- Mickey and Mallory Knox are lovers who come from abusive backgrounds and go on a killing spree after murdering Mallory's parents. - They are eventually caught and imprisoned but escape during a prison riot sparked by a TV interview with Mickey. - The film Natural Born Killers was very controversial for its graphic violence and some claimed it inspired real-life murder cases, though there is no definitive evidence it directly caused violence. - While the film was debated as having a possible influence on unstable individuals, most viewers did not commit acts of violence after watching it.

2. Brief Synopsis
• Mickey and Mallory Knox are
two lovers who have come
from very disturbed
backgrounds. Mickey, beaten
regularly by his dad and
witnessed his dad’s suicide and
Mallory regular beaten and
raped by her father and gave
birth to her own brother. The
two began their new life
together by drowning Mallory’s
dad and burning her mum and
setting off along Route 666
‘The Devil’s Highway’

3. Brief Synopsis
• We first see the couple in a
café in a dessert. They and up
murdering everybody in the
café except 1. They openly tell
the person who they are and to
tell whoever comes to the
scene of the crime. This is like
their signature mass murder
style. We then see the story of
how they met and how they
married themselves. The two
go on a mass murdering, love
crazed road trip.

4. Brief Synopsis
• In time they are caught and
arrested for what they have
done and are sent to prison.
couple have built up lots of
media attention and what the
have done has been glorified
making them like celebrities
with a fan base. Once they're in
prison a reporter is allowed to
enter the prison to interview
Mickey live on TV this triggers a
riot in the prison and allows
Mickey and Mallory to escape,
once again killing everyone in
their path.

5. Oliver Stone
• William Oliver Stone is an
American film director, screen
writer and producer. He directed
the film Natural Born Killers (NBK)
among other films that are known
for their controversial views on
political and cultural issues.
• Stone had many Lawsuits made
against him due to the nature of his
films. After NBK had been released
there had been incidents of
extreme violence and some people
were trying to blame Stone,
accusing him of trying to provoke
violence through his film.

6. Controversy
• The film was very controversial
as no film had every portrayed
such graphic scenes of
violence before. Even before
the film was given a rating,
many shots had to be cut just
to even receive an R rating (17
or over)

7. Copycat Killings
• On March 6th 1995, a teen couple
Ben Darras and Sarah Edmondson
left their home in Oklahoma to head
to Mississippi where they shot
William Savage twice in the head
completely unprovoked. They then
headed to Louisiana where they shot
convenience store cashier Patsy
Byers which paralysed her from the
neck down. They were then arrested.
• Police discovered that they had been
using acid whilst on their killing spree
and had watched NBK over and over
again the night before they begun.

8. Copycat Killings
• On April 20th 1999, 2 students
Eric Haris and Dylan Klebold
murdered 12 students and one
teacher at a school in Colorado
before both committing suicide.
They both kept diaries and
there were constant references
to NBK and they even used the
initial ‘NBK’ in many of their
diary entries making it look like
the killing spree was planned.

9. Copycat Killings
Other Alleged Incidents:
• A 14 year old boy from Dallas, Texas decapitated
a 13 year old classmate in September 1994. He
allegedly said he killed her because he ‘wanted to
be famous like the Natural Born Killers’.
• On March 5th, 15 year old Jason Lewis was
talking to his friend on a phone and allegedly said
he wanted to surpass Micky and Mallory, kill his
parents and leave. Lewis then got up and shot his
mother 3 times in face and his father 4 times in the
head. According to the friend on the phone, Lewis
returned as if nothing had happened and said ‘did
it’. Once Lewis had been arrested he said he killed
his parents because the imposed a midnight
curfew.
• 18 year old Eric Tavulares from Wisconsin
claimed to police he had watched NBK 10-20
before he strangled his girlfriend in her sleep. The
couple had been watching the film but stopped
halfway to go to bed where he later strangled her.

10. Applying Theories
• The idea that there was a direct link
between the film and the violence
displayed in the copy cat killings can be
associated with two types of theories.
• The Hypodermic Needle theory would
suggest that it was Oliver Stones
intention (or any other producers) to
manipulate and cause people to be
violent when they viewed NBK. Also, it
would suggest that everyone that views
NBK will receive the messages in the film
in exactly the same way and everyone
will subconsciously adopt the violent
messages they receive too . We know
that is obviously not the case because
there are millions of homicidal killers as a
result of NBK.

11. Applying Theories
• The cultivation theory also suggests that
long exposure to the film desensitised
people, so when it came to actually
committing a violent crime it didn't seem
so bad because they may have been so
desensitised. The copycat killers had
watched the film on loop for hours so
watching constant scenes of killing and
blood, the theory would suggest they
grew accustom to the violence and
actually went out to do it themselves.
• None of the copycat killings can be
explained using this theory because there
are obviously many fans of the film that
have seen it many times and haven’t
followed in the footsteps of Mickey and
Mallory. Also many of the killers were
using heavy drugs and were obviously
not very stable people in the first place.