For horror fans who often complain that slasher movies are bloated and played out, lefty Hollywood may have just found a way to inject new life into the subgenre. New film The Clovehitch Killer attempts to bring audiences a new menacing figure that plays right into liberal fears — the dreaded conservative, all-American dad who’s secretly a knife-wielding serial killer.
In woke Americans’ minds, right-wing hypocrisy wielding a knife or chainsaw is just real enough to make for a terrifying cinematic experience.
The Daily Beast seems to think so. They praised IFC’s new film for bringing “something unique to the table: a strong dose of suspenseful mystery, as well as an even more potent strain of social critique; because in this thriller, the cheery facade concealing homicidal mania is of a distinctly religious red-state variety.”
Oh here we go … again. The writer over at Daily Beast wants potential viewers to imagine this new baddie as Ned Flanders with a penchant for bind-torture-kill style murder. The story centers on the main villain’s son, Tyler, a boy that “regularly attends church with his family, whose mealtime prayers are further confirmation of their Christian piety.” His father Donald is a boy scout troop leader and image of the perfect suburban dad, complete with “dorky goatee” and all the “cliched dad-isms and jokes.”
If you’re unnerved by how sickeningly wholesome this entire setting is, that’s the point. The director is saying that something’s off about Sunday-sermon-loving daddy. Clovehitch Killer’s main arc follows Tyler as he slowly figures out that his dad is the famous local serial killer who has been preying on the town for decades. What?!
The Daily Beast describes what makes this twist so compelling. “Don’s do-gooder demeanor immediately makes him come across as shady… It’s easy to imagine sinister thoughts and urges lurking beneath his Ned Flanders-esque exterior.” The article then attacks the whole idea of “devout men,” arguing that the movie “lays bare the untrustworthiness of too-good-to-be-true devout family men. In doing so, it suggests that faith is a useless barrier between such individuals and their basest desires.”
Of course, this plays right into the left-wing’s idea that many red-blooded, Christian-value-loving Americans actually have no respect for humanity. For their side, it’s only natural that an overly zealous evangelical would be the first to bust out the torture gear in a fit of righteous indignation, especially those interesting few who claim that God tells them things. It's a shame to think that this type of story fits in the realm of rational fear for progressives.
