A film that takes a look at the factors that turn children into adult psychopaths. The film follows the story of a 17 year old boy named, "Johnathan" who was labeled as a psychopath at age 1... Read allA film that takes a look at the factors that turn children into adult psychopaths. The film follows the story of a 17 year old boy named, "Johnathan" who was labeled as a psychopath at age 14, while on trial for first degree murder.A film that takes a look at the factors that turn children into adult psychopaths. The film follows the story of a 17 year old boy named, "Johnathan" who was labeled as a psychopath at age 14, while on trial for first degree murder.
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- TriviaThe film was produced on a shoe-strap budget over a two year period. Completely independently produced.
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Down with the Sickness
Psychopath: A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.
With our diseased media needing to drum up ratings, in-depth info about why so many choose to commit terrible deeds is lost in the avalanche of hypocritical, fear mongering rhetoric & grandstanding, keeping a ignorant populace even deeper in the dark, petrified & accepting of draconian measures that whittle away rights daily under the benevolent Daddy State.
How difficult remembering the human faces behind these statistics, drowned out by 24/7 air-wave onslaughts of tragedy worldwide; demonizing perpetrators & pinning our rotten baggage on those declared the lowest on the ladder is a much easier way to go, living vicariously through our screens & speakers like we do. A rather pathetic street-side interview portion establishes just how linked the word 'psychopath' is with Hollywood thrillers & their machete wielding bogeys for the average Joe. The popular imagination is saturated with madmen & their gruesome and entertaining handiwork. I don't know how many on-screen evisceration's I've witnessed, but its enough to ramble on for pages and pages on this website.
What I like about IN THE SHADOW is that it tries dispensing with the faux-expose style of those poor journalistic endeavors caught on prime- time, pretending to inform the public but just titillating them further, providing an easy out from the shared responsibility of our plight. We'd rather have our boogeyman, our Dahmers & Manson's & OJs & Bundys to lord it over, especially considering our perceived powerlessness in the grand scheme of global affairs. Soapboxing fear is a potent, falsely empowering high-an easy one.
This little Canadian production gets why mythologizing monsters only grants them more power, elevating 'scoundrels' to supernatural highs: every remorseless killer Lucifer incarnate, every violent offender public enemy no 1. True, it doesn't wholly escape the flashy, sinister chic trademarked by the Hard Copy's & Inside Editions of the planet (entertain first, inform second) but it does try for some honest compassion, about as rare in mainstream TV/film as a fair election. All the time spent here with 'Jonathon' is more insightful than most front- line horror stories I've ever seen on the MSM.
Inhuman acts only beget inhuman acts goes the thesis, lives spent absent of warmth & direction, ensuring future victims on all 'sides', rotten lives lived in rigged economic systems enough to warp many a brain. Its admirable that the director makes a play at the wider perspective, taking aim at the very structures that aggravate these problems in the first place, often by design. Thoughtful cause & effect discussion shows the viewer how profit driven, bottom-line living & the inhuman demands of our all-mighty market place don't exactly nourish an atmosphere of love & openness; it even goes as far as including (fairly) recent footage of Bu$h co. to demonstrate how faulty human beings can actually inhabit ALL spheres of the social ladder, not just the gutters. In this hyper superficial, consumption-based con-game, the meanest mofo gets to the top the quickest, easily infecting the rest. Remember that next time some on-screen podium punter orders you to be very afraid; Wolves wear Armani suits nicely.
Watching films like this one, it strikes you like a load of brimstone just how much we still do live in a jungle, only one with the furniture cunningly re-arranged. I can only hope to catch more homegrown presentations that aren't too timid documenting the very human costs of all our wonderful 'progress' instead of relying on corporate cliché's & lazy thinking. It isn't a masterpiece, but it's a good start.
High time to take a long look in an unfogged mirror determine exactly who is staring back.
With our diseased media needing to drum up ratings, in-depth info about why so many choose to commit terrible deeds is lost in the avalanche of hypocritical, fear mongering rhetoric & grandstanding, keeping a ignorant populace even deeper in the dark, petrified & accepting of draconian measures that whittle away rights daily under the benevolent Daddy State.
How difficult remembering the human faces behind these statistics, drowned out by 24/7 air-wave onslaughts of tragedy worldwide; demonizing perpetrators & pinning our rotten baggage on those declared the lowest on the ladder is a much easier way to go, living vicariously through our screens & speakers like we do. A rather pathetic street-side interview portion establishes just how linked the word 'psychopath' is with Hollywood thrillers & their machete wielding bogeys for the average Joe. The popular imagination is saturated with madmen & their gruesome and entertaining handiwork. I don't know how many on-screen evisceration's I've witnessed, but its enough to ramble on for pages and pages on this website.
What I like about IN THE SHADOW is that it tries dispensing with the faux-expose style of those poor journalistic endeavors caught on prime- time, pretending to inform the public but just titillating them further, providing an easy out from the shared responsibility of our plight. We'd rather have our boogeyman, our Dahmers & Manson's & OJs & Bundys to lord it over, especially considering our perceived powerlessness in the grand scheme of global affairs. Soapboxing fear is a potent, falsely empowering high-an easy one.
This little Canadian production gets why mythologizing monsters only grants them more power, elevating 'scoundrels' to supernatural highs: every remorseless killer Lucifer incarnate, every violent offender public enemy no 1. True, it doesn't wholly escape the flashy, sinister chic trademarked by the Hard Copy's & Inside Editions of the planet (entertain first, inform second) but it does try for some honest compassion, about as rare in mainstream TV/film as a fair election. All the time spent here with 'Jonathon' is more insightful than most front- line horror stories I've ever seen on the MSM.
Inhuman acts only beget inhuman acts goes the thesis, lives spent absent of warmth & direction, ensuring future victims on all 'sides', rotten lives lived in rigged economic systems enough to warp many a brain. Its admirable that the director makes a play at the wider perspective, taking aim at the very structures that aggravate these problems in the first place, often by design. Thoughtful cause & effect discussion shows the viewer how profit driven, bottom-line living & the inhuman demands of our all-mighty market place don't exactly nourish an atmosphere of love & openness; it even goes as far as including (fairly) recent footage of Bu$h co. to demonstrate how faulty human beings can actually inhabit ALL spheres of the social ladder, not just the gutters. In this hyper superficial, consumption-based con-game, the meanest mofo gets to the top the quickest, easily infecting the rest. Remember that next time some on-screen podium punter orders you to be very afraid; Wolves wear Armani suits nicely.
Watching films like this one, it strikes you like a load of brimstone just how much we still do live in a jungle, only one with the furniture cunningly re-arranged. I can only hope to catch more homegrown presentations that aren't too timid documenting the very human costs of all our wonderful 'progress' instead of relying on corporate cliché's & lazy thinking. It isn't a masterpiece, but it's a good start.
High time to take a long look in an unfogged mirror determine exactly who is staring back.
helpful•20
- Kaliyugaforkix
- Jun 1, 2011
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Box office
- Budget
- CA$30,000 (estimated)
- Runtime44 minutes
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