Slapping Our Bullies

Slapping Our Bullies

One of the most sadistic traits of the human being is bullying.

In the film Slapface, a boy named Lucas is walking through life essentially alone after the death of his mother in a car accident – his abusive father was long gone. His older brother and caregiver Tom, is a dysfunctional alcoholic, who comes up with a game called Slap Face so they can deal with their grief. They sit in front of each other, and take turns. Lucas obviously gets the worst of the deal, and internalizes whether the game is effective at all.

Meanwhile two sisters and a friend have formed a clique, and verbally abuse Lucas who is desperately trying to fit in. As a retreat, Lucas enters an abandoned hospital building and discovers the very real manifestation of a folk legend named the Virago witch, a ghastly and terrifying female supernatural creature, who immediately takes to Lucas, and begins defending him against anyone who wishes and attempts to do him harm.

It is a dark and moody film, as is the subject of bullying itself. Lucas has no real support system, as Tom enters into an unhealthy relationship with a local girl who embraces the Wiccan religion, and is so intent on gathering intelligence on the brothers’ situation to the point where she breaks into their house while they are away, she ends up a victim of Virago.

No father, no mother, two twin sister bullies and a somewhat girlfriend, Moriah, who gives in to the peer pressure and abuses Lucas as well. The local sheriff, who has no patience for the boy as well, is chomping at the bit to lock him up, eventually doing so when Virago kills Moriah for spitting in Lucas’ face while the twin bullies hold him hostage. No one believes it was the witch, whom Lucas refers to as the monster.

At the hospital Moriah’s parents are hysterical. The twin bullies are being held by their mother, who is either oblivious to their bullying ways, or justifies it. Tom sits in the waiting room, frozen in shock, unable to figure out what to do as his brother is being interrogated by the sheriff. He knows there is something wrong as his girlfriend is missing, and Lucas’ girlfriend is gone.

In the final scene the monster and Tom converge, with Virago slapping Tom silly after witnessing first hand their game of Slap Face. Lucas inadvertently shoots Tom with their father’s pistol trying to hit Virago, then fatally stabs the witch. The police, who hunt down Lucas, after Virago kills everyone in the sheriff’s office on duty to rescue the boy, rushes in to witness Lucas holding Tom’s lifeless body.

Normally it is a guardian angel that intervenes on behalf of a bullied child. It is rare to find a monster in the center. Then again, such is the genre of horror. There are grave consequences that occur, and it is often unfair. Monsters do not discern and discriminate. All must pay.

Thus, it becomes the tragedy that Moriah, who was bullied as well as Lucas, ends up dead while the twins escape their fate. One may speculate that the twins will set their sights on another innocent child, with no repercussions to suffer. Perhaps there is more reality that fiction in this regard.

We want to believe that there will be karma for their actions, but as comedian and talk show host Bill Maher pointed out in Real Time with Bill Maher, we as Americans have taken the overtly positive Buddhist concept of karma, and twisted it into our revenge mechanism. We want all bullies to suffer as they have made others suffer.

But as that is not how karma works, neither is bullying. Typically, bullies don’t get bullied themselves, unless they were bullied by others prior to their actions. Some will grow up and vocalize their regret over what they did. Others become more sophisticated bullies. Still others will self-destruct.

And as for the monster, we typically call on God to exact revenge on these predators. If there were an actual monster available, guaranteed we would call on them. It is in our nature. We want something bigger than ourselves to rain down on those who would assault and traumatize us, the one who lurk around the corner, waiting for us to come to school, to go home, to go to the playground, and terrorize us until we cry, hurt, even bleed.

Bullying is that dangerous. Such victims can self-abuse, self-mutilate, even commit suicide. What they see are monsters preying upon them, and there is no support system or guardian angels to intervene. They are given an array of advice from suck it up, to don’t retaliate, to and this too shall pass.

Unfortunately, what I am sharing is not new information, and as there are more technological devices available, there are more opportunities to do so, such as cyberbullying.

Fortunately, there is much more awareness and a multitude of movements dedicated to stop bullying. Writer and director Jeremiah Kipp intentionally made Slapface to address this issue, which also came from his personal experiences. This is the power of film, where it can not only be depicted, but to let others know that they are not alone, and there are indeed compassionate people out here who can help.

In our duality and honesty, we would want a monster to take us in and defend us against those who would terrorize our existence. As adults we face very real existential threats to our lives and livelihoods, and would welcome a Virago witch to cut down our enemies, especially those beyond our reach.

There are little children within us like Lucas who have never fully healed from our experiences of bullying. Once in a blue moon, they creep up on us, and we drift off in this distance remembering, balling our hands into a fist, jaws and teeth clenched, imagining violently different outcomes. Who did we craft that would come along and slay our demons?