Demonising Films is Child’s Play

For people of a certain age the recent conviction of two brothers from Edlington, aged ten and eleven, for the torture and near killing of two other children of a similar age (link) will, no doubt, bring back memories of the abduction and murder of Liverpool toddler James Bulger and, somewhat inevitably, the spectre of the video nasty.

…of course, blaming videos is not as popular as it used to be and even the Tories are reduced to making half-hearted links: ‘On each occasion, are we just going to say this is an individual case? That there aren’t any links to what is going wrong in our wider society, in terms of family breakdown, in terms of drug and alcohol abuse, in terms of violent videos, in terms of many of the things that were going wrong in that particular family?’ was the strongest tone David ‘call me Dave’ Cameron was willing take but, although it was not exactly the ‘ban this filth’ stance that his ancestors took, the same old line was being trotted out.  When looking for scapegoats film is still one of the easiest targets.

In the Bulger case there was no such hesitation when it came to the blame game.  All it took was for the trial judge, Mr Justice Michael Morland, to utter “Whilst there has been no actual evidence of this, I suspect that exposure to violent movies has something to do with your actions” (a sentence that actually manages to prove itself wrong) and the press had a target.  Suddenly Child’s Play 3 (1991) was public enemy number one and it suited the agenda nicely.  Chucky even looked the part; these boys were surely possessed and a demonic killer doll was the perfect image for a crime that people could not quite understand (plus the link was further strengthened in our subconscious by that grainy  CCTV footage of the poor toddler being led away).  Well, I say ‘perfect’ but there was the slight snag that no evidence existed that the boys had even seen the film.  So tenuous was the connection that even Merseyside Police did their best to stop the nonsense with one Inspector stating that one “might as well link it to The Railway Children” (1970).

…but mud, especially the tabloid bullshit variety, has a habit of sticking.  Just last week I was leafing through the pages of Real People Magazine (My Cat Was Raped On My Wedding Day, Teen ASBO Thugs Made My Life Hell With Jelly Trousers, I Married A Racist Ghost etc etc) when I came across a piece entitled The Real Story: Child Killers – Little Devils (p. 8/9, Issue 2, 21 January 10).  With the verdict in the Edlington case imminent the magazine had decided to run a piece on similar crimes, the main thrust of which seemed to be to focus on the bad parenting (in particular by the mothers) that the children had received, and yet there it was again; the assertion that the killing of Jamie Bulger was linked to the Child’s Play films.  In fact the piece actually claimed that the boys were “re-enacting scenes from the adult slasher movie”

I know that this ain’t the grim old days of Mary Whitehouse and the Department of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) infamous banned list but it still seems that film fills a nice gap in our understanding of why people, especially those that are supposed innocents, do such things.  Yes, the goal posts have changed and computer games are more likely to fall foul of this type of thing, plus, we are more comfortable pointing fingers at bad parents (especially those that we can look down our noses at) but holy heck ain’t it still easier to stick your head in the sand and blame a movie.

p.s. I did email Real People to ask why they featured the above mentioned discredited theory as fact but received no reply.

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