Why was he evil?
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Lost_Woods87 — 11 years ago(May 16, 2014 09:01 PM)
I personally disagree. In my opinion sociopaths are made, not born. I don't believe any person is born evil without the capacity to love and be a good person. There is good and bad in everyone. Sociopaths are not evil, they can feel emotions but only the minimal necessary ones and they only feel empathy and love for the very few that they actually care about. They are not all violent and without morals.
I do agree though that most sociopaths tend to come from dysfunctional homes and probably developed RAD as a child which progressed into sociopathy in adulthood.
I think they were trying to make him a mix of a jealous child who doesnt want to share his parents affection with siblings and a typical serial killer and not all serial killers come from bad homes so its kinda open to the viewer's imagination -
Samuraibro — 11 years ago(May 24, 2014 02:18 AM)
Sociopaths do NOT feel empathy for other people. At all. There are no "few people" that they care about because they are mentally incapable of feeling empathy.
People are born with mental illnesses, and not being able to empathize with people is part of a mental illness. Sociopathy. Why is that so hard for people to believe?
SIND SIE DAS ESSEN NEIN WIR SIND DER JGER -
jonathanc_91 — 10 years ago(May 17, 2015 07:08 PM)
Samuraibro is actually correct in a psychological sense I'm studying to become a psychologist in school and although you are partially correct that environment and experience are important in determining our psychology it's also true that biology plays a role as well. In scientific terms the word evil isn't often used but the idea that some people are born incapable of feeling emotions is true. A variety of things are believed to possibly contribute to this but the two most common biological aspects are genetics passed down from parent to child or genetic mutations or deficiencies. Although in this movie it is possible that you are correct in assuming that there is some explanation and the writers simply didn't mention it, but it is also possible that there really isn't one either. Some people really are just what some may call "evil" but in most cases we use words like emotionally irrational or a sociopath.
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lrdcharlton — 10 years ago(September 25, 2015 01:41 AM)
Henry was not a sociopath he was a psychopath. A sociopaths are made while psycopaths are born without empathy, love or any emotions like fear. Sociopatths can feel empathy, but that is usually directed at babies and animals.
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kmbsk80 — 15 years ago(January 12, 2011 10:02 PM)
the scene in the shed with Henry and his mother where she finds the 'rubber duckie' - Henry says : "It was mine before it was his" shows that he's deeply jealous of his baby brother; and could be the 'inspiration' or motivation for his psychotic actions.
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fallen_anakin — 15 years ago(January 16, 2011 08:56 PM)
I doubt Henry had any real reason to be jealous of his little brother. By that I mean I doubt that his parents made him feel he was less special than his brother. I think because he was just mean he didn't like the idea of his brother taking any attention away from him. He wanted it all for himself. He did not really care about the rubber duck he just wanted to keep it away from her because it reminded him of his mom's love for Richard. He did not want her to have it because he knew the connection she would make with it(that she would think of Richard and how much she loved him). He felt the same jealousy about his sister and wanted her out of the way especially when Mark came around. Who knows why he had not already killed his sister a long time ago. Its hard to accept but basically Henry was a little bastard in this movie for no other reason than HE WAS JUST THAT WAY. In the novel of this there is a good scene where Susan is talking to the therapist. She was wondering and asking about the possibility of a child being born with something missing. What she means by this is missing a conscience. Also in the novel(because they can get into people's heads) Mark is wondering to himself about why Henry is the way he is. It was something like "Henry was lucky he had two parents that were alive and loved him. He should be grateful" Obviously in reality there are not many people like Henry(mean for no reason).
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
jason005-1 — 15 years ago(January 25, 2011 04:06 PM)
I know the the OP said don't write he's just evil but I think that is the answer. No concience, brazen, no empathy, it's like he's a kid version of the terminator. He enjoy's people suffering, creating misery, bedeviling people, and being deplorable.
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fallen_anakin — 15 years ago(January 26, 2011 09:03 AM)
If you can stand seeing a black and white movie from the 1950's I would recommend finding one called The Bad Seed. The movie does not show her committing the murders on screen(unfortunately) but the girl in the movie is the female version of Henry. The idea behind it is that she lives in a nice family with all kinds of advantages but she is still a sociopath. In her case the inborn sociopathy is thought to be inherited. Maybe in Henry's case too he could have had some relative that was a psycho. Clearly his parents were not. Anyway I would check out The Bad Seed. However parts are slow but you can always skim forward to the good stuff.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
fallen_anakin — 15 years ago(January 30, 2011 06:51 PM)
I remembered something about this movie when it was on HBO. You know how when they are announcing a movie coming on in the next half hour or so they kind of give a description or tagline? I remember for The Good Son it was something like "you love and cook for him and he is still a sociopath". Thats probably not exactly what was said but similar. Anyway its kind of summing up that he is like a bad seed. Internally bad.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
les_margo — 15 years ago(February 05, 2011 06:49 PM)
Henry thinks in mind that he having fun and if you take notice he is smilling when commits an acts. Mr Caulkin the two young actors worked lot together on making. They made up there own stunts.Good job guys.
TREEBARD -
fallen_anakin — 15 years ago(February 06, 2011 01:58 PM)
Henry is like a darker version of Kevin from Home Alone. While Kevin can pull off some good pranks he has no real evil intent. Henry is out to do intentional harm with his pranks. The only innoccent prank in The Good Son was when he leaned over the bannister with the mask on. But in the movie even that looks sinister because we know what Henry is really like.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
Cryshal — 14 years ago(July 09, 2011 12:20 AM)
He was a psychopath, without a conscience. He was born that way. No one knows how this can happen. Sometimes they live many years without anyone knowing, because they learn how to fit into society, and still get their way. They manipulate people to get what they want. They don't always kill someone. There has to be an extreme reason for murder.
Look psychopath up in Wikipedia to learn about the malady. -
fallen_anakin — 14 years ago(September 16, 2011 07:40 PM)
Yep it was called The Good Son but I don't remember the author since it was a long time since I read it. Not sure if its available anywhere. You could try amazon.com
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
ThoseLittleRabbits — 12 years ago(September 02, 2013 02:11 AM)
that's stupid. i think henry was jealous of his baby brother. his mother gave all his old toys to richard, and henry had nothing left to himself. yes he lived in a loving home, but that doesn't mean henry didn't feel special anymore. usually new borns get all of the attention, and henry didn't know how to cope with that. he wasn't the only boy anymore, hense why he didn't kill his sister when she was a baby, and also she's a girl, so she wouldn't have gotten henry's old stuff. plus after richard died, he still got all the attention, and all the mother could think about was the baby. what i don't get is why didn't she buy richard his own stuff? not excusing henry, but why didn't she let him keep the damn duck?
www.youtube.com/bernardpumpkin
them haterz cant tell me nothin -
fallen_anakin — 12 years ago(September 08, 2013 04:30 PM)
Other than the fact that Richard had Henry's old rubber ducky there is no indication that Richard got all of Henry's old stuff and or that Richard was favored over Henry. Its never stated or shown in the movie or the novel. I got the impression that while Susan may have held on to Richard after he died I am sure she still gave the other two kids plenty of attention and love. I get the impression that Henry was just a little beep brat to the point that at any time someone else got attention he got jealous. He even hated to see his mom show affection to Mark when he was watching her comfort Mark on the stairs. A normal kid would not feel that much jealousy. If the movie had sub plots to give Henry reason to feel hate and jealousy(like if he really was neglected and not given enough attention) then he would not have seemed so creepy and mean in this movie.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed.