You think every single murderer and violent person has had a bad upbringing?
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fatpie42 — 12 years ago(October 31, 2013 06:06 AM)
His parents clearly didn't abuse him. They loved him and wouldn't hear a thing said against him.
He's a classic psychopath i.e. no sense of empathy. He manipulates those around him. When he was younger he was jealous of his younger brother.
Jealousy between young siblings is not uncommon and the lack of empathy meant he didn't hold back from killing his baby brother.
During the film he actually harms his little sister because he cares about his 'new brother'. It's intended as a power-play. When he realises that his new 'brother' isn't going to be friends with him again, he decides to manipulate the new boy to seem as strange as possible, so that he will seem like the more likely culprit if he needs to pin blame on someone and so that any confession from the new boy will seem untrustworthy.
The reason he goes to harm his mother is because he realises that she knows about what happened to his baby brother all those years ago. He wants to keep his current situation and not be sent away or exposed. So he'd rather she died so that he could continue living with his father, rather than have her live and send him away to an institution.
The idea that it's all the parents' fault is just daft. Heck, you could acquit every single murderer if you thought like that. -
Moon_and_New_York_City — 12 years ago(December 15, 2013 12:02 PM)
I immediately thought of THE BAD SEED as well, which features three OSCAR nominated performance; not a bad circa 1950's film. But at least it had more exposition! the theory being some people are born evil, or at least inherit the evil genes of their parents.
"the best that you can do is fall in love" -
star_in_the_zenith_79 — 11 years ago(May 17, 2014 08:09 PM)
Since Henry was a fictional character, its difficult to do a psychological study on him, since all you really know is what was in the movie.
Of course, we know that there are real life Henry Evans in the world. But I would have to say that more often than not such behavior as that of Henry can be attributed to some sort of flaw in a home or something traumatic happening. Cases where it seems to happen for no reason are probably rare. But it should be noted that sometimes we just don't see the reason.
I believe subtle things can happen to children as well as adults that may seem like no big deal to outsiders, but can drastically effect a person's personality. I've experienced this in my own life. And because they put on a show and bury them deep down, thus putting on a mask to behave in such a way that is acceptable to those around them, at least on the surface. Therefore, everyone thinks they are fine and these problems are never properly dealt with and as a result begin to fester from within. Sort of a tiny intestinal worm that's planted inside someone that can grow into a monster later. Such things can be a death of someone close to the person, a rejection, a bullying, anything.
It should be noted that these things are not always the fault of bad parenting, though it often is. Sometimes they are just unfortunate occurrences that never get dealt with properly. Not necessarily because no one wanted to, but because no one realized there was a problem till the person was to far gone.
I'm still not 100% convinced people are born evil. Though I think its possible. I do think more often than not other factors of the world contribute to such things. -
fallen_anakin — 11 years ago(July 01, 2014 10:35 AM)
The small answer is jealousy but the big answer is he was just bad. If he was a normal little boy his jealousy would have manifested itself in the normal way for a normal kid who is capable of love. He may have pouted a little when his sister and brother were born and may have teased his sister a little when she was older. But eventually by the age of 12 this jealousy would tamper out anyway because a kid that age is not usually jealous of the things that a little sister has or does. Anyway because Henry was either just wired wrong, had some neurological problem, or suffered or was going through something bad the movie never let on to his normal childhood jealousy was amped up 100 times. He was just plain selfish.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
lm362 — 9 years ago(April 04, 2016 06:39 PM)
Even if all you say is true, Henry still had the choice to be/do good. But he chose to do and be the opposite. A person who has no feeling on a part of their body from birth is brought up being told to not let any harm come to that part of their body, let us say it is their feet. Now, they do not know what it is like to feel pain on their feet, but they do as they are told even though they might not understand why they must. It is the same with children who are born bad, but who are taught how to be good. The little girl from the movie, The Bad Seed was taught by her mother and father how to act properly and even when her mother found her out, she still tried to explain to Rhoda why what she did was bad. Even though Rhoda could not comprehend the feelings her mother was trying to explain was no excuse for her to continue doing bad. She made the choice to do bad.
"Do All Things For God's Glory"-1 Corinthians 10:31
I try doing this with my posts -
moonbather1971 — 11 years ago(July 14, 2014 05:54 PM)
Part of the reason for that is that it is a horror movie, and as such it plays on our fears that a child could just be evil for no reason. We like to be able to explain antisocial behavior, either as a neurological condition or as a result of trauma or abuse. The horror of the movie is that there is no explanation for his behavior, indicating that he would be beyond help.
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Jeorj Euler — 11 years ago(August 01, 2014 07:05 PM)
There had to be something else, right?
