Elite Facts Presents
10 Awful Things Inspired By TV
10. Twilight
There are probably several people out there who believe that it was a crime that Twilight
was made into a movie in the first place. But Twilight did have a hand in inspiring
a few crimes, with the most notable of these involving a young teenage boy in Des Moines.
When a 13-year old girl came forward about being bitten by her classmate on her hand
the administration investigated, and it was discovered that the boy had bitten ten other
students. The boy’s father came forward to say that it was because of the boy’s
love for “Twilight” that he committed these acts. The boy was referred to juvenile
corrections.
9. Project X
A movie about a group of nerdy teenagers and their party that goes awry was bound to end
in copycat parties. Teenagers didn’t view this film as a lesson in what happens when
you lose control of your party; instead, many used it as a how-to for the ultimate bender.
Because teens tend to emulate what they see on screen, parties with thousands of attendees
were sprouting up all over America upon the release of this movie. Teens were also illegally
entering abandoned buildings in hopes of throwing the biggest party of the year. The situation
became so serious that Warner Bros. had to release a statement telling teenagers all
over that it’s just a movie and so, basically… stop it.
8. The Town
Apparently there were several people who saw Ben Affleck’s Oscar-nominated movie and
were so inspired by donning a nun costume and robbing banks that they wanted to do it
themselves: a group of men in New York were able to commit over 60 copycat burglaries
from various businesses in Brooklyn and Queens. You could even say that the men involved watch
“The Town” like a how-to video, given that their techniques were direct copycats
from the movie including cutting the power supply to the location, using bleach to destroy
the DNA evidence, and wearing headlamps to see in the dark.
7. Scream
It was set up as a good source to learn how to commit a murder, and a number of copycat
crimes arose following Scream’s release. In 2001, a 24-year old man named Thierry Jaradin
was propositioning Belgian teenager Alison Cambier, and when she declined his advances,
he put on the infamous Ghostface costume and stabbed her 30 times in the same manner that
the movie’s first victim died in the opening scene. Jaradin stunned police as he admitted
that he modeled the murder after the movie; he had no violent criminal history.
6. Money Train
This comedic film depicts an elaborate heist that involves a thief named the Torch, who
robs a subway toll booth and then sprays it with gasoline and sets it on fire, all with
a clerk trapped inside. Of course, in the movie the clerk walks away and survives the
blast. Unfortunately, there are some people who have a hard time separating fiction from
reality. After the film was released, there was a spate of attacks and attempted robberies
targeting subway clerks, all involving lighter fluid sent through a coin chute while being
set on fire. One 50-year old tollbooth clerk suffered burns on over 75% of his body and
died several weeks later.
5. Saw
For this one, you may need to sit down. The “Saw” movies themselves were disturbing
enough, presenting the psychopathic antics of The Jigsaw Killer.
A mother in Salt Lake City turned in her son and his friend after she overheard them discussing
a plot to set up games just like Jigsaw with cameras and camcorders, to teach a lesson
to two girls and a police officer.
4. The Matrix
So many people have been inspired to commit crimes because of “The Matrix” that there
is an actual legal term known as “The Matrix Defense” where lawyers will advocate that
their clients believe they are in an alternate reality. This defense worked for a San Francisco
man named Vadim Miesege, who dismembered his landlady because he believed she was sucked
into the Matrix. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. But the most famous case
was in 2002 when the infamous Washington D.C. sniper attacks took place. Lee Boyd Malvo
was arrested and convicted for his involvement in the heinous acts and it became publicly
known that he was obsessed with the concept of the Matrix and the blurred lines of reality
and fiction. He even wrote “Free yourself of The Matrix” in his prison cell.
3. Fight Club
The first rule about fight club is that you don’t talk about fight club, and the first
rule for fans should probably be that you don’t mimic the shenanigans you see in the
movie or read in the book. Inspired by Brad Pitt’s character, seventeen-year old Kyle
Shaw set off a bomb made of electrical tape, a plastic bottle, and fireworks inside a Starbucks
in the Upper East Side in 2009. Shaw pled guilty to the charges of criminal possession
of a weapon and attempted arson and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and five
years probation. So much for launching his own, “Project Mayhem”.
2. Dexter
The hit television series on Showtime has inspired quite a number of crimes. The most
famous of these was the case of 17-year old Andrew Conley who strangled his 10-year old
brother because he felt that he identified with the main character. While he was awaiting
trial, Conley was asking about the series and even discussed major plot points of the
show with his lawyers. Another man, Mark Twitchell, was inspired by Dexter’s unique form of
vigilante justice; he’s been imprisoned for the murder of a man he met online while
he was posing as a women. Even after his trial and conviction, Twitchell continued to watch
the show from prison.
1. Birth of a Nation
Set in the United States South during and after the Civil War, this notoriously racist
and one-sided film was directed by D.W. Griffith. The movie was considered to be cutting edge
at the time with its camera angles and close-ups as it depicted the North as the bad guy and
the South suffering from the violence of freed slaves. While the film overall was controversial
and considered to be distasteful, it sparked a resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan, which
had initially disbanded in the 1870’s. The film depicted attacks on white women by black
men, which incited heinous crimes on black people with racist motivations.
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