What is Moral Panic?
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To understand what Moral Panic is, we first have to understand what the
effects model is:
The effects model is similar to the hypodermic needle theory. This
theory suggests that the media is like a syringe which injects idea’s,
attitudes and beliefs into the audience, the audience are then influenced by
what they see in the media.
Moral panic is a populist version of the effects model. It makes direct
connections between media messages and audience behaviour.
So for example, if the audience watches a film in which several people are
brutally murdered they themselves may become violent and want to act out
what they see.
This is why it is called a Moral Panic, because the media can show us
images which are morally wrong (such as murders) however they may
influence how we act. This can cause panic among society.
Moral Panic in Evil Child Movies…
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Evil child movies can cause moral panic as nowadays we do not see these children punished for their crimes. This
makes people worry as they think that when children see these films they will try to copy the way these evil
children behave, believing that there are no consequences to their actions.
To understand the moral panic involved in Evil Child movies we will have to start at the beginning…
The Bad Seed was the first Evil Child Movie. It was controversial for the time as audiences were not used to
seeing evil children in film. In the film, we see eight-year-old Rhoda, a seemingly sweet little girl who is actually
an evil child with murderous tendencies. The film was seen as being morally wrong at the time, as audiences
were not used to the concept of child killers. Therefore the script writers knew that at the end of the film Rhoda
would have to be punished for her actions. This happens at the end of the film when Rhoda is struck by
lightening and killed instantly. This gives the story a moral; that evil children get what they deserve. In addition to
this, at the end of the film after the credits are rolled there is a curtain call and Rhoda’s mother appears, she then
grabs Rhoda, puts her across her knee and spanks her. This enforces the idea that naughty children should be
punished. Thus moral panic had been avoided as the film had shown that bad actions had bad consequences, and
people would not want to copy Rhoda’s behaviour.
However as time progressed more evil child movies were made and in many of these movies the evil children
went unpunished. For example, Damien Omen from the Omen films gets away with his crimes in both the First
and Second Omen films. It is only in the third film, when he is a fully grown man, that he is killed. This could
cause moral panic as it suggests that children can get away with their crimes unpunished while adults have to
suffer the consequences. Although a negotiated viewing of this might suggest that the films show that although
your crimes might go unpunished for a long time eventually everyone pays for their sins.
Even so, films like this could cause moral panic as if children watched them they may think it is acceptable to
behave in a similar way to characters such as Damien Omen, believing they will not be punished for it.
Video Nasties
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A Video Nasty is a film, usually specially made for video, that is explicitly horrific, brutal, and can sometimes be
pornographic.
The reason many of these films are usually released straight onto video (or nowadays DVD) is because they are
too horrific to be shown in the cinema.
Video Nasties can be linked with Moral Panic as often the criminals in Video Nasties go unpunished. In addition to
this, people who watch video nasties could be influenced to try and copy the behaviour they see in these films.
This links in with the hypodermic needle theory.
So, if an audience watches a video nasty which contains scenes of brutal violence some members of the audience
may then want to go out and commit similar acts of brutal violence, like they have seen in the film.
Many video nasties were created in the 1980’s however lots of these films were banned after they were create,
and were only released uncut many years later after they had originally been made.
Some video nasties can prove to be quite popular and have a succession of several sequels, for example the Saw
series.
In some cases, it is believed that watching Video Nasties can be linked to crime. For example in the Jamie Bulger
murder case which is believed to be linked to the film Childs Play 3.
The Jamie Bulger Murder Case
The Murder: In 1993 two-year-old Jamie Bulger (who would have turned three the month after), was murdered in
Liverpool by two ten-year-old boys named Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. Jamie was shopping with his mother in
a local shopping centre when the two boys spotted him and took him away while his mother wasn’t watching. The
boys then took him on a 2.5-mile walk across Liverpool to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal where he was dropped on his
head and suffered injuries to his face. The boys then walked him across Liverpool again, stopping at a few minor
locations and being witnessed by several bystanders before they eventually took him to Walton & Anfield railway
station were they attacked him. One of the boys threw blue Humbrol modeling paint into Bulger's left eye. They kicked
him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22-pound iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate. They placed
batteries in his mouth. Bulger suffered ten skull fractures as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Alan Williams,
the case's pathologist, speculated that Bulger suffered so many injuries that none could be identified as the fatal blow.
Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the
hope that a train would hit him and make his death look like an accident. After Bulger's killers left the scene, his body
was cut in half by a train.
The Link: It is believed that before killing Jamie Bulger, the two boys Thompson and Venebles had watched the film
Childs Play 3. Childs Play Three is a horror film that could be classed as a “Video Nasty” in which an Evil Doll named
Chuckie tries to kill people. In the film there are several scenes which co-inside with events that happened in Child’s
Play three:
• In the film Chucky is hit in the face with a pellet which marks his face with blue paint, similarly Jamie Bulger had
blue paint thrown at his eye.
•Chucky is lured by a boy who calls out to him and runs away to entice him to follow. The boys lured Jamie to join
them in the same way before taking him by the hand and leading him out of the shopping centre.
•In another scene Chucky's face is mutilated during an attempt to kill him. Some is sliced off with a scythe. In
comparison, Jamie's face was mutilated by the boys who attacked him with a 10cm wide metal bar.
• In terms of location, the final scenes of violence in Child's Play 3 take part in a fun fair which features a railway
track. Others are filmed in a cemetery. Again, the final stages of Jamie's life were played out on a railway track beside
a cemetery.
•Finally, in Childs Play 3 Chucky is destroyed by the spinning blades of a gigantic motor which dismembers his body. In
contrast, Jamie's body was crushed and dismembered by a train running over it.