Their bodies were found shortly after. The killing spree allegedly began almost immediately after he saw the futuristic horror movie Robocop. ("Stakeout" ).
Extremely violent scenes in movies are capable of effecting its viewers. Nathaniel White, after watching the Robocop movies was inspired to do the unthinkable and reenact brutal murder scenes on innocent women. "The first girl I killed was from a 'RoboCop' movie." Referring to a character named Cain in "Robocop II," he said, "I seen him cut somebody's throat then take the knife and slit down the chest to the stomach and left the body in a certain position. With the first person I killed I did exactly what I saw in the movie" (Garbarino). A factor that may contribute to the strength of the effects on the viewers of these violent films is that many times crime and murder is glorified and rewarded. If realistic consequences are not shown, in which in many cases they are not, the viewer may be led to believe that there in fact are no consequences to such horrible actions. On the other hand, some movies even have heroes rewarded for murdering the villain which may lead to the viewer to assume that he too will be glorified. Novelist John Grisham argues that, "Hollywood has a responsibility to stop glamorizing and glorifying murder and mayhem" (Kirzner and Mandell 566). The moviemakers need to take responsibility and cease to make violence and crime seem heroic to the viewers, rather than rewarding crime onscreen. .
Viewers are easily manipulated by violence in movies psychologically. For instance, people are more likely to imitate the actions learned by characters that they most identify with, who they think are similar to themselves, or even simply just the characters that they like, becoming the perpetrator. On the other hand, if one perceives that the victim of violence in the film is similar to themselves then heightened anxiety and an increase in fear may be experienced, and therefore becoming that victim.
