Editorials
Youth in Revolt: Horror’s Deadliest Teens from ‘Becky’ to ‘Tragedy Girls’
In horror, teens often tend to be the focal point of the terror. Cinema has long explored puberty, self-identity, hormones, and the turbulent waters of high school through the lens of horror, using masked maniacs, monsters, and familiar genre trappings to heighten the terror of adolescence. No matter the subgenre or character, these films push teens to their breaking point. Once they’ve had enough, they revolt in lethal ways.
The next teen-centric horror film is Becky, the latest by Cooties’ directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, which is being pegged as a teenage John Wick meets Hanna. Penned by Nick Morris, Ruckus Skye, and Lane Skye, Becky stars Lulu Wilson (Annabelle: Creation, The Haunting of Hill House) as the eponymous teen with a significant mean streak. When a weekend trip to the family lake house with her dad, Jeff (Joel McHale), gets interrupted by the arrival of escaped convicts led by neo-Nazi Dominick (Kevin James), visceral violence ensues with unnerving ease. As in, the MPAA initially rated this movie NC-17 for violence and gore before edits for R-rated release.
Becky arrives in drive-in theaters, on digital and on-demand June 5th, and to prepare for this ruthless teen’s brand of violence, we’re looking back at some of the deadliest teens in horror.
Becky – Becky
Like most teens, Becky (Lulu Wilson) is a rebellious adolescent testing the boundaries of independence amidst hormonal changes. That rebellious streak comes with the traditional teen angst and anger, but it’s exacerbated to a severe degree by a personal loss. In other words, Becky is one vindictive teen eager to unleash her wrath. After a group of escaped convicts arrive at her family’s vacation home and tamper with Becky’s last remaining tether to civility, well, they pay the toll in buckets of blood, viscera, and death. Anger is healthy to some degree in all adolescence, but Becky isn’t your average teen.
“Blue Ribbon” Students – Disturbing Behavior
Proving that it’s best to let teens work through the inner turmoil that comes with transitioning into adulthood, Disturbing Behavior demonstrates how horrifically awry it can get when adults attempt to modify unruly teen behavior. High school psychologist Dr. Edgar Caldicott orchestrates a unique school program that reprograms its “Blue Ribbon” students, reshaping them into model citizens. The only problem is that it makes them dangerously aggressive at best and violently murderous at worst.
J.D. Dean and Veronica Sawyer – Heathers
This genre adjacent dark comedy packs a deadly punch thanks to teen mastermind, J.D. As the new kid in town, he woos the sole outlier of the Heathers’ clique, Veronica, and makes her an unwitting accomplice to murder. Changing the status quo of the high school hierarchy has never been so delightfully devious, or deadly. J.D. revels in his murder spree, which would be downright chilling without the humor.
Mitsuko Souma and Kazuo Kiriyama – Battle Royale
Thanks to a government-mandated act to control Japan’s disorderly youth, class 3-B has been selected to participate in the annual Battle Royale. The students are dropped on a remote island, provided with provisions, and given three days to slaughter each other until a single victor emerges. Those that refuse to cooperate have their explosive collars detonated. Pushed into slaying their classmates for a shot at survival results in a bloodbath. A large percentage of the 3-B class turns into cold-blooded killers, but psychotic teens Mitsuko Souma and Kazuo Kiriyama approach homicide with reckless abandon. This pair racks up quite a body count, separately, making them the deadliest in their class.
Carrie White – Carrie
Poor Carrie White. Having a broken woman turned fanatical religious zealot for a mother resulted in a profoundly sheltered upbringing that couldn’t prepare this teen for the cruelty of high school. Bullied at home as well as school, Carrie’s burgeoning telekinetic powers finally gave her the strength to find her voice. That was before she was pushed too far. Carrie White transitioned from an empathetic teen to the monster in her own story, with the wrathful annihilation of those attending her high school prom.
Billy Loomis and Stu Macher – Scream
Kicking off with the brutal gutting of teens Casey and her boyfriend Steve, Billy and Stu took turns slaying their way through high school while donning Ghostface masks and setting up Sidney Prescott’s dad to take the fall. Why? Because Billy harbors a severe grudge against Sidney’s mom over his mother’s abandonment of him. Stu’s motive is less emotional and far more chilling- peer pressure. The blood flows freely when these two teens are around; they’ve found an unhealthy coping mechanism for their angst through murder.
Jennifer Check – Jennifer’s Body
Needy’s relationship with her best friend Jennifer is at a turning point. Finding her independence outside of Jennifer’s shadow is a tricky thing for any teen girl. It’s further complicated once Jennifer is used as a pawn in a botched sacrifice for fame by an aspiring band. It renders Jennifer a boy-eating demon, viciously devouring the teen boys in their class. Needy puts it best, “Hell is a teenage girl.” In Jennifer’s case, it’s literal.
Ami Hyuga – The Machine Girl
After a group of bullies murders her brother and his friend, teen Ami snaps. Her first attempt at revenge leaves her without an arm, but luckily some kind mechanics fit her with a multi-barreled machinegun prosthetic. Attempt number two at revenge becomes a full-blown massacre. From the warped mind of writer/director Noboru Iguchi (Dead Sushi, RoboGeisha), this is a splatter flick through and through. Meaning the gore and violence is in excess. This time we’re rooting for the deadly teen.
Lola Stone – The Loved Ones
Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets. What she wants, in Sean Byrnes’ brutal entry in horror, is a date to the prom, and she doesn’t take rejection well. Guilt-ridden over the death of his father, Brent is detached from the world and contemplates suicide. That changes when a polite rejection of Lola’s prom invite causes her father to kidnap him and force Brent to love her. As in, Lola injects bleach into Brent’s voice box, nails his feet to the floor with knives, and subjects him to excruciating torture. The thing is, this is hardly Lola’s first brush with rejection; she’s amassed a shocking number of captive boyfriend hopefuls.
McKayla Cooper and Sadie Cunningham – Tragedy Girls
McKayla and Sadie have been best friends from childhood into adolescence, bonding deeply over their obsession with death. Or, most specifically, with homicide. These teens aspire to be infamous serial killers in the social media age, slaying for likes, follows, and retweets. They even kidnap an actual serial killer hoping he’ll teach them the ropes. It turns out McKayla and Sadie do just fine on their own, in the killing department. These bubbly cheerleaders slaughter with surprising ease.
Becky fully joins the ranks of horror’s deadliest teens in drive-in theaters and on digital and VOD June 5, 2020.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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