Jason; Mark II

I've been talking to my sister, who is studying Psychology in her final year at the moment. She's been specializing in multi-personality disorders, but also in schizophrenia. I asked her if Jason's disorder was feasible and turns out it more into the schizophrenia side of things; when some one 'hears voices', as my sister put it. She said that it is very common for a serial killer to have schizophrenia, when someone with the disorder does kill someone, it is very hard to charge them under the same charges as someone without the disorder. Most of the time the killer will end up having to go to an asylum.


Other films that involve a serial killer with schizophrenia include the recent Australian true story film; Snowtown. The character of James Vlassakis, who is currently serving a life sentence for being involved in four murders between '97 and '99. In the film, James finds out from his doctor that he has mild schizophrenia, although the real James Vlassakis isn't publicly known to have the disorder. In Snowtown the James is perceived as someone that could have something wrong with him. 

James Vlassakis in Snowtown [2011]. Played by Lucas Pittaway

The character of James is someone who just seems to go along with whatever really happens to him, he never makes his own decisions, he is told what to do and does it, and when someone wants something from him, James doesn't hold any will to stop them. James' schizophrenia may have been caused by many different things; growing up the rough suburbs of Adelaide, in his early life his father had left, leaving his mother to find another man who can supply money for the family and also care for her three children when she isn't around. Within the first 20 minutes of the film, the first man she puts her trust in, turns out to be a pedophile who abuses James and his brothers. Throughout the rest of the film, James is surrounded by things people of his age shouldn't be, his mother introduces a gay man into the friendship of the family, a new man (John Bunting) marries James' mother, John's son (Troy) from another woman starts to live with the family, Troy rapes James, eventually James gets involved with a series of murders that Troy and one of his close friends plan.


These events that have occurred throughout James' early life have tortured his mind into having schizophrenia. From this film it is easy to understand that the perception of schizophrenia is normally always associated with murder, and in it's worst cases serial killings. Schizophrenia always perceived as part of a villain in most films, with films like Silence Of The Lambs and Donnie Darko viewing it as a downside, but still the characters are the interest of the film.


I want Jason to be somewhat of a character like James from Snowtown, Hannibal Lecter from The Silence Of The Lambs and Donnie Darko from, er, Donnie Darko. These characters have always been the focus of the film, never has anyone said to me that they remember The Silence Of The Lambs for anything other than Hannibal Lecter or Buffalo Bill. Jason should be a character who has a control over the rest of the characters, where he knows the entire story of what the detective is trying to discover, whether or not he knows the man Detective Spencer is trying to find. Hannibal Lecter is a character who is scary because not much is known about him, other than he knows who Buffalo Bill is (possibly) and he also has leverage over the protagonist, yet he is in a jail cell. He is generally a scary character for how he is capable of so much, not much known about him and how he has such a reputation of a mass murder and a cannibal but seems like a relatively normal person.