Did Child's Play 3 influence murder?

Dublindude69 · 21-06-2011 12:11AM #1

Everyone knows the tragic case of James Bulger but I always believed the the killers where influenced after watching Child's Play 3. Today someone told me this wasn't true and I informed them it was. I went home and searched the internet to prove my point but the more I looked the more it looked like the two kids never even watched horror movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child%27s_Play_3

The film also has become controversial because it has been indirectly linked to the brutal murder of James Bulger. The killers, who were 10 years old at the time, were said to have imitated a scene in which one of Chucky's victims is splashed with blue paint. Although these allegations against the film have never been proven, the case has led to some new legislation for video films.[7] Psychologist Guy Cumberbatch has stated, "The link with a video was that the father of one of the boys - Neil Venables - had rented Child’s Play 3 some months earlier.[8] However, the police officer who directed the investigation, Albert Kirby, found that the son, Jon, was not living with his father at the time and was unlikely to have seen the film. Moreover, the boy disliked horror films - a point later confirmed by psychiatric reports. Thus the police investigation, which had specifically looked for a video link, concluded there was none.[9]

Everything I find seems to say the same basic thing that the kids disliked horror and there was no link. So why does everyone say the movie is to blame?

The King of Moo · 21-06-2011 12:12AM

The tabloids wanted to stir **** up to make more money from the tragedy.

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 21-06-2011 12:19AM

i remember for years the movies were withdrawn from video stores and rereleased years later,sky cancelled broadcasting the movie,looking into the background both of them came from dysfunctional upbringing.

http://www.film4.com/features/article/here-apos-s-chucky

Biggins · 21-06-2011 12:19AM

The King of Moo wrote: »

The tabloids wanted to stir **** up to make more money from the tragedy.

That.
Enough said.

Cianos · 21-06-2011 12:22AM

I thought it was Marilyn Manson that caused kids to murder each other?

bonerm · 21-06-2011 12:22AM

Wasn't the same thing done at Columbine? Within hours it was spread all over the media that the killers were inspired by the music of Marilyn Manson. Later on it transpired that they didn't even listen to the band. Didn't matter that it was a lie, it was a 'fact' that just fit the story. You might as well not believe anything you read (including this).

charlemont · 21-06-2011 12:24AM

Fairly ****e film anyway.

Wolflikeme · 21-06-2011 12:25AM

Did it fcuk!

It was used as an excuse by the perpetrator's (or their lawyers) as it would make it look like they were influenced by something other than the inherent evil (seemingly) inside them and thus more likely to gain some degree of understanding from a jury.

The King of Moo · 21-06-2011 12:26AM

It happened even before that with A Clockwork Orange, a huge fuss when a kid killed a homeless man like in the film. Turned out he'd never seen the film, but then other lawyers started to blame the film for their clients' crimes, Stanley Kubrick got death threats against himself and his family, and withdraw the film.

Sheer sensationalism, but very damaging when it takes hold.

Captain Darling · 21-06-2011 12:26AM

I was reading Ozzy Osbournes autobiography and he was talking about how he was brought to court in America by the parents of a child who committed suicide apparently because of his song Suicide Solution.

The judge chucked the case out of court in quick time because of the right to free speech whilst also calling Ozzy a bit of a dickhead. Its the whole thing of expressing yourself through art yadda yadda yadda. Same thing applies here.

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 21-06-2011 12:27AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_films#Ireland

1931: Monkey Business was banned because censors feared it would encourage anarchic tendencies

Oh_Noes · 21-06-2011 12:29AM

I loved all those movies. Probably the first one moreso than the rest because it scared the sh1t out of me as a kid like a good horror should.

I've no idea how people get away with publishing the rubbish that the tabloids did at the time, tenuously linking the fact that the kids threw paint on the victim with the paintball scene in the movie. Anything to sell those rags.

Dunjohn · 21-06-2011 12:31AM

I've never seen Child's Play 3 and I've never murdered anyone. Case closed, I think.

Captain Darling · 21-06-2011 12:32AM

Dunjohn wrote: »

I've never seen Child's Play 3 and I've never murdered anyone. Case closed, I think.

You better not watch the Human Centipede then. God knows what you'd get up to. :eek:

Biggins · 21-06-2011 12:38AM

Captain Darling wrote: »

You better not watch the Human Centipede then. God knows what you'd get up to. :eek:

Or god forbid, its now sequal! :pac:

See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/14/tom-six-human-centipede-interview

Part 1 was My Little Pony compared with Part 2...
And Part 2 is a Disney film compared with what will be in Part 3...

