Brief Synopsis

• Mickey and Mallory Knox are

two lovers who have come

from very disturbed

backgrounds. Mickey, beaten

regularly by his dad and

witnessed his dad’s suicide and

Mallory regular beaten and

raped by her father and gave

birth to her own brother. The

two began their new life

together by drowning Mallory’s

dad and burning her mum and

setting off along Route 666

‘The Devil’s Highway’

Brief Synopsis

• We first see the couple in a

café in a dessert. They and up

murdering everybody in the

café except 1. They openly tell

the person who they are and to

tell whoever comes to the

scene of the crime. This is like

their signature mass murder

style. We then see the story of

how they met and how they

married themselves. The two

go on a mass murdering, love

crazed road trip.

Brief Synopsis• In time they are caught and

arrested for what they have

done and are sent to prison.

couple have built up lots of

media attention and what the

have done has been glorified

making them like celebrities

with a fan base. Once they're in

prison a reporter is allowed to

enter the prison to interview

Mickey live on TV this triggers a

riot in the prison and allows

Mickey and Mallory to escape,

once again killing everyone in

their path.

Oliver Stone

• William Oliver Stone is an

American film director, screen

writer and producer. He directed

the film Natural Born Killers (NBK)

among other films that are known

for their controversial views on

political and cultural issues.

• Stone had many Lawsuits made

against him due to the nature of his

films. After NBK had been released

there had been incidents of

extreme violence and some people

were trying to blame Stone,

accusing him of trying to provoke

violence through his film.

Controversy

• The film was very controversial

as no film had every portrayed

such graphic scenes of

violence before. Even before

the film was given a rating,

many shots had to be cut just

to even receive an R rating (17

or over)

Copycat Killings

• On March 6th 1995, a teen couple

Ben Darras and Sarah Edmondson

left their home in Oklahoma to head

to Mississippi where they shot

William Savage twice in the head

completely unprovoked. They then

headed to Louisiana where they shot

convenience store cashier Patsy

Byers which paralysed her from the

neck down. They were then arrested.

• Police discovered that they had been

using acid whilst on their killing spree

and had watched NBK over and over

again the night before they begun.

Copycat Killings

• On April 20th 1999, 2 students

Eric Haris and Dylan Klebold

murdered 12 students and one

teacher at a school in Colorado

before both committing suicide.

They both kept diaries and

there were constant references

to NBK and they even used the

initial ‘NBK’ in many of their

diary entries making it look like

the killing spree was planned.

Copycat KillingsOther Alleged Incidents:

• A 14 year old boy from Dallas, Texas decapitated

a 13 year old classmate in September 1994. He

allegedly said he killed her because he ‘wanted to

be famous like the Natural Born Killers’.

• On March 5th, 15 year old Jason Lewis was

talking to his friend on a phone and allegedly said

he wanted to surpass Micky and Mallory, kill his

parents and leave. Lewis then got up and shot his

mother 3 times in face and his father 4 times in the

head. According to the friend on the phone, Lewis

returned as if nothing had happened and said ‘did

it’. Once Lewis had been arrested he said he killed

his parents because the imposed a midnight

curfew.

• 18 year old Eric Tavulares from Wisconsin

claimed to police he had watched NBK 10-20

before he strangled his girlfriend in her sleep. The

couple had been watching the film but stopped

halfway to go to bed where he later strangled her.

Applying Theories• The idea that there was a direct link

between the film and the violence

displayed in the copy cat killings can be

associated with two types of theories.

• The Hypodermic Needle theory would

suggest that it was Oliver Stones

intention (or any other producers) to

manipulate and cause people to be

violent when they viewed NBK. Also, it

would suggest that everyone that views

NBK will receive the messages in the film

in exactly the same way and everyone

will subconsciously adopt the violent

messages they receive too . We know

that is obviously not the case because

there are millions of homicidal killers as a

result of NBK.

Applying Theories• The cultivation theory also suggests that

long exposure to the film desensitised

people, so when it came to actually

committing a violent crime it didn't seem

so bad because they may have been so

desensitised. The copycat killers had

watched the film on loop for hours so

watching constant scenes of killing and

blood, the theory would suggest they

grew accustom to the violence and

actually went out to do it themselves.

• None of the copycat killings can be

explained using this theory because there

are obviously many fans of the film that

have seen it many times and haven’t

followed in the footsteps of Mickey and

Mallory. Also many of the killers were

using heavy drugs and were obviously

not very stable people in the first place.