Poe's Psychos

No survey of psychos in fiction would be complete with a glimpse into the works of Edgar Allen Poe. He is also one of my personal favorite authors that inspired me as a child to start writing. Some of his most renowned stories feature an unreliable narrator that has all the trademarks of a psychopath. The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Cask of Amontillado are prime examples of Poe’s work with psychopaths.

The Tell-Tale Heart was the first story I ever read that made me fall in love with unreliable narrators. By today’s standards, many people might find it slow and the language a bit to antiquated to keep up with the high tension fiction on the market. However, it’s hard to ignore how masterful Poe is in creating the first person narrator as someone the reader instantly mistrusts. This mistrust pulls the reader through the story. That’s not to say the reader feels the narrator is lying to them. Rather, there is a keen awareness that the narrator believes he is sane when his version of what happen blatantly disproves that. Readers know it is impossible he actually heard the heart beating under the floorboards, yet the narrator states it as a fact.

The Black Cat has a narrator with a similar feel. We trust his sanity a touch more, at first at least. A decent man turned sour by alcoholism, this narrator tells his story in a manner to imply a supernatural cause to his downfall. Still, at several points, his irrationality at the cruel and violent outbursts strikes the reader as something crazier. Furthermore, his casualness at killing his wife, who he states was a good woman, makes the reader question how honest he has been about his good nature at the beginning of the story.

In The Cask of Amontillado, the narrator has thought out his murderous plan well with a clear motive. His target has insulted him in the past. What makes this narrator a psycho is the way he is enacting his revenge. Rather than address the insult directly or cut Fortunato out of his life, the narrator chooses to pretend to be fake friends with the man for an extended period so he can lure him to a cruel death. Someone has to exceedingly unfeeling and at least a bit insane to take an insult to that extreme of revenge.

Reading these stories together, it’s impossible to ignore the repeated themes and plot points Poe used. The first two stories had an eye as a significant part of the psychos focus, one driving him to kill the other plucked out as an unprovoked act of violence. In the last two stories the victim was bricked up in a wall, one alive and one deceased. Has anyone checked Poe’s walls for corpses? In all three shorts, the narrator was nice to the victim and held a rather uncaring view of that person up until their death. In all three the killer was overconfident that they wouldn’t be caught. It begs the question if Poe himself was a bit psychotic and these stories were his not-so-hidden desires.

Overall, these stories are classic. They are older, so the language can be slightly off-putting, but still well worth a read. They are short enough for one to read while waiting at the doctor’s office, yet memorable enough that they remain in the popular conscious today. Definitely read or re-read them.

The Killing Joke Graphic Novel

I’ve been a fan of Batman since I was a kid. Actually, I’ve been a fan of the Batman villains since I was a kid. I don’t read many comic and I wasn’t interested in much of the superhero type stories, but something about Batman’s antagonists drew me in. They are colorful, and, more importantly, psychologically interesting. Each nemesis is clearly insane in their own unique way to contrast and compare Batman’s instability as a costume wearing vigilante. But for this post, I’m going to focus on just one of those villains. My personal favorite, the Joker presented at his delightfully psychotic best in The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brain Bolland.

The character of the Joker had gone through many incarnations since he arrived on the scene

Such a happy fellow

in the early 1940’s, from corny gag villain to extreme chaos spreading murderer. Many feel The Killing Joke is the definitive Joker story, with good reason. Not only is the Joker in full sadistic and psychotic glory in this piece but he is also shown with a tragic origin story to add a touch of sympathy to the character. Though the truth of the origin story is debatable by his statement, “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another ... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” the sad backstory still hits enough emotionally to make the Joker’s actions in the present story feel even more disturbing.

The origin story not only makes the Joker a more dimensional character in this piece, but beefs up the theme. The Joker’s “one bad day” that drove him to lunacy is the inspiration for the message he is trying to convey in paralyzing Barbara Gordon and torturing her father, the Commissioner. He intends to prove it only takes one day of traumatic events to draw out the dormant insanity in every man. Gordon manages to remain sane, proving the Joker’s belief false, but this one bad day idea has more to do with the Joker’s relationship with Batman that it does Gordon. The message reflects Batman’s origin story in a twisted way. The one night that Bruce Wayne lost his parents drove him to become the crime-fighting, cape-wearing Batman, so truly it was only one bad day that changed each of them into their current forms. Yet Batman still manages to hold on to some of his sanity and can survive in everyday society as Bruce Wayne. The Joker has lost all hope in recovering any of his lost sanity or rejoining society, as he explains in his final joke.

