A Producer Responds To News A Teacher Has Been Jailed For Screening THE ABCs OF DEATH

I read the article in the link, but it does not state what age the kids were. Not saying that this should make a difference, but there is a big difference between 13 and 17 year old mind set. However this does not make what she done okay, as it is in a school setting. Schools are for education not to watch horror movies.

The jail sentence is extreme, but I do agree with Todd that if I was a parent I would be angry about them getting shown this film, especially when the teacher stated that she did not know the content of the film. With a title like ABC's of Death 2, it is pretty self explanatory.

My understanding is that she showed the film to 4 classes and was interrupted while showing it to a fifth. Which is part of the issue, really, as the 'I didn't know' defense doesn't really hold when you've done it multiple times. And from what I've heard it was a range of ages across the full spectrum at the school ... so 14 up to 17.

I didn't realise she had showed it over that amount of classes. That makes it worse, and yeah her defense doesn't hold up when she done this over that length of time.

Also turning her back to the screen does not block out the sound, and having seen the film it is pretty obvious at certain parts of the film what is going on by just hearing it.

I can't really add anything, because I'm in 100% agreement. She should have been fired (and probably barred from teaching again), not fucking jailed. It's insane.

And you should be proud of the ABCs movies, they're the cream of the crop of the current spate of horror anthologies.

Is there any talk of ABCs 3?

A third one is rally down to Magnolia. We're all open to doing it but it's down to the numbers on part two.

Well, here's hoping.

I'd love to see the series grow, continuing to provide a platform for aspiring directors as well as more established ones. Seeing past contributors returning for a second go would be cool too, and I even think it'd be fun for some of the better segments to be sequelized (who wouldn't want to see sequels to W is for Wish and K is for Knell for example?). Anyway, I'm a fan.

I can play devil's advocate on this. I've seen the film and think it's a big melting pot of ideas and interesting moments. Some of the segments are very thought provoking and engaging, some are stupid and some are very disturbing. While I am all for free speech I do find it very disturbing this one was shown in schools and I think it actually would break the law about showing something pornographic to children. The one Japanese segment towards the end comes to mind specifically. I'd be livid if my daughter was shown this in school. I'm fairly liberal in what I let her watch but there are something's kids shouldn't be exposed to. Especially in a high school setting. This doesn't take away from the artistic merit of the project though. Some of the segments were very well done and some were really funny. Just not for kids in any shape, form or fashion. Next thing you know they'll be doing a Martyrs/Human Centipede double feature! The other major concern is you have no idea what kind of trauma history these teens have and how the very graphic depictions in this film could trigger them. So irresponsible!

Absolutely, it shouldn't have been shown in a school setting. I think I was quite explicit in my agreement on that point above and fully believe the teacher in question should have been fired. I do object, however, to characterizing it as porn. It's just simply not. It's been put before multiple ratings boards in many countries and not had that designation anywhere in the western world whatsoever. It's R rated here in Canada, Cat III in Hong Kong, etc. Though it went out unrated in the USA it does not at all fall into the legal definition of pornography there, either. Appropriate for children? Hell no. But porn? No, it's not that, either, and I find it pretty sad that we live in a world where 'not for children' somehow automatically equates to pornography in many circles. Sign of the age, I suppose.

I can see your view as well. Maybe pornographic is a strong word and I definitely do not feel "Not for children" equals pornographic. I just remember one of the Japanese ones being very sexually explicit. Sorry if I offended you. The line and how people view its is an interesting one. Thanks for the reply and overall I thought the movie was a creative and novel idea.

Oh, yeah. Z is quite sexual. So is L, in an entirely different (and far more disturbing) way.

It was L I was thinking of after checking IMDB. Don't remember Z.

Yup, Timo's segment is definitely the one that comes to mind when wondering "what the HELL was this teacher thinking?!"

Well-said, Todd, and this news eats me up, as well, since I'm in the same position you are (parent who's also partially responsible for the film). I always thought I'd be happy to see extreme stuff disseminated as widely as possible, but now that I see what kind of reaction it can engender, it makes me feel awful. This woman sounds like she's an incompetent and lazy teacher possessed of terrible judgment skills, but she doesn't deserve jail time.

I think you missed one failure, however - the failure of the school to deal with this internally by disciplining or firing Kearns, and not making it a legal issue. It hasn't been very well-detailed in the news, but it seems as though it was a school administrator who brought the police into the situation. I want to ask them: "What the hell for?" Is this really something that deserve police action, or is it something better handled by school authorities? It would have been a black mark on Kearns' record as a substitute, and I assume it would have been difficult for her to get another job as a teacher. But to call the police over this? Ridiculous.

It's another assumption, but I can only imagine that the school administrators, fearing the wrath of angry and possibly litigious parents, brought the local police into the equation to shift the legal blame off of themselves and entirely onto Kearns. A typically cowardly act in their denial to not only assume responsibility for hiring her in the first place, but also for monitoring what it was she was doing in her classes. Kearns is guilty of bad judgment and stupidity, I think. But there are many other individuals in this situation who are guilty of much more, I think.

The one thing that gives me a bit of reassurance, however, is when I think about the kids. Typically, kids have good judgment about things and since this was a class of older (middle school?) kids, I can't imagine that too many were scarred by the experience. At worst, they probably thought that some of the episodes were gross and stupid (I think about the reactions we were getting on IMDB when the first film went on VOD). Most of the episodes in ABCs1 have some degree of black humor in them, to offset the gore and sadism. That usually makes all the difference.

I agree, the school took the cowardly route by involving the police.

In total agreement, Marc.

I see both of the producers points. I am somewhat on the fence about whether the sentence is actually too severe or not severe enough. I like the horror genre but there are others that do not. To those sensitive to that type of content I can imagine that this would be pretty disturbing.

Now imagine your children or any child essentially stuck in a classroom and forced to watch it. I'm not saying she held them down, but you have both peer pressure and pressure of challenging a teacher's authority that is not easy to overcome. I struggle to believe that out of 5 classes no objections were raised or that after seeing it once she could reasonably see no problem.

There is a saying that goes, "What has been seen cannot be unseen", and there is truth to it. Not everyone is necessarily prepared to process this kind of content. For those unable to simply "shake it off" both the child and parents are left to deal with the repercussions.

That she should be fired is a given, I personally believe she should be banned from any work with children ever. The fact that she still doesn't seem to see an issue with what she did speaks volumes. Regardless of punishment is this someone you want interacting with children? Someone that even now sees no issue with her behavior.

However you make a valid point about it not necessarily being a criminal matter. I'm not a fan of the Law Suit Happy Generation, but this was probably best left as a civil matter. As a parent I'd be mad as a hornet, but I would struggle with letting that anger be used to let the government overstep its bounds.

For whatever it is - or isn't - worth, totally agree with you, Todd.

As a parent, I would be (pardon my non-Quebec French) rip-shit that a substitute teacher thought this was an okay thing to do, even in high school. (One might have at least expected a Spanish film with subtitles).

But, to me, this is primarily a failure on every level by the teacher who - even if ill matched for a Spanish class - seems to have deserved losing her employment and accreditation AND by the local government who used her failure as an opportunity to score "we're doing something!" points in, as you mention, what should be seen as a non-criminal offense.

Unfortunate all the way around.

(Still a big fan of the film, though.)