Was anyone else offended by this movie?

to The Loonatic



"It was. Sorry about that. I thought I was being obvious. My apologies."

it's me who should apologize, there was a joke and i didn't get it : )

I personally don't really understand the offensive nature of this movie. I think it was intentionally misleading in its first half and the film makers had the deliberate agenda of making the movie disturbing. In my opinion, they succeeded.

People are drawing comparisons between the religiously fanatical Islamic terrorists and the Mieks. That's good. I'm sure there was insperation drawn from that source, and others like the Crusades, the Inquisitions, for this movies script. It's in the average american audience's mindset even when this film was made, and more so now, that religious fanaticism is bad, and dangerous and that people who believe they have a personal connection with god are insane. The writers know this, and are subject to this same cultural perception. They used it against us, played us for their plot twist ending.

I've read the entire thread, and read a lot of points, but a few that have yet to really recieve a rebuttal...

>If the demons are just evil people don't they deserve a trial?<

I personally believe that the "demons" weren't demons in the supernatural sense, and believe that they are pretty much the worst thing that humanity has to offer in the form of it's mentally deviant and demented members.

The purpose of a Trial is primarily to asertain guilt. If the Mieks do have some supernatural force that reveals a demon by touch, the primary purpose of a trial is invalidated. The secondary duty of the courts would be to assign punishment. I suppose the destruction of the demons and your view point would depend on your views on capital punishment.

If you were in similar shoes to one of the Mieks what would you do? What if you learned that when you shook your neighbors hand that he was a rapist and murderer of children? What can you do? You turn him into the police and they find nothing? Are your hands tied to let him wander the streets for victims?

>I think this film is offensive and insensitive to the families of victims of serial killers.<

Why? Isn't it more insensitive to the families of serial killers who have had their criminal relatives put to death? Are the families of murder victims under the assumption that their murdered relative was a child rapist or murderer, or some other unforgiveably evil individual that was justly killed? Do they only believe this after watching the movie? I personally find it much more likely that the don't believe this at all.

Adam and Father seek out, and kill maliciously evil people including other killers. There is serious moral ambiguity there, but it isn't the common M.O. of a killer to target evil people. Vigilante crime is something for the comic books and movie screens. Real serial killers are usually motivated by warped sexual desires or the seeking of sexual release through murder not any kind of sense of justice. There are exceptions, most noteably fanatical religious terrorists, but their M.O. doesn't match the Mieks in practice, only in philosophy.

Personally, I probably wouldn't have the willpower to kill, or possibly even turn my own brother into the police if I knew for fact that he was an evil person doing evil things. I just love him too much. I'd probably go down in flames protecting him, and I probably would not feel that someone who took his life to stop him was justified. That doesn't make me right. I'd be very wrong for not going to authorities if my brother was a killer. I'd in fact be held criminally accountable. Come time for judgement at the gates, I'd probably be held accountable there too. My feelings don't enter into the matter of what's right and wrong. The Mieks had a similar dilemna with Fenton. They loved him too much to be able to do anything to stop him. Fenton's victims paid for their inaction. They did what I'm sure a lot of people would have done, or not have done in this case.

On the other end of the spectrum, if someone in my family were murdered, I'd pray for God to take a more active role in our lives, and question his plan. Why doesn't god talk to us? What can we really do to prevent these killers preemptively? They are sick, and the love of Jesus doesn't stop them, and regardless of how much faith I personally have, or how much good I do in my life time it doesn't stop people from being sick in the head and having the desire to kill or harm. Why is Jesus sane, and his apostles, and all the other biblical accounts of talking to God intrinsically right and anyone today wrong? In modern times if you talk to God you are insane. Period. There is no questioning of that. God only speaks to us from thousands of years in the past in the form of text, written and rewritten by humans. Why aren't their Mieks out there protecting us from demons? In the real world, we have to deal with loved ones being taken from us. Innocent loved ones, not your Uncle that kidnaps, rapes and murders six year old girls being taken. In those shoes I wouldn't be offended by the movie, although it might open up some old wounds.

So again, why is this insensitive to the families of the victims of serial killers?

Seriously, if you really think that this movie is trying to sway you towards are certain morality, then I think your own belief structure is weak and needs reevaluating if it can be shaken by this movie. It's meant to be disturbing and complex subject matter. Go read Paradise Lost, or Lolita. This isn't the first piece of fiction that makes you feel sympathy for the "bad guy."