Brain Picking MBV

Recently, I was thinking about 'My Bloody Valentine' and what would happen if this all occurred in the 'real world' as opposed to a slasher film, specifically with the character of Tom Hanniger.

Here's the thing. In the film, we find out that Tom has spent the last seven years holed up in a mental institution and only released himself in order to deal with the consequences of his father's passing. During his time in the institution, he obviously would have been diagnosed and treated and we see him taking medication several times. (The fact that this is usually seen right before an 'episode' begs the question, was he getting some sort of warning that he was about to flip?)

Tom's symptoms of fear, hallucinations and, likely, blanks in his memory would have led to a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and he would then have been medicated accordingly. Obviously, the medication didn't work because the diagnosis was wrong; Tom was suffering from the rare Multiple Personality Disorder rather than the more common Schizophrenia.

What this comes down to is that, had this really happened, where he was misdiagnosed and released to commit his massacre, Tom would not be charged due to an obvious plea of insanity but re-institutionalized and the original mental hospital he was in would, most likely, be sued for culpability in the wrongful deaths that occurred in Harmony by Tom's hand.

Somehow, it really makes you wish for the 'slasher reality' where things are so much more straight forward and less frustrating. And where the chance for true 'justice' is a clear cut scenario (ignoring everyone's love to cheer for the bad guy) and far more likely to actually occur.