Similarities Found Between Virginia Tech Shooter, Horror Film
One self-portrait has an uncanny resemblance to a South Korea film
By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: Washington Post
Apr-20-2007
In what is sure to once again ignite the debate over how movies
influence the terrible actions of others, some observers say the man
responsible for killing more than 30 people at Virginia Tech earlier
this week may have drawn some parallels with a popular South Korean
horror movie.
In photographs sent to NBC News by Cho Seung Hui just before the
massacre took place, the man included several photos of himself with
various poses with his guns. Also included, however, was a photo of
himself holding a hammer in a stance that some say is similar to one
used in publicity shots for "Oldboy," the 2003 revenge thriller from
Park Chan Wook, that was a major Cannes Film Festival winner in 2004.
However, not everyone is convinced that films such as "Oldboy" should be
targeted as accessories to the massacre, like Washington Post's Stephen
Hunter.
"For one, 'Oldboy' wasn't a gun picture," Hunter said in his column.
"The only gun in it is a derringer that figures in the denouement. It's
a movie about the bone-shattering force of hammers on limbs and skills,
and the physical exhaustion of fighting. Its violence, though pervasive,
is never beautiful or graceful. The violence is never idealized; you
cannot look at it and be sduced by it."
In the film, a man named Oh Dae-su is imprisoned in a strange apartment
for nearly 15 years, never knowing who is captors were or why he was
kidnapped in the first place. He goes through more than a decade of
torture and isolation, and after his release, seeks revenge on the man
who puts him there. The twist, however, is that the man he's trying to
find also is seeking revenge on him.
In his column, Hunter says that if any actions are going to be compared
to films, than they need to be compared more to John Woo's work,
including the film "The Killer" which features a character going down a
corridor, knocking on doors, and when they're answered, the protagonist
opens fire.
How much do horror films influence real-life crime? Not as much as
people might think, horror director Wes Craven told Australia's
Melbourne Herald-Sun.
"If someone has violent thoughts, they're going to be attracted to
things with violence in them," Craven said. "But are those things making
them have violent thoughts? I don't believe so. Horror films and violent
films are not a cause of violence itself."
Mayank Chhaya, a commentator for the Malaysian Sun didn't take a
position one way or the other on whether horror films directly
contribute to violence, but did talk about how much of an influence
"Oldboy" may have had.
"It is highly likely that Cho knew of the film and probably emulated
that scene to accentuate the impact of his own post-mortem," Chhaya
said. "In a series of videos ... Cho rants against perceived or real
humiliations he faced, quite like the businessman Dae-su. From all
available accounts, Cho seemed to be disturbingly in control of his
faculties, carrying out the murders with extraordinary precision and
finality. That too seemed reminiscent of the 'Oldboy' protagonist.
"Although it is always hard, if not impossible, to decide whether art
reflects life or life absorbs art, in this particular case, the latter
being the case does not appear to be too far fetched. Cho's body
language in the footage released by NBC News suggests a fiendishly
determined mind who has no doubt whatsoever that the world, or at any
rate some people in it, has wronged him and he must avenge that."
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