Just brutal

No review of this story would be complete without discussing the fridging of Barbara Gordon, A.K.A. Batgirl. As much as I love the themes and dynamic between Batman and the Joker in The Killing Joke, the treatment of Barbara will always bother me. Her whole role in the story is as a plot device without showing her a person. Her injury drives Batman to have a more emotional reason to confront the Joker and is used by the Joker as part of his plot. Even more frustrating, unlike countless other comic stories where a male hero is badly injured, Barbara doesn’t make a full recovery. She will always be paralyzed. Though she is later revised as Oracle in the DC universe, this is still an unjust and cruel end for the strong female character of Batgirl.

Fridging is one of my personally most hated tropes. The story needs some plot device that will ensure the hero takes action, so they add in a female character to maim/torture/kill/depower that is close to the protagonist to give him reason to confront the antagonist. This shrinks the female character’s worth to only what she meant to the male characters instead of her being a person in her own right. I could go on for hours about the treatment of Barbara in this story from a feminist perspective but I’m going to halt here as there are dozens of blogs and articles that explore this topic in depth. It was a bad choice for the story and stains the brilliance of the piece.

This story has an ambiguous ending, another thing I highly enjoy in fiction. After Joker’s final joke where he basically explains his perspective for refusing Batman’s offer of rehabilitation, the panels show both characters sharing a good laugh and then pan down to the rain puddles at their feet. When I first read this book many years ago, I believed Batman kills the Joker out of frame. It made sense for the title The Killing Joke and explained why the laughing stopped all of the sudden. Batman offered a truce, the Joker refused, so Batman had no other option but to kill him.

Since then I’ve considered a couple of other possible endings. It doesn’t fit with Batman’s moral code to kill the Joker. He always strives to restrain all the criminals he encounters so

Everyone loves a good joke

that they receive justice in the court system. At this point, I’m more inclined to believe the ending shows that nothing has changed in their dynamic. It is more like the relationship has been reset. In the opening, Batman feels a mounting tension to defuse their growing rivalry. The Joker gives him just cause to hit that final battle where one of them kills the other, but it doesn’t come to that head. Instead, Gordon wants him brought in “by the book.” Batman makes his rehabilitation offer, the Joker refuses, and they share a laugh at the futility of their situation. After this moment, they go back to the dynamic of hero and villain from before the story. The opening and closing panels of rain falling on the ground helps to solidify the circle as the end is the same as the beginning.

Overall, this is a much hyped story for a reason. If you can work your way past Barbara’s fridging, there is a meaty story here with deep themes and wonderfully done creepy images. The Joker shines as a true psycho. If you are a fan of the character this is a must read. 

Joy Ride

After reading so many unique takes on psychos recently, it is somewhat jarring to read about a more average variety of serial killer psycho. In Jack Ketchum’s novel, Joyride, Wayne Lock is a realistic psycho in that he hits all the marks for the kind of killer police encounter on a regular basis. He’s a loner, unable to connect with others, and infatuated with killing. I wouldn’t count him among the Lecter types in regards to intelligence or the Sculptor for murderous creativity. He’s your average psychopath that gets the final push he needs to go on a killing spree. Sadly, I found the overall book mirrored the character – violent but average.

This ride starts with Lee and Carole, who feel there is no way out from the continued abuse of Carole’s ex except to murder him. Unfortunately, Wayne is watching and decides that if they can do it, he can finally break through his hesitation and commit murder too. He forces the couple on a road trip killing spree. I’ve been rolling this book over in my head for several days trying to figure out why it came off as merely an ok book for me. It’s a quick, easy read, the characters aren’t entirely flat, and the plot was well executed. All the pieces fit into place and yet I felt resoundingly meh about it.

I felt Wayne was a solid psycho, even with the overly done cliché background of childhood abuse and Mommy issues. His sexual excitement regarding killing is disturbing, especially considering this is a fairly accurate representation of many real life rape and murder serial killers. Yet, I wouldn’t say he scared me. I think that perhaps Lee and Carole cooled off the fear for me. I didn’t feel they had a genuinely loving relationship, in fact it felt like killing Carole’s ex was an attempt at mending their broken love affair. If Carole was as wealthy as the book made her sound, why didn’t they simply move away or go on  long vacation to get away from the ex? They seemed like rich snobs that blocked out any real emotion with alcohol. I had a hard time really feeling for them. The detective had more of a sympathetic view of Carole than I did. Since I didn’t like them, I wasn’t terrified for them while Wayne waved a gun in their faces.

The plot is a straightforward journey, without any real twists and turns. I didn’t get any shocking surprises that shook me up and drove me to care. It’s set up early on how the book will end. That’s not to say the plot is bad, just expected. If I were reading this simply to occupy a lazy day, I probably wouldn’t take issue with it. Personally, I enjoy reading books that take me off the standard course and veer off to someplace I wouldn’t have guessed it was headed.

