Mom and Pop, They Will Eff You Up
May 8, 2013 7:58 AM Subscribe
Looking for examples in film or fiction of adolescents successfully committing parricide. We've seen plenty of plot lines involving bad seeds who do bad things to mum or dad (We Need to Talk about Kevin most recently), but where are the instances of "good" or damaged children (not sociopaths) doing bad things and conspiring to get away with them? The only film I can come up with is Heavenly Creatures. (And yes, I'm dismissing that made-for-TV-biopic about the Menendez boys.)
How about the Good Son with Macauley Culkin?
A couple of others I found, but haven't seen yet...
Home Movie (I have to see this one - looks creepy in a Blair Witch Project sort of way!)
The Children (this one looks like cheesy awesomeness!)
posted by MeatheadBrokeMyChair at 8:21 AM on May 8, 2013
A couple of others I found, but haven't seen yet...
Home Movie (I have to see this one - looks creepy in a Blair Witch Project sort of way!)
The Children (this one looks like cheesy awesomeness!)
posted by MeatheadBrokeMyChair at 8:21 AM on May 8, 2013
According to the wikipedia article for Heavenly Creatures, they don't get away with it in the end. So if that's permissible, the (initially good/oblivious) Holly character in Badlands is an accomplice to the murder of her father by Kit, who is definitely a sociopath. They get caught in the end.
posted by seemoreglass at 8:22 AM on May 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by seemoreglass at 8:22 AM on May 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
> The Children (this one looks like cheesy awesomeness!)
The Children is a great horror film, but the perpetrators are tots rather than adolescents, and the nature of their homicidal proclivities is closer to 'bad seed' than 'good or damaged'.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 8:44 AM on May 8, 2013
The Children is a great horror film, but the perpetrators are tots rather than adolescents, and the nature of their homicidal proclivities is closer to 'bad seed' than 'good or damaged'.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 8:44 AM on May 8, 2013
Weekend at Bernie's?
My other thought was Igby Goes Down, where the son's behavior is cold and sometimes mean, but of course we empathize with him, and he never goes so far as to try to off anyone (though SPOILER his "good" brother helps mom in her suicide).
posted by onlyconnect at 8:51 AM on May 8, 2013
My other thought was Igby Goes Down, where the son's behavior is cold and sometimes mean, but of course we empathize with him, and he never goes so far as to try to off anyone (though SPOILER his "good" brother helps mom in her suicide).
posted by onlyconnect at 8:51 AM on May 8, 2013
Vin Packer (pen name of Marijane Meaker aka ME Kerr) based The Evil Friendship on the Parker-Hulme murder.
posted by brujita at 8:51 AM on May 8, 2013
posted by brujita at 8:51 AM on May 8, 2013
Heavenly Creatures is based on a true story, by the way; Juliet Hulne changed her name to Anne Perry and is now a successful mystery author.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: Merricat is a strangely sympathetic poisoner.
In Girl Who Played With Fire the adolescent Lisbeth Salander kills her father (or at least thinks she does).
The Little Girl who Lived Down the Lane: novel by Laird Koenig, film starring Jodie Foster.
Frailty (film): In the flashback portion of the movie, a psychotic (or is he?) father forced his two children to participate in killing sinners; one of them finally killed him.
Stephen King's Carrie doesn't exactly fit your criteria...Carrie kills her mother, but I don't think she really expected to get away with it.
posted by maryrussell at 8:53 AM on May 8, 2013
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: Merricat is a strangely sympathetic poisoner.
In Girl Who Played With Fire the adolescent Lisbeth Salander kills her father (or at least thinks she does).
The Little Girl who Lived Down the Lane: novel by Laird Koenig, film starring Jodie Foster.
Frailty (film): In the flashback portion of the movie, a psychotic (or is he?) father forced his two children to participate in killing sinners; one of them finally killed him.
