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| “ | Sometimes I talk to my pets. | „ |
| ~ Jerry Hickfang. |
Jeremiah "Jerry" Hickfang is the protagonist villain of the 2014 dark-comedy horror/thriller and crime film The Voices. He is a kind and well-intentioned, but mentally ill young man who hallucinates his pet cat telling him to do bad things - none of which fall short of killing people.
He was portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, who also portrayed Deadpool in the X-Men film series and also voiced Eteon Director in Hobbs and Shaw, while Gulliver McGrath portrayed a young Jerry in the film.
Biography[]
When Jerry was 7 years old, his German mother married an American soldier and they moved to the United States from Berlin. She unfortunately suffered from schizophrenia and would claim to hear angels and animals talking to her, and often committed self-mutilation. Jerry inherited her illness and would hear his sock puppet talk to him when he was 12 years old - something that infuriated his stepfather and caused him to abuse him and wish he was never born. He was also made fun of by other kids.
At some point his mother confessed to the authorities her hallucinations and they came after her in her home. Before they had done so, Jerry's mom breaks glass and takes a piece to slit her throat with. She stabs herself in the neck, but cannot bring herself to complete the task before the cops come, so she begs young Jerry to do it. Wanting to put his mom out of her misery, he slit her throat, killing her, right before the cops came into the room. He was then taken to a mental hospital. It is unknown how, but it is implied that his stepdad died at some point in Jerry's life.
As Jerry grew older, he started working at a bathtub factory and moved into an apartment above a bowling alley. He has a psychiatrist named Dr. Warren, who prescribed pills to help him with his illness. However he hardly ever took them, much to her dismay, and he would hallucinate his pet dog, Bosco, and cat, Mr. Whiskers, talking to him. Bosco often tried to influence Jerry positively, while Mr. Whiskers would influence him negatively. It's made clear that he refuses to take his pills out of loneliness and likes his pets talking to him because of it.
Jerry has a crush on one of his co-workers, an English woman named Fiona. He invites her over to a Chinese restaurant, and she tells him she might go with him. However, she stands him up to go to a karaoke party with two other coworkers, Alison and Lisa. Feeling disappointed and rejected, Jerry drives away in his car. Unfortunately, for Fiona, her car doesn't start so she ends up flagging Jerry down as he's driving by. She apologizes for standing him up and says she sent him a message telling him she couldn't make it, but he never got it.
They agree to go eat together and as they are driving down the street, Jerry gives her a riddle about what the fourth named angel in the Bible is. She can't come up with the answer, and this guessing game distracts Jerry and he hits a deer, with it's head going through the windshield. The deer is still alive and suffering, and Jerry hallucinates it asking him to kill it to put it out of its misery. Jerry gives in and slits the deer's throat, killing it. Jerry then tells Fiona the fourth angel is Lucifer. Horrified and disgusted, Fiona runs out of the car. Jerry chases her with the bloodied knife in his hand, insisting that the deer wanted him to kill it. As soon as he catches up to her, she trips on her back and he ends up tripping onto her-stabbing her in the side in the process. She begins to spit out blood, and Jerry stabs her over and over again to put her out of her misery, crying and telling her he's sorry.
Jerry leaves and goes home, and hallucinates Bosco telling him to to go to the police, while Mr. Whiskers "tells" him to dispose of the body to get rid of any evidence. He also "tells" Jerry that on a subconscious level he wanted to kill Fiona because he took the knife with him when he chased her, to which Jerry replies with horror and agreement-while still admitting he's never felt more alive before killing her. Jerry goes back to her body the next day and imagines it looking perfect with completely clean scars from him stabbing her. He picks up her body but leaves her shoe and some bowels behind. When he gets home, he cuts of her body parts from the outside and the inside and puts them in plastic boxes.