There were several points that I just felt were conveniently built in to serve the story. For example, Carole reminds the detective of his recent ex, whom he’s not completely over yet, who was also abused by her former husband. This makes the cop emotional invested in the case. That felt contrived to me to give him a reason to be in the story above just doing his job. I get it; the plot has to move forward so things have to fall together. However, much of it felt forced in this book.

Overall, this isn’t a bad book. If you are looking for some reading that doesn’t require you to focus much on it, this will satisfy. If you’re craving a book that is more the average, possibly leave this one for another evening.

Se7en

Everyone has their favorite films that they watch ad nauseam to the irritation of everyone else in the household. A common showing after the kids go to bed in this house is Seven (also known as Se7en), much to the dismay of my squeamish about horror movies husband. Although he never fails to ask dramatically, “what’s in the box?” when a package arrives, so I doubt he dislikes the movies as much as he insists. This 1995 film delivers what I like to think of as an unapologetic view into the life’s work of a truly calculating and petrifying psycho.

Near retirement detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) teams up with the new transfer, Mills

Strike a serious detective pose

(Brad Pitt) to solve a series of horrific murders that have the common theme of the 7 deadly sins. Like many stories featuring detectives, our protagonists have personal struggles they are dealing with while they delve deeper into the case. Somerset is contemplative of his upcoming life change from detective to retiree. Mills is adjusting to the move and ambitious to make a name for himself in the new department. Mills wife is trying to figure out what to do about her pregnancy, which she has kept secret from her husband, as she feels the city would be a bad place to raise a child. These personal character arcs seamlessly support the main plot rather than distract. They also help flesh out Somerset and Mills personalities in the time restrictive format of a fast paced thriller type movie.

Gore can be a tricky element to handle in psycho horror. Too much and you enter the realm of “gore porn” in which the carnage becomes almost laughable in it’s over exposure. Too little blood and guts and the story might become lack luster, feeling like the psychological tension building never reaches a payoff.  Seven handles the gore brilliantly.

The killer, John Doe (Kevin Spacey), has spent a great deal of effort and time perfectly setting

At least he used some air fresheners

his murder scenes to express his message. Therefore, these visuals aren’t skimmed over as they are vital to the plot and theme of the film. The murder scenes are disturbing and hit the audience exactly as they should. Viewers feel appalled with Doe’s “work” while becoming fascinated with how Doe patiently executed and thoroughly planned out the serial killings. In this manner, each crime scene is brutal with purpose. None of what is shown comes off as needless violence shown for pure shock value, as the details of Doe’s murders are vital to the plot.

My love of symbolism won’t allow me to neglect discussing how Doe preaches his message through the murders. While many, if not most, killers follow a pattern when killing, Doe uses a different and specific method for each of the sins. Each murder technique (and torture technique in the case of Sloth) is tailored to use the very idea of the sin to kill the victim, like over-eating to the point of death for Gluttony. The only common clue connecting them for the detectives is the name of the sin found at each scene. This is the best serial killer message execution I can think of in fiction. It’s impossible not to understand Doe’s intent is to show the 7 deadly sins are alive and well in modern society.

The ending of this film still has people reeling 20 years later. Generally, people expect psycho

If you're going to surrender, do it in style

stories to end with the protagonist besting the killer in some manner. All of the stories we have reviewed this term have followed that structure (American Psycho excluded). This is to return the audience from their terrifying experience in the story back to safe reality. The boogeyman has been conquered and now the audience can go back to sleeping at night. That’s not how this film wraps up. Although Doe dies, making him incapable of killing again, he completes his work and message by adding the last two sins. The idea that a psycho can finish all his intended targets off  leaves the audience apprehensive.

Many people dislike stories where the villain(s) wins in the end. They might feel jibbed as they have been rooting for the protagonist(s) throughout the story. That is understandable. In Seven, Doe completes his 7 deadly sins including himself as Envy and Mills as Wrath. He’s victorious in bringing his message to fruition. More alarming, the audience realizes he has been in control of the situation the entire film. Everything went according to his plan. The detectives never caught him, he

Caution Fragile

surrendered. He led them out to the exact spot at the exact time his package was set to arrive. He provoked Mills into doing exactly as he wanted. The iconic line, “what’s in the box?!?!” is that clear moment when the audience realizes the story isn’t the safe controlled variety and the psycho has been at the helm through it all. Personally, I love this sort of hard hitting ending. It’s this break from the standard structure that makes the film the classic it is.

Overall, this is a must see. It’s a uniquely chilling story, with an unforgettable psycho, and amazing acting performances. Grab a comfort item if you’re squeamish and prepare to be haunted by this film far after the credits have finished.