That very
something
is thus far beyond humans' ability to ascertain. It is definitely possible for some people to become comfortable with harming or destroying other people, after they have done it for the first time, whether the first time was on purpose or by accident. Many factors could exist, whether hereditary, congenital, epigenetic or environmental, in essence, or combination thereof.
Science of Evil (2008) -
Felixthecat34213 — 10 years ago(May 25, 2015 09:27 PM)
I feel like people are missing the obvious hereHenry was a blatant psychopath and budding serial killer. He was born a psychopath, but what triggered his violence was the murder of his little brother. Once a psychopath gets a taste for death, they never forget it and there's no going back. This is what turns a psychopath into a serial killer. Not all psychopaths become serial killers, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the environment a person grows up in.
Psychopaths usually start to exhibit their psychopathic tendencies around puberty, but some have exhibited these behaviors at early ages. Henry felt absolutely no remorse for his brother's death and seemed to get some sort of thrill or fascination out of the experience.
And it's a common misconception that psychopaths are created by their environment. In many cases, psychopaths are born in spite of their environment.
I also believe many of these people lie or exaggerate about their childhood in order to rationalize and validate their behavior as well as gain sympathy.
It's important to differentiate between a sociopath and a psychopath. A sociopath can be created by their environment, a psychopath is born. -
yusef-ghanima — 10 years ago(June 15, 2015 12:52 PM)
i think it was explained by his upbringing, scientific non religious, so he followed scientific steps to magnify his interests and enjoy experimenting, the stupid word psychopath doesn't explain any thing.
i mostly will not be able to answer your reply, since marissa mayer hacked my email, no notification -
Felixthecat34213 — 10 years ago(July 08, 2015 10:40 PM)
i think it was explained by his upbringing, scientific non religious, so he followed scientific steps to magnify his interests and enjoy experimenting, the stupid word psychopath doesn't explain any thing.
You're basically beyond help you brainwashed zombie. Hope The Lord approves of computers despite his apparent disdain for evolution and EVIL Science! -
Jeorj Euler — 10 years ago(November 04, 2015 01:41 PM)
He was born a psychopath, but what triggered his violence was the murder of his little brother.
Likely but not necessarily. He could've had a detectable and reparable brain defect. Either way, there's no guaranteed that the defect is a birth condition. The mechanism is thus far beyond human comprehension. -
neihrick — 10 years ago(October 06, 2015 09:59 AM)
He wasn't born evil. He tells Mark as they're hiding from the cops that he used to be scared too, and "That once you realize that you can do anything, you're free. You could fly. Nobody can touch you." Pretty much alluding to him constantly getting away with things. He was also intelligent, able to talk himself out of situations and manipulate people. He also showed an interest in death, talking about looking and touching dead bodies, deeming it scientific. Also showing spoiled tendencies and the unwillingness to share pretty much led to him being a little psycho killer.
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lm362 — 9 years ago(April 04, 2016 06:03 PM)
First off, I don't think he was evil, I think he did evil things because he just could not feel for others as a normal child should or he could barely feel for others and so he chose to feel/do evil things, even though he was taught to be good and to do good. I agree that a psychopath does not have a conscience and sociopaths may have a conscience, but it is weak, but just as someone who can not feel pain or only feel slight pain learns to not touch anything hot, a psychopath and a sociopath has the choice of doing the right thing even though he/she can't feel the effects of it/may only feel them a little.
"Do All Things For God's Glory"-1 Corinthians 10:31
I try doing this with my posts -
fallen_anakin — 9 years ago(April 17, 2016 10:03 AM)
This is interesting because our sense of right or wrong to an extent dictates what we do. I know it does with me. If there is something that makes.me feel guilty if I do it I consider it wrong and won't do it because of the way it would make me feel. Two example are stealing and of course killing. Now when it comes to swearing and using the f word I feel nothing when I do it so I continue the behavior. I had someone tell me that it's wrong to swear and I said I don't feel guilty about so I don't stop. Don't get me wrong I don't swear in social situations where it would be considered highly inappropriate.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
fallen_anakin — 9 years ago(April 17, 2016 10:04 AM)
This is interesting because our sense of right or wrong to an extent dictates what we do. I know it does with me. If there is something that makes.me feel guilty if I do it I consider it wrong and won't do it because of the way it would make me feel. Two example are stealing and of course killing. Now when it comes to swearing and using the f word I feel nothing when I do it so I continue the behavior. I had someone tell me that it's wrong to swear and I said I don't feel guilty about so I don't stop. Don't get me wrong I don't swear in social situations where it would be considered highly inappropriate.
The scary clown doll is hiding under my bed. -
TheManInOil — 9 years ago(May 23, 2016 01:08 PM)
The Elijah Wood character actually states flat-out that he's probably 'just evil', so Don't know what to tell you. He's just evil.
In real life, serial killers exibit a lot of the same behaviors, and it's because they are just sociopathic. There isn't a 'why'.