It went like this: I was scheduled to sit for a week next to him in class and all my begging did nothing to change it. We sat on the very first row. I was called to the blackboard and so was he (why is beyond me, he never paid any attention to class at all).
So I was standing in front of class while the teacher wrote something on the blackboard when it happened. He lifted a leg and locked it around my neck. Then he began to squeeze. To this day I believe he was trying to choke me. I couldn't breathe, his legs was a vice that kept getting tighter until I began to see black spots all over and started to lose consciousness.
The teacher just stared in sheer horror. But the boy...smiled. Through it all, as he squeezed my neck, he looked at me and smiled happily. He was having fun.
I really thought I was going to die, somehow I managed to kick the leg he was standing on and sent him falling.
The teacher grabbed him by the hand and that was the last we ever saw of him. He was immediately expelled. Later we found out that he apparently had tried to drown his baby sister at some point.
Every now and then I wonder what has happened to him and I suspect he is locked away. I also think the reason why he used his leg to strangle me instead of his hands was because he was used to straightjackets and got used to using his legs.
Had I been a bit shorter and alone, I have no doubt he could have killed me. He obviously wanted to. The smile still gives me nightmares.
reply
share
the_spiral
10 years ago
Yes. I'm a teacher and I once had a student like this. He was five years old. He bonded with me for some reason and was well-behaved in my class, but otherwise he was cruel and sadistic. He was highly intelligent and would plan out his attacks when teachers weren't looking. He stabbed other children with pencils and scissors, tried to sexually molest them, and one time pushed a little girl down and repeatedly kicked her in the face, knocking her teeth out. He was expelled after that last incident. The most chilling thing about his behavior was how happy and gleeful he was immediately after hurting someone. He was proud of his violent assaults in the way other children are proud of their drawings or good grades.
I often wonder about what happened to him. His parents were in deep denial and insisted there was nothing wrong with him - and they were mental health workers! I really hope he got treatment at some point, because I shudder to imagine a grown-up version of that child walking the earth.
reply
share