If you could create your own slasher...

[bloody_ribcut]

mine would be a mentally retarted twenty-three year old in a nike jacket, his name is gary and he kills because he's obsessed with michael myers movies.
he claims michael is his brother, and must continue his bidding in secretcey.

[knife_fight]

I always liked Michael Myers more when he didn't have a motivation for killing. it's much scarier, to me, that anyone, at any time, could just flip out and go on a rampage. when they started delving too much into his backstory (motive, what drove him to it, etc.) the franchise lost me big time. it just lets the audience breathe a big sigh of relief like, "OHhhhh, he was abused! that'swhat drove him over the edge! whew! for a second I thought anyone could be a killer at any moment!"

so my killer would be like that. no backstory. just one day flips his shit and starts murdering people in brutal ways (a la Hatchet). except he'd be skinny and not ugly or malformed in any way. just to, yet again, get back to the "regular joe" ideal.

[ChronoGrl]

Originally Posted by Roderick Usher

Billy

A 10 year old boy who is lithe and sneaky and doesn't give a fuck about anything. He hides well and likes old-school practical jokes with a twist, like the bucket of water above the door...except it's a bucket of razor blades

He's particularly fond of poisoning people before slashing them up, so he isn't at such a tremendous size advantage.

He's a child of the system, fostor homes and abuse only unlocked the monster that was always lurking under the surface

Hmm...

That's not such a bad idea

I like that. I'm much more interested in just plain sociopaths than with serial killers who have a backstory.

Also, starting them young is so incredibly creepy and gothic, very much like The Bad Seed or The Other. If we excuse our children for "not knowing any better," how much can we really excuse them fore?


I think that I would like to work on a female serial killer, because you don't see many in movies (I'm not saying that you don't see them at all, mind you, just that you don't see many). As a young girl she is completely sociopathic with no concept of right or wrong or a concept of consequence. She is incredibly sadistic, but not because she enjoys inflicting pain on people and things, but she is curious and extremely fascinated by the psychology of pain and suffering. She does not understand suffering and therefore does not understand what happens when she causes other things to suffer (slow straight razor to a wounded bird or mouse; twisting a playmate's arm much, much to far, just to watch them scream in rapt curiosity).

She manages to grow up without a lot of psychiatric attention because her parents think that her acts are an expression of intellectual pursuit to understand the difference between life and death (remember when you were young and learned about mortality?). She cuts herself every now and again just to taste her own blood, but doesn't feel pain or horror. She is curious about suffering and cannot inflict it on herself (maybe she's masochistic).

Not much of a motive yet... Most "children's" motives are childish greed (in the Bad Seed it's the prestige of winning her class's medal)... Though I want to develop on that. I think that children as absolutely horrifying Big Bads as their sense of right and wrong our skewed and their reasoning is less emotionally developed than an adult.

[knife_fight]

Originally Posted by ChronoGrl

Not much of a motive yet... Most "children's" motives are childish greed (in the Bad Seed it's the prestige of winning her class's medal)... Though I want to develop on that. I think that children as absolutely horrifying Big Bads as their sense of right and wrong our skewed and their reasoning is less emotionally developed than an adult.

but isn't that sort of a reason itself? as I mentioned in my post, it would allow the audience to breathe a sigh of relief of, "She's a kid and a kid's knowledge of right and wrong isn't developed, so she doesn't really know any better."

I'm not attacking your idea, it's a good one, I'm just asking a question. how could you possibly go about making it clear that the girl doesn't feel pain or remorse, without saying it outright Dr. Loomis style? it could definitely be an interesting concept to explore. to figure out a way to outline, for the audience, the killer's inner workings, without busting out some kind of doctor who, somehow, knows what's going on in the killer's mind.

even though you weren't talking to me, :D , I wanted my killer to know the difference between right and wrong, but he just plain doesn't care. perhaps make it even into some form of social commentary, a la Romero.

[Roderick Usher]

Originally Posted by ChronoGrl

She manages to grow up without a lot of psychiatric attention because her parents think that her acts are an expression of intellectual pursuit to understand the difference between life and death (remember when you were young and learned about mortality?). She cuts herself every now and again just to taste her own blood, but doesn't feel pain or horror. She is curious about suffering and cannot inflict it on herself (maybe she's masochistic).

Not much of a motive yet... Most "children's" motives are childish greed (in the Bad Seed it's the prestige of winning her class's medal)... Though I want to develop on that. I think that children as absolutely horrifying Big Bads as their sense of right and wrong our skewed and their reasoning is less emotionally developed than an adult.

Sounds kinda like my favorite little girl

Penny Dreadful
(c) 2007

Penny was a little girl, no more than nine years old
But she had the devil in her; least that’s what I’m told.
The other girls all hated Penny, they teased her every day
Because dark clouds blacked out the sun when Penny came to play.

While the other girls drew ponies and rainbows on their books
Penny dreamt of guillotines and piercing flesh with hooks.
After school when all the kids would run to play outside
Penny slipped into her crypt to sharpen up her knives.

Her shelves were lined with remnants of experiments gone awry
Dogs and bats and toads and cats rearranged and left to die.
She flipped the switch, electrodes cracked and in walked Penny’s Mother
She shrieked “You cut that out right now! Untie your baby brother!”

