# Horror movie idea: A clan of insane serial-killer cannibal PREPPIES! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217 "2005-12-26T03:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/1 "2005-12-26T03:57:35Z")
I recently saw _Satan’s Rejects_ ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395584/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395584/)) on DVD. I’d already seen _House of 1,000 Corpses_ ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0251736/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0251736/)) and _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_ (including the 1974 version – [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072271/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072271/) – and the 2003 version – [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324216/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324216/)). And _Deliverance_ ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/)). And _Children of the Corn,_ all seven films ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children\_of\_the\_Corn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Corn)). I haven’t seen _The Hills Have Eyes_ ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077681/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077681/)), but I doubt it contains any surprises. In all films of this well-established horror subgenre, the filthy inbred clan of insane serial-killer cannibals are rednecks – i.e., poor Southern whites; something out of a Jeff Foxworthy joke, with blood and madness added. This phenomenon is probably based on the strange and curious fear most suburban Americans seem to have of rural people and the hinterlands. It works. Indeed it works. But it gets rather boring and repititious, like any cliche. And I think it’s unfair to rednecks. I mean, how much damage do they do, really? Now, IRL, the **real** flesh-eating monsters (metaphorically speaking) in American society are the people running it. And they’re not rednecks. They’re WASPs. Which is not the same thing at all, at all. As Christopher Hitchens famously put it, “George Wallace might have been a white Protestant of Anglo-Saxon extraction, and rather vocal on all three points, but a WASP he was not.” So. I’d really, really like to see a movie about a clan of insane serial-killer cannibals who are not rednecks, but WASP preppies in the Lovecraftian-degenerate mold, like the Addams Family but worse – old money, armigerous lineage, DAR memberships, Andover, Yale, political connections, Bohemian Grove invitations, the whole business. They lure victims to their immaculately-kept ancestral estate somewhere in rural New England. They do the same kinds of things as the Leatherface family, but they supplement the torture with highfalutin power-philosophy quotations from Carlyle and Nietzsche and Fichte and Julius Evola. One of them, perhaps, is a fine young West Point man who finds creative uses for the interrogation techniques he learned as a Special Forces officer. Another, perhaps – call her “Muffy” – is a featherbrained debutante who’s always getting into hobbies (e.g., taxidermy). And then there’s the old patriarch of the clan, the man with highways and stock brokerages named after him, who rules from the head of the table . . . Heck, even the butler (one of the very few left in America) could get in on the action! Whaddaya think? Sounds like a ton of fun! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/2 "2005-12-26T04:12:25Z")
LOL. Did anyone visualize the Kennedy clan or the Bushes when they read this? I think it would be a terrific idea! ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/3 "2005-12-26T04:39:13Z")
There’s already been a cultured WASP serial-killer: Hannibal Lector in the book and movie versions of _Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs_, and _Hannibal_. Also, [nitpick]a Kennedy-type of clan wouldn’t work because they’re Irish-Catholic and thus can’t be WASPs.[/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/4 "2005-12-26T05:07:34Z")
Patrick Bateman, the “anti-hero” of _American Psycho_ (a novel and movie set in the 1980s) was a Yuppie and a serial killer. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/5 "2005-12-26T05:11:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > .Whaddaya think? Sounds like a ton of fun! 🙂 Indeed it does. What would it be called? Would any “good guys” escape? Would it end with the family being found out, and the estate in flames, and everyone relieved this nest of killers was dead?\* \*Except of course, for a pregnant Muffy, who would survive to raise a new generation. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/6 "2005-12-26T06:54:16Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Patrick Bateman, the “anti-hero” of _American Psycho_ (a novel and movie set in the 1980s) was a Yuppie and a serial killer. Damn you! I was going to mention this. I haven’t seen the sequel. Does it qualify, too? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/7 "2005-12-26T07:30:27Z")
