Seth Rogen has expressed his outrage at a Washington Post film critic's article that noted that his movies could have influenced Elliot Rodger, the Santa Barbara native who went on a shooting rampage last weekend as a result of his "unfulfilled desire," to kill six, and injure 13 others.
Rodger committed suicide immediately after the rampage, and Ann Hornaday wrote in the Washington Post that movies such as Rogen's "Neighbors" sent out the wrong message that life is all about sex and pleasure.
"How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like (Rogen's) 'Neighbors' and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of 'sex and fun and pleasure'?" Hornaday wrote.
"For generations, mass entertainment has been overwhelmingly controlled by white men, whose escapist fantasies so often revolve around vigilantism and sexual wish-fulfillment (often, if not always, featuring a steady through-line of casual misogyny)," she noted.
Rogen responded to the article with a series of tweets and called it misinformed and insulting. Writer-director Judd Apatow has also criticized the article calling it idiotic.
.@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014
.@AnnHornaday how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage. — Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014
Before going on a shooting spree, Rodger had send out a 140-page manifesto titled "My Twisted World" explaining that he is sad and lonely because of constant rejection of the "female species."
The 22-year-old son of "Hunger Games" assistant director Peter Rodger had sent out the manifesto to 30 people, including his mother, father and former teachers.
In it, he has blamed his first crush for his hatred of women as she used to tease him at school. Rodger wrote: "She must have thought I was an ultimate loser. I hated her so much, and I will never forget her. I started to hate all girls because of this. I saw them as mean, cruel, and heartless creatures that took pleasure from my suffering."
Rodger, who is now being called the "virgin killer," had planned to kill his step-mother, Soumaya, and six-year-old brother, who is an actor.