:eek:

PrincessLola · 21-06-2011 12:39AM

There is no link between the two. The fact that you 'think' there is means nothing.

bonerm · 21-06-2011 12:40AM

I'd have called sequel the Human Millipede, but then I'm not as clever as those movie-making guys.

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 21-06-2011 12:42AM

Pokemon the movie was violent.

Herb Powell · 21-06-2011 12:44AM

Dublindude69 wrote: »

So why does everyone say the movie is to blame?

Because people are stupid as fuuck

Captain Darling · 21-06-2011 12:48AM

Biggins wrote: »

Or god forbid, its now sequal! :pac:

See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/14/tom-six-human-centipede-interview

:eek:

There's another debate here about whether those 'shock' movies are art or even entertainment.

Shocking for the sake of shocking is a bit rubbish IMO.

Biggins · 21-06-2011 12:58AM

Captain Darling wrote: »

Shocking for the sake of shocking is a bit rubbish IMO.

I agree.

im invisible · 21-06-2011 01:05AM

Biggins wrote: »

I agree.

Thats shokkin'

21-06-2011 01:09AM

I remember this being mentioned at the time but as the second post suggests, it was probably just the tabloids stirring up crap.

pragmatic1 · 21-06-2011 01:11AM

Its not society, the media or entertainment. Its once again down to bad parenting. Dont have kids until you're sure you want them and when you have them, sorry but your life is now number two on the priority list.

Johro · 21-06-2011 01:31AM

'After the trial, Mr Justice Morland laid the moral responsibility squarely with the parents. He said a public debate about the parenting and family background of Thompson and Venables was required. "In my judgement," he averred, "the home background, upbringing, family circumstances, parental behaviour and relationships were needed in the public domain so that informed and worthwhile debate can take place for the public good in the case of grave crimes by young children."
Thompson was a member of what can only be described as a terribly dysfunctional family. The fifth of seven children, he proved as difficult to his mother as the rest of her progeny. Ann Thompson had been deserted by her husband five years before the killing of Jamie Bulger, and in the week after he left the family home burned down in an accidental fire. Left on her own, Thompson sought consolation in drink and was often to be found in the bar in Higson's Top House rather than looking after the children in her chaotic home.
There it was bedlam. The author Blake Morrison obtained notes from an NSPCC case conference on the Thompson family. "The Thompson report is a series of violent incidents," he reported, "none of them in itself enough to justify the kids being taken into care but the sum of them appalling. The boys, it's said, grew up 'afraid of each other'. They bit, hammered, battered, tortured each other."
The report is full of violent instances, with details of such incidents as Ann taking her third son Philip to the police station after he had threatened his older brother Ian with a knife. Ian, aged 15, subsequently asked to be taken into care and when he was returned home he tried to kill himself by overdosing on painkillers. The notes record that Ann and Philip had also previously taken overdoses.
The Venables household was also fraught but contrastingly so. While Susan and Neil Venables lived in separate houses a mile apart, they tried to bring up their children in a united way - Jon spent Sunday to Thursday with his mum and the rest of the week with his dad. But things were difficult. Jon's brother and sister both had learning difficulties and were being taught in separate special schools, while Jon himself was hyperactive and always playing up. It was Jon Venables, not Robert Thompson, who had a record of violence, having attempted to throttle another boy at school.
In January 1987, the police were called to Susan Venables' home because the children (then seven, five and three) had been left alone for three hours. Case notes observe that her "serious depressive problem" made Venables suicidal.'
(The Guardian)

--LOS-- · 21-06-2011 01:38AM

I have something to watch >_>

Dublindude69 · 21-06-2011 02:08AM

Found this video on youtube, it really explained things to me, I can't believe I grew up thinking it was a simple as they watched a movie and did a crime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx1uUnr2aCM

Jackobyte · 21-06-2011 02:42AM

Captain Darling wrote: »

You better not watch the Human Centipede then. God knows what you'd get up to. :eek:

Meh, I've seen it. The idea in it was pretty gruesome but graphically, it wasn't that bad.

Captain Darling wrote: »

There's another debate here about whether those 'shock' movies are art or even entertainment.

Shocking for the sake of shocking is a bit rubbish IMO.

I recently heard about (NSFW) "A Serbian Film". I never intend to watch it, as it sounds truly horrific, but as shock films go, it seems from the wiki page to be about as bad as they get.

Duggy747 · 21-06-2011 02:51AM

Before Mortal Kombat

After Mortal Kombat

deathrider · 21-06-2011 03:34AM

Pretty sure the flick got banned either way. I had a bastard of a time hunting it down on video back in the day.

Dublindude69 · 21-06-2011 12:56PM

Damn it, I've grown a bit interested in this case now. I just ordered a book As If off Amazon which is about the murder. Will keep you posted.

Did Child's Play 3 influence murder?

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