Considering that we're now in September meaning Halloween is right around the corner, I might as well start proposing some horror movie candidates. Starting with the ones from the V/H/S series, and trust me, there's a lot of nasty people in these movies that are potential candidates. But I'm choosing to start off with one of the worst from my favourite segment in the entire series.
What's The Work?[]
V/H/S 2 is a found footage anthology film, and the second film in the V/H/S series. The segment we'll be talking about today is called Safe haven, and it's directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Evans. A film crew decides to do an interview with the leader of the Paradise Gates family cult, only known as "father". During the interview, they decide it would be better to interview him in his own compound, as it's a more private location. After some convincing he agrees. But once the crew show up, things begin escalating very quickly.
Who Is He? What Has He Done?[]
Father is the main antagonist of the segment. We’re first introduced to him when he meets with the film crew at a café. Where he talk about how life on earth is only temporary, that there’s a higher plane of existence and how he and his followers will cross the bridge to it by getting closer and closer until he opens the gate for them. Ominously clarifying that he isn’t speaking metaphorically and that it’s already begun, with them in the middle of it right now. The interviewer, Malik, then says he would like to meet with Father in his residence to discuss further, stating that he would like to interview the Paradise Gates Family. Father refuses saying he doesn’t want non-believers entering Paradise Gates, due to the biased way the media portrays him and his family. Lena then jumps in saying that the reason they want to interview him within Paradise Gates is so they can make a fair report on the family, to give him a chance to explain himself why the Paradise Gates family is a valid organisation. The film then cuts to security camera footage of Paradise Gates before Father can give an answer, but considering the crew has arrived at Paradise Gates, he presumably agreed.
Like I just said, the crew arrived at Paradise Gates where Malik introduces himself to the woman out the front, commenting on the long drive. The woman explains this by saying that Father more comfortable away from cities as they could be dangerous for him. A young girl named Lydia then gives Lena a necklace, with Lena asking her if the other little girls helped her with it. She then responds by saying she’s not a little girl because Father took care of… only to be cut off by the woman who quickly shushes her and sends her away. The crew make their way through the compound to Father’s office where they restart the interview from the start of the segment. But before they can begin, Lena begins feeling sick, so Father gives her instructions on where to find the restroom so she can be sick, and Lena demands they start the interview without her. Adam leaves to make sure Lena is okay despite Father’s insistence that Ms Sri will take good care of her, with Malik justifying this by saying he just wants to secure the area. After Lena leaves, she goes to the classroom we briefly saw earlier in the segment and questions where there teacher is. Only for Lydia and the woman from earlier to appear in the doorway of the classroom. The woman tells her how beautiful her baby will be and reaches out to grab her hand, only for Adam to appear in the doorway causing Lena to walk away from them and off somewhere else. Cut back to the interview and Father is answering the question from before the cut to Lena. Revealing that his followers give their wives and children to him so he may wash away their impurities, making it clear he’s raped numerous people, including children. He even goes far as to call what he does revolutionary. He then goes on a rant about the paradise which is eventually interrupted when Malik has to go back to the car to retrieve the backup battery. Leaving the cameraman Joni all alone with Father.
Suddenly a bell begins ringing and father makes an announcement to the members of his cult, delivering a massive speech essentially telling them all to kill themselves. He then gets angry at Joni for interrupting him, ripping off his shirt and attacking him with a box cutter. Eventually slitting his throat and killing him. From this point onwards all hell breaks loose. Lena is abducted by a group of women being led by Father, the classroom of children we saw earlier all drink poison and die along with their teacher and we see dozens of men shoot themselves in the head. With one man who tried to escape being shot dead. Malik manages to kill the guy who shot the man, but is then grabbed by two more cult members, with a third proceeding to beat him over the head with a shotgun. Adam then witnessed a mass execution of tied up men, concluding with the death of Malik, with the perpetrator then proceeding to blow his head off. Adam eventually makes his way to Father, who proceeds to tell him to put down the pipe before exploding. Adam then attempts to fight off the women holding down Lena, but it’s too late as a demon then breaks through Lena’s stomach, killing her. Adam runs away, only to find that Malik and everyone in the cult are now zombies. Adams escapes the compound and seemingly survives, albeit barely as his car has crashed. But the demon followed him and proceeds to call him papa, causing Adam to begin manically laughing as the segment ends.
Mitigating Factors[]
None. At first you might be able to claim he cares about the members of his cult, as he constantly talks about them getting into paradise. However, after thinking on it, I don't believe this holds up. For one, we see a lot of people being killed as they attempt to leave, several tied up people being shot in a line and of course the crew themselves have to fight off attempts on their lives from members of the cult. While this doesn't automatically prove he doesn't care about the members of his cult. It does call into question the idea he has good intentions when he's having people killed that aren't even part of the cult. Including Joni who he himself killed via a pretty brutal method for the horrendous crime of... interrupting him. Also, it seems like some of his claims are contradictory. He claims his followers will become angels but then literally summons a demon, which also causes his followers to all become zombies. There's no actual evidence the paradise he speaks of exists. With the zombie thing not being evidence of it. Considering Father himself explodes into a puddle of blood, and therefore can't comeback as a zombie. Combine these things with the whole "child rape = purifying" thing, and I feel comfortable in saying he doesn't actually care about the members of his cult and is blatantly leading them on, so they'll take part in the mass suicide which he orchestrated for self beneficial reasons.
Other than that he's a pretty typical example of faux affably evil. He seems kind to the crew at first but ultimately has no problem killing them all off as part of his cult's mass suicide. This guy has nothing in terms of redeeming qualities.
Heinous Standard[]
the V/H/S heinous standard is no joke and there's tons of awful people in the series. There's James who is involved in a plot to impregnate women with alien babies and then make them believe they're going insane to hide it, Dante The Great who killed several people in very brutal ways, Dr. James Suhendra who kidnapped and experimented on 99+ people, killing most of them, Greg who wants to use a vampire to blow up a populated building with children inside and Bobby who's a serial killer and rapist.
Well first of all, I should say right off the bat that due to V/H/S 94 and it's subsequent entries being labelled as a reboot of the series, I'm inclined to believe they aren't canon to the first three films (Or there's atleast enough uncertainty that candidates from the series shouldn't be affected). But even if they were, I'd still be confident that this guy does more than enough. He has the unique crime of child rape, as while he's not the only rapist, he is the only one known to have child victims. This doesn't fall into off-screen villainy in my opinion as we actually meet one of his victims (Lydia) who makes reference to what he did. And he's done it enough times that even outsiders to the cult have become aware of it, to the point that it's first question Malik asks him. enforced suicide is also a unique crime to him, and he did that on mass, including to children. And while they do come back as zombies they're clearly still dead. So I think he does more than enough.
Verdict[]
I'm saying yes, what do you all think?