Child murder was explicitly depicted in cinema during the
early 1900s to mock real life murders that were going on in Germany during that
time. The film, M, is one of the most
popular films in the 1930s that showed children being abducted and killed by
the hands of an insane pedophiliac murderer. The author, Chris Eggertsen, of
the online article, Now I Lay Me Down To
Sleep: A Brief History of Child Murder in Cinema, suggests that these kinds
of films quell the morbid fascinations of killers and sadists whom get a
sense of fulfillment with murder through watching the imagery of child killings
and pedophilia.
These films succeed in dealing with the themes of child
murder because for those who can stomach it, it helps people please their
fantasies which in turn may have prevented murders and other acts of
pedophilia. Furthermore, he states that the murder of children in film still
has the aura of queasy morbid allure today for those interested in seeking the
most horrid and malicious psyche of the human mind. However, for those who
cannot stomach these kinds of films should stick to movies that don’t dramatize
these kinds of themes. These films were popular in Germany because of their
desensitization of mass media and the reality of occurring murders during that
time. However, films like these aren’t popular today with the general public,
and the author even states how renowned director and producer, Peter Jackson,
failed to make a big hit in the box office with his film The Lovely Bones in an attempt to display these contemptuous
related themes of linked pedophilia and murder.
The film, It Happened
in Broad Daylight, depicts murder by displaying the bodies of 2 children,
one being laid down half buried under dirt and leaves with the other exposed in
a ditch. It shows the reaction and emotion of wanderers that come across these
bodies that instill fear and terror into the audience. Nonetheless, to see dead
children involved in that kind of murderous act is more heavily frowned upon in
society. This relates to M because
they both had killers who acted upon their temptation to abduct, molest, and
murder children for their sick pleasure.
Another film that has similar themes with M and
It Happened in Broad Daylight is Who
Saw Her Die? The trailer begins with an opening scene of children singing in
a circle which also happens in the opening scene of M. This shows the children’s innocence and their acceptance of
death. There is a child killing pedophiliac who seeks the company and
anticipation of murder focused on the youth. Children are shown being kidnapped
by an unknown killer dressed in black. The black represents evil, fear, and
death which are all depicted in the film M
as well. There also lay a child’s body face down floating in the water as a
man loads his boat, oblivious of the cadaver’s presence. This symbolizes all
the people who are unaware of the criminal acts that are happening right in
front of them, yet none seem to pay attention to the severity of these murders
that are ongoing and glorified in the media.
All these films illustrate the temptation and morbid
pleasure murderers got when killing and molesting children. This was apparent
in the times of early 20th century Germany. Chris Eggertsen found
that films like these wanted to mirror what was going on in real life to raise
the truth and awareness of child murder cases; it was also a new form of art
that breached the norms of bold gruesome horror that people found entertaining
and maybe even secretly fulfilling. It succeeded in breaking the barriers of what is tolerable in film and what is happening in the real world pertaining to murders of children who faced abduction, torture, and death.
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