Stephen King's Carrie doesn't exactly fit your criteria...Carrie kills her mother, but I don't think she really expected to get away with it.
posted by maryrussell at 8:53 AM on May 8, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks very much for some already great suggestions. The bookend for me is the final scene in Crimes and Misdemeanors, where Landau and Allen have a boozy conversation [SLYT] about guilt.
posted by wensink at 8:54 AM on May 8, 2013
posted by wensink at 8:54 AM on May 8, 2013
If you want to go classical, check out the Oresteia, particularly The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides.
posted by Cash4Lead at 9:10 AM on May 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Cash4Lead at 9:10 AM on May 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
Hermione in the Harry Potter films wipes her parents minds.
posted by biffa at 9:10 AM on May 8, 2013
posted by biffa at 9:10 AM on May 8, 2013
Funny, I just finished Top of the Lake last night and I think it may qualify. (Sorry if that is a spoiler for anyone.)
posted by TonyRobots at 9:29 AM on May 8, 2013
posted by TonyRobots at 9:29 AM on May 8, 2013
Parents (1989). Kid has cannibal parents. Exactly what you want.
From IMDB: “Jeff Mercer
Michael Laemie (played by Brian Madorsky) is a young boy living in a typical 1950's suburbanite home... except for his bizarre and horrific nightmares, and continued unease around his parents. Especially his father, Nick Laemie (played by Randy Quaid). Young Michael begins to suspect his parents are cooking more than just hamburgers on the grill outside, but has trouble explaining his fears to his new-found friend Sheila, or the school's social worker.”
posted by oceanjesse at 10:06 AM on May 8, 2013
From IMDB: “Jeff Mercer
Michael Laemie (played by Brian Madorsky) is a young boy living in a typical 1950's suburbanite home... except for his bizarre and horrific nightmares, and continued unease around his parents. Especially his father, Nick Laemie (played by Randy Quaid). Young Michael begins to suspect his parents are cooking more than just hamburgers on the grill outside, but has trouble explaining his fears to his new-found friend Sheila, or the school's social worker.”
posted by oceanjesse at 10:06 AM on May 8, 2013
The Young Poisoner's Handbook - He kills his stepmother and poisons many others. Although he may be a little too far over on the sociopath side to totally qualify.
posted by grapesaresour at 10:12 AM on May 8, 2013
posted by grapesaresour at 10:12 AM on May 8, 2013
There's no conspiring to get away with it since it takes place before the novel, but one of the teenaged characters in Melina Marchetta's YA book Jellicoe Road killed his abusive father. It's not central to the book, but it's a big part of the backstory for one of the main characters and there are flashback scenes showing how he dealt with it.
posted by yasaman at 10:38 AM on May 8, 2013
posted by yasaman at 10:38 AM on May 8, 2013
Matilda is always pulling pranks on her dim, ignorant parents!
posted by ipsative at 11:10 AM on May 8, 2013
posted by ipsative at 11:10 AM on May 8, 2013
The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
The Children's Hour by Lillian Helman (no death, but lots of destruction)
The Pillowman by Martin McDonough
posted by brookeb at 11:36 AM on May 8, 2013
The Children's Hour by Lillian Helman (no death, but lots of destruction)
The Pillowman by Martin McDonough
posted by brookeb at 11:36 AM on May 8, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks very much for these references! I know what I'll be reading and watching over the next few weeks.
posted by wensink at 1:39 PM on May 8, 2013
posted by wensink at 1:39 PM on May 8, 2013
Hermione wiped her parents' minds to protect them.
You should bear in mind that Hermione and all her friends are stone killers by the end of the HP films, and that her justification for non-consensually wiping their minds is morally bankrupt.
posted by biffa at 3:51 PM on May 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
You should bear in mind that Hermione and all her friends are stone killers by the end of the HP films, and that her justification for non-consensually wiping their minds is morally bankrupt.
posted by biffa at 3:51 PM on May 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
In J. G. Ballard's Running Wild, the adult residents of a gated community are all killed one morning by their otherwise normal children as part of an elaborate plot.
posted by drdanger at 6:39 PM on May 8, 2013
posted by drdanger at 6:39 PM on May 8, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by zamboni at 8:19 AM on May 8, 2013