He takes her head and puts it in the fridge. He then imagines Fiona's head telling him to take his pills. He does so, but as his hallucinations stop, he begins to see blood covering his kitchen, bags of body parts, and animal waste on his floor. He also notices that Fiona's head is bloodied and rotting. So he shoves all of his pills down the sink. The next day, he is happy to see everything looks clean again and his hallucinations resurface. He imagines Fiona's head telling him she needs a friend. Jerry is reluctant at first, but the next day he sees the news on the TV regarding Fiona's body parts they found. When the sheriff is interviewed, he gives his description he can think of for the killer, and Jerry imagines him looking into the camera and berating him for his actions. This, combined with the pressure "from" Mr. Whiskers, causes Jerry to believe he's nothing more than a killer and that he's destined to kill again. He then gives in and decides he'll kill Lisa for Fiona.
The next day, he asks Lisa out on a date, and he takes her to his abandoned childhood home in the woods, intent on killing her. However, as she goes upstairs to his mother's room, he begins to have flashbacks to when he killed her and cries. Lisa comforts him, and he decides not to kill her, so they spend the night at her house. The next night, Lisa comes over to Jerry's house to give him some cake, and he goes out on his porch to meet her but gets them locked out on purpose to get her to leave. He climbs up on his roof to go through the sky light, thinking Lisa left. However, Lisa lock picks his door and notices the bloodied kitchen, the body bags, and Fiona's severed head. Jerry comes in, and Lisa starts to fight him off before getting trapped in his room. Jerry begins to cry and tries to calm her down. She says she won't tell anyone, but she tries to get past him so he shoves her against his bed, causing her head to slam against the shelf and break her neck. However she's still alive, so Jerry kills her to put her out of her misery. He then cuts off her head and puts it in his fridge with Fiona's.
Some of Jerry's other coworkers, Alison, John, and Dave notice Fiona and Lisa missing, as well as Jerry's strange behavior. They do some research on him and find out about Jerry's past. Alison comes over to Jerry's house to talk to him, but he kills her and puts her head in his fridge with the others. The voices begin to increase and Jerry finally decide to go to Dr. Warren and confess to the murders. He does so and she tries to call the cops. However he catches her, ties her up, kidnaps her, and takes her to an open area. In a nervous effort to save herself and calm him down, she tells him all people, including her, struggle with bad thoughts but that the important thing is not to give into them-and that he's not alone in his suffering. Relieved, Jerry takes her into his car and realizes he has to go home and feed his pets. Meanwhile, John and Dave drive over to Jerry's apartment. Dave opens the door and Bosco runs out. Seeing everything in his apartment, they leave and call the cops.
When Jerry gets there and puts Dr. Warren on his couch, he panics when he realizes Bosco is missing. He then brings Fiona's head in so Dr. Warrend doesn't have to be alone, much to her horror. Mr. Whiskers "tells" Jerry to kill her, but he manages to resist before the cops show up. Jerry thanks his doctor for doing her best to help him, goes into his bathroom and opens a secret passageway to the basement. As he goes down there, he accidentally breaks a gas pipe. Some cops get Dr. Warren out and manage to escape before the place blows up and catches on fire-killing some cops.
Jerry makes it to the bowling alley where the smoke is coming in. He can hear Bosco and Mr. Whiskers talking to him-wih Bosco telling him to let himself die and Mr. Whiskers telling him to escape so he can kill more people. Wanting to put himself out of his own misery as well as redeem himself for his crimes, he stays put and lets himself succumb to the smoke and pass out. As he's dying, he hallucinates a white void where Bosco and Mr. Whiskers admit to liking each other despite their differences before agreeing to part ways. Jerry then shows up in the dream with his stepfather, mom, Jesus, and the three women he killed. He apologizes to the women for killing them, and they all begin to happily dance and sing to the audience.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Jerry's character seems to be inspired by real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, given he put the heads of his victims in his fridge, just as Dahmer did.
- Ryan Reynolds provided all of the voices for Jerry's pets, as well as the deer and Jerry's sockpuppet, Bunny Monkey.