Inept Hollywood thrillers

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A witness to the mayhem at Virginia Tech yesterday was hiding with others in a room behind some kind of locked or barricaded door, according to one news story I read, and he said that the gunman tried to push his way in and couldn't, and (according to one news report) that he then tried to shoot his way in -- two or three rounds were fired at the door handle or lock mechanism -- but couldn't.

That, I said to myself, is something that screenwriters of Hollywood action thrillers and horror films have never depicted, and in fact have chosen never to depict. The psychopathic Hollywood killer is always omnipotent, and can never be stopped from killing his victims by a locked or barricaded door...not ever. He always knows where the would-be victim is hiding, he's always a step or two ahead of the game, and he's always waiting for the would-be victim in any hiding place and ready to go "boo."

This is what is ineffective -- inept -- about too many Hollywood thrillers. They don't respect reality and the fact that sometimes a simple locked door saves your life. Not very exciting, perhaps, but do you think the people who were shuddering and praying to God behind that locked door yesterday were bored as Cho Seung-Hui tried to shoot his way in?

I feel pretty<< previous | next >>Howard, Frost/Nixon, Angels and Demons

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 17, 2007 at 10:26 AM

comment #1

jeffmcm says ...

Two recent movies that understood this point: Perfume, where the serial killer is a lonely freakish obsessive, and Death Proof (in the final scene) where he's thoroughly whipped.

One movie that understood this point the wrong way: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, which chose to point out how ludicrous these slasher cliches were, then promptly forget that lesson and reiterated all of them without irony. Dumb.

Posted by jeffmcm at April 17, 2007 11:03 AM

comment #2

thevisceral says ...

On Mythbusters they showed that shooting locks doesn't work.

If that Seung-Hui guy had watched Mythbusters, he'd have known that, and saved himself a few rounds.

Posted by thevisceral at April 17, 2007 11:04 AM

comment #3

Josh Massey says ...

I don't think you needed that column earlier today. This is the perfect post for this site - acknowledging the tragedy, but making a sly connection to film that nobody else had written about. (That's a compliment, by the way.)

Posted by Josh Massey at April 17, 2007 11:30 AM

comment #4

berg says ...

... the following happened so long ago, but just shows that homicide and nuts are nothing new ...

"Bath Township was the scene of the May 18, 1927 Bath School Disaster, a series of bombings of a farm, elementary school and car. The bombings killed 45 people and injured an additional 58; most of these were children in the second through sixth grades. The Bath School Disaster is the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in United States history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine High School massacre. It was also the worst act of domestic terrorism in the United States until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Disgruntled Bath Consolidated school board member Andrew Kehoe, upset by a property tax levy to fund the school building that he blamed for putting his farm into foreclosure, first killed his wife and set his farm buildings on fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion rocked the school building. A detonator that Kehoe had planted in the school ignited dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol hidden inside the school's north wing, killing the majority of the victims. While rescuers gathered at the school, Kehoe drove up, called the school superintendent over and detonated a bomb in his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the superintendent, as well as killing and injuring several more. An additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of pyrotol that had failed to explode was subsequently found inside the school's south wing." ... from wilkopedia

Posted by berg at April 17, 2007 11:34 AM

comment #5