In her cauldron Penny brewed a potion vile and green
And slipped it in the thermos of “Miss Perfect” Lizzy Dean.
Lizzy gagged and coughed and wheezed and then came something worse
Her hair turned white and all fell out as she ran crying to the nurse.

Penny was expelled from school and sent to see a shrink
They locked her in a rubber room and left her there to think.
And in that room her madness grew, she dreamt of blood and gore
Her nights were filled with witches, monsters, demons and much more.

She played it sweet and dressed in pink, the doctors all believed her
Penny returned the following day and hacked them with a cleaver.
Then to the school her fury turned and the classrooms all ran red
It took two dozen dentists to identify the dead.

Baby brother danced and spun as Penny dropped the blade
She couldn’t help but giggle at the mess his blood had made.
Father slipped into her grip and Penny’s cleaver dropped
And turning to her mother, whispered “Just one more, then I’ll stop.”

[ChronoGrl]

Originally Posted by knife_fight

but isn't that sort of a reason itself? as I mentioned in my post, it would allow the audience to breathe a sigh of relief of, "She's a kid and a kid's knowledge of right and wrong isn't developed, so she doesn't really know any better."

I'm not attacking your idea, it's a good one, I'm just asking a question. how could you possibly go about making it clear that the girl doesn't feel pain or remorse, without saying it outright Dr. Loomis style? it could definitely be an interesting concept to explore. to figure out a way to outline, for the audience, the killer's inner workings, without busting out some kind of doctor who, somehow, knows what's going on in the killer's mind.

even though you weren't talking to me, :D , I wanted my killer to know the difference between right and wrong, but he just plain doesn't care. perhaps make it even into some form of social commentary, a la Romero.

Ahhhh... I hadn't really thought out my character in regards to actual representation on the screen...

Sticky exposition can get just cheesy (sorry, Dr. Loomis, though you have my heart, your lines are so delightfully silly).

That's always been a problem that I've had in screenwriting and observing movies as well.

While observing movies: "WHY do we need so much exposition? Shouldn't the audience just... GET it?"

It's something that I like so much about movies like Lost in Translation... It conveys a feeling, and emotion of isolation and alienation withouth the characters saying, "MAN do I feel alienated and culture-shocked."

While writing screenplays: The biggest critique of my honor thesis (which was a screenplay) was that "motive" wasn't conveyed clearly and my professor was confused as to WHY the main character was acting a certain way... I believe that it takes a lot of talent to CONVEY what is unnatural states of being. That's why we have scenes like the last scene in Psycho in the police station... The compulsion to EXPLAIN every in and out of motive... When, really, this is the weakest scene in the movie.

...

Anyway... HOW to convey that she has no fear, pain, or remorse (even in The Bad Seed, there is the stilted dialogue of what a "Bad Seed" is and questionable origins of the child)...

I think that the visual of a young girl torturing a crying animal with a placid complexion of curiosity, and when asked by her parents, "WHAT are you doing?" she can reply, "I just wanted to know what it looked like inside."

WOW that was a cheesy line. But, honestly, I would have feared Michael Myers even without his Ahab foil Dr. Loomis. Maybe we should give the audience more credit and assume that they could understand how sociopathic my killer is without them having to be TOLD?

I like the concept of knowing the difference of right and wrong and not caring... I am interested in the amoral nature of Man... Being beyond punishment and consequence... And I feel that the better medium is children.

...

Rod - I think I heart you.

Reminds me of one of my favorite little rhymes:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

I remember my parents telling me about Lizzy Borden when my grandparents used to live in Fall River... I should go visit her house.

[knife_fight]

you can also use children effectively to convey feelings that would sound silly coming from an adult, such as the scene in "Julia" (book version, can't remember if it made it to the screen or not) when our heroine walks into a playground and, upon observing a curious child playing by herself, asks another, more social, youngster why no one is playing with her. the reply is simple, yet so thought-provoking, "because she's awful."
such a simple line, but it really packs a wallop.

I too am tired of filmmakers who feel they must spell everything out for their audience, but until the lazy audiences of the silver screen can start seeing film as both art and entertainment, I don't think it'll stop.

[Vodstok]

A wealthy man, well to do and actve in his community. He is a closet gay, but had an overbearing man's man for a father. he tortures and murders women, because he desperately weants to be a "man", but has not sexual feelings for them. he replaces his homosexual desires with lust for suffering women, getting his stimulation from their protacted deaths.


kind of andrei chickatilo meets john wayne gacy.

[ferretchucker]

THANKYOU ROD!

You mentioned penny dreadful in your thread about the illustrations and just the other day I was wondering what t he poem was about. Now I know!

[Disastermind]

Originally Posted by horrorchic

Mine, is a serial killing girl. She first snaps when she is ten and murders her parents, mother first. It is made to look like her father murdered her mother then killed himself.
She stays dorment for twelve years till she is the sanctity of her house again and coaxes people into renting the room of her six bedroom ranch. Each one being murdered, even the cop that is undercover finding out it was too late to change anything.

She has a secret and you will have to wait till I am finsihed with it in my script to find out though. :P

Sounds pretty cool. Kinda a Michelle Myers thing going on there in the beginning.