Case Study

Pekka-Eric Auvinen was an eighteen year old pupil at Jokela High School in Finland. A media frenzy erupted when he began opening fire at students and teachers at his school. At the time of the shooting he had been taking antidepressants one year prior to his death. These antidepressants are said to cause suicidal tendencies as a side-effect in early ages between 18 and 24. He described himself as, “an antihuman humanist and godlike atheist”.

The police investigation confirmed that Auvinen was frequently bullied at school. According to one of his teachers, he performed above-average academically, and excelled in history, in philosophy and in both right and left wing movements.

This case study is surprisingly similar to the storyline of my horror trailer because Pekka was frequently bullied at school wand wanted to get revenge for his suffering. Being distance from normal social life meant he became resentful of his peers. He was clever which meant he was able to plan his attack and succeed in causing mass panic and carnage.

The mind of my killer was heavily influenced by this case study because it gave my killer a real personality, not some made up character but an actual person who carried out a murderous rampage;which made the killer in the trailer more believable. This made me think more about how the killer felt, which is the reason why I included a flashback of the killer's childhood to explain the reason behind the killer's anger. I wanted to pass on this feeling to the audience through eerie shots of an empty playground and his unstoppable pursuit of the group.