Don't Go Back Into the House 50pts

Something I’ve learned from watching scaring movies. People are not logical at all! The react to the situation the worst way they possibly could. Another thing I’ve learned, do not pick on people! That should be a given, but horror movies really pound it into your brain if you watch enough of them. One of the best examples of “bullied teen turned psycho” horror movies, aside Carrie is Chronicle. The movie is based off of a boy, Andrew, who is not liked at all either at school or by his father at home. He begins filming everything, giving it the mockumentary, so that he can “show everyone” what happens to him on the daily. At a party, he, along with his cousin Matt and soon to be friend Steve, stumble upon a whole in the ground. Within, they encounter a foreign object which knocks them out. When they awake, they all have powers beyond comprehension. This sets up a story in which Andrew slowly “makes friends” and gets stronger, only to be bullied still. At the same time he is bullied at home and worried for his dying mother. He starts to defend himself against the bullies and mean ol’ daddy by using his powers, and people find him even weirder. Eventually, while trying to steal enough money for his mother’s medicine, blows himself up, putting him in the hospital. Therein, his father confronts him about how awful he is. Andrew snaps, and starts wreaking havoc on Seattle. In the end, there is a show down between him and his cousin, Matt; Andrew loses his life in a last resort choice by Matt.

There are many things people do wrong in regards to this film. For starters, Andrew’s father is an abusive alcoholic who falls short of blaming Andrew of his wife’s illness. Many times on camera you see him beat the absolute crap out of Andrew. As I said before, it should be a no brainer to treat people right; not to be bullies. It’s bad enough that he has to deal with it at school, but that he doesn’t even have solace in his own home. Here’s where Mr. Detmer messes up, in one encounter where Andrew uses his super-human powers to through him against a wall and beat the crap out of him in return, you’d think he’d learn “maybe I should stop”. What does he do instead? When Andrew is in his hospital bed, supposedly in a coma, he starts verbally abusing him to no end. Sure, Andrew is “asleep” so he should be safe. I don’t know about you, but even then I wouldn’t try to cross him again. And rightfully so, he woke right up and tried to end the terror by dropping him from the hospital window several stories up.

There is a moment when everyone seems to finally really enjoy Andrew’s company, after he wows everyone with his “magic skills” at the talent show. It’s all very superficial, but you’d have to think after being so mistreated, he’d obviously take superficial friendship over beatings. When he is about to lose his virginity, he gets nervous and pukes all over the girl (this is just speculation as it is not shown, only implied). The fickle group of high-schoolers waste no time in turning back to their old ways and being absolute jerks to him. How does he react? By telekinetically ripping the teeth out of one of his biggest school tormentors.

During the showdown between Andrew and Matt, Matt’s girlfriend Casey jumps into a car so that she can follow the fight, as it is mostly air-born. Speaking of air-born, Andrew uses his powers to pick up the vehicle she is in so that he can crash it into the ground. I’m sorry, but if you see someone flying and moving things with his mind, the last thing I would do is get inside a vehicle, because HE’S PROBABLY GOING TO MOVE THAT TOO! This goes for the cops too. They try to shoot at him, and he redirects the bullets. They look confused by this, and I mean for the most part rightfully so. However, if you see this guy moving things, do you think you want to shoot at him? I don’t know how clearly I’d think in the actual situation, but something tells me I’d let the two flying guys work it out themselves. There is only so much you can do to save the city at this point, so just step back for a second and wait to see if you are indeed needed. So again… don’t be a jerk to the “weird” kid at school, they could end up being powerful psychos.