I remember about ten or so years back attending a dinner party where I walked into a conversation about violence in video games affecting society in a few negative ways. Asking around, I found that no one in the group had any actual current video game experience (this was before mobile and tablet gaming became the nickel and dime juggernaut it is now), so it was interesting watching the debate flop and flail around like a fresh fish that’s landed in a boat with the hook still in its mouth. I also remember shutting the conversation down entirely by asking if anyone in the vicinity was a contact spots fan and reminded them that more REAL people have been injured and died from participating (and spectating) in all sports than from playing video games, PERIOD.

That said, are there plenty of truly disturbed people in this world who use what they see or play in modern games as some sort of template? Sure there are. But throughout every era, there have been many more very unbalanced people who’ve maimed or killed using what they’ve interpreted in their own minds and sometimes from media of their own time as springboards for violence. Murder as a means of handling things incorrectly has been around before any media, so trying to argue that we’re more violent today despite proof otherwise is a rather extreme case of denial. Additionally, misinterpreting and misappropriating fiction into one’s own reality and twisted world view seems to be a common trait amongst those who think killing is a “solution” to a particular “problem” (and it’s something that predates video games by many thousands of years).

Anyway, back to fiction for a bit. Bobby Thompson (played by Tim O’Kelly) the main character in Peter Bogdanovich’s debut film, TARGETS, certainly wasn’t influenced by video games, as they weren’t commercially available until a few years after the film was shot. He seems to be a Vietnam veteran, but this doesn’t seen to play into his madness at all. In fact, the film is fascinating because it doesn’t even attempt to explain what’s happening inside Bobby’s damaged mind at all and while hard to watch at times, it’s a compelling viewing experience right from the beginning…

What works immediately about the movie is how matter of fact it portrays its violence. Granted, it’s based on at least two actual real-life shooting sprees of the decade (just Google “Charles Whitman” and “Highway 101, 1965” – warning: there’s some NSFW gore to be seen) and watching Thompson go about his business is a wee bit unsettling. The film has him already set on his path as it begins and despite his calm, grinning madness, there’s a bit of normality in some of his actions. After killing his wife and mother but before he starts the highway portion of his spree, he has a light lunch (a bit of non-blatant product placement for Coke and Twinkies) and as the film ends with his arrest (and not death as he’d planned in the note he leaves with his first kills), he asks with a smile “Hardly ever missed, did I?” as he’s taken away by the police.

Wrapped around this insanity is the story of aging horror movie star Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff, in his final role), disgusted with the movie business and retiring after one last premiere, which just so happens to be taking place at a drive-in movie theater where Thompson ends up doing his final bit of killing. Orlok meets up with a young director type (played by Bogdanovich as a bit of an enthusiastically earnest film school jerk, I’ve always thought) who more or less begs him not to retire while getting them both drunk during the conversation. Or maybe it’s Orlok who initiates the boozing. Then again, this isn’t a flick where you want to over-analyze too much, as it’s got a way of drawing your attention elsewhere.

There are a few artistic points to pay attention to, the film doesn’t linger on the carnage it presents (while showing a solid sense of reality in how people react to sudden violence), and the way Bobby and Byron “meet” the first time reflects their actual second meeting in an interesting manner. For what amounts to a “B” movie and a really exploitative one at that, it’s an amazing debut that sticks in your head long after its over. I’d recommend pairing it up with a less stressful flick, but NOT “The Terror”, the Karloff film shows at the drive-in. That relic is interesting but I’ve always found it dull as hell despite it featuring Karloff as a creepy old guy and a young Jack Nicholson as the French soldier who ends up at his crumbling castle. Eh, you may like it more than I do – it’s in the public domain from what I recall, so it’s at least a freebie to view.