Rich WASPs may not be the villains in many horror movies, but they’re the preferred villains in all sorts of other movies and TV shows. Back in the Seventies, when Ben Stein was a TV writer, he published a theory called “Stein’s Law,” which posited essentially that “In any TV show in which a murder takes place, the guilty party will turn out to be the richest white person who has previously appeared.” Anyone who watches “Law & Order” or any of its spinoffs can tell you not much has changed. In police/private eye shows, it’s a given that every business executive is evil, that he has a loaded gun in his top desk drawer, that he regularly has people executed by making a quick phone call. So, turning rich WASPs into cannibals wouldn’t represent much of a change in Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/8 "2005-12-26T07:31:41Z")
No idea, I didn’t see it (and I’m pretty sure it went direct-to-video and Christian Bale wasn’t involved). ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/9 "2005-12-26T13:26:57Z")
I blush to tell y’all that SMALLVILLE, this season, featured a sorority of preppie vampires. Of course, they weren’t all WASPs, they had their share of ethnic diversity. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/10 "2005-12-26T15:09:29Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Back in the Seventies, when Ben Stein was a TV writer, he published a theory called “Stein’s Law,” which posited essentially that “In any TV show in which a murder takes place, the guilty party will turn out to be the richest white person who has previously appeared.” especially if the character is religious. Re the OP- would the patriarch be Edward Herrimann!?! ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/11 "2005-12-26T15:36:30Z")
Well, there’s always [Society](http://imdb.com/title/tt0098354/) for inspiration. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/12 "2005-12-26T16:05:31Z")
**Eat The Rich** > [@video box](#): > > ‘You are what you eat’ is given a new meaning when a trendy London restaurant is suddenly taken over by maniacal subversives… ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/13 "2005-12-26T16:14:30Z")
Any movies about non-white cannibals? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/14 "2005-12-26T16:17:38Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > Any movies about non-white cannibals? Can’t think of a movie, but black cannibals feature in _The Turner Diaries._[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner\_Diaries;](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_Diaries;) [http://pages.prodigy.net/aesir/ttd.htm](http://pages.prodigy.net/aesir/ttd.htm). Which has not, as yet, been adapted for the big screen . . . ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/15 "2005-12-26T17:32:08Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Damn you! I was going to mention this. > > I haven’t seen the sequel. Does it qualify, too? The OP specifically asked for a Yuppie **clan** so Bateman clearly does not, there being only one of him. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/16 "2005-12-26T20:43:21Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > I blush to tell y’all that SMALLVILLE, this season, featured a sorority of preppie vampires. Of course, they weren’t all WASPs, they had their share of ethnic diversity. Vampires are almost always portrayed as aristocrats – sometimes by virtue of their pre-vampiric social origins, sometimes just because their vampirism is presumed to confer a kind of aristocratic status on them. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/17 "2005-12-26T20:46:00Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Re the OP- would the patriarch be Edward Herrimann!?! Do you mean Edward Herrman? [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001346/](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001346/) I guess he’d be a good choice. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/18 "2005-12-26T20:57:08Z")
> [@Love Rhombus](#): > > Well, there’s always [Society](http://imdb.com/title/tt0098354/) for inspiration. I was going to mention this flick. Very stupid, but fun. ---
**Author:** ![mrunlucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/19 "2005-12-26T21:53:37Z")
_April Fool’s Day_ has preppies in it. Muffy lures her friends to a small island summer home, and some of these friends are preppies too. But it’s sort of a “joke” horror movie, and hardly like the OP theorizes upon. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217/20 "2005-12-27T03:53:14Z")
Still no mention of [Parents](http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0098068/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cT1wYXJlbnRzfGV2PTF8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGNvPTF8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=4;ft=126;fm=1) ? Carol Clover has quite a bit to say on just this topic (the us vs. them/city mouse vs. country mouse set-up of backwoods horror) in her book [Men, Women and Chainsaws](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691006202/qid=1135655251/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-3255860-0363814?n=507846&s=books&v=glance). One of the worst I’ve seen in this subgenre was **Wrong Turn**. From what I remember, the backwoods yokels weren’t even given a motive. Of course they’re going to go after the teens from the city. What else would they do? I think the filmmakers just assumed everyone watching had already seen **Deliverance**. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-idea-a-clan-of-insane-serial-killer-cannibal-preppies/337217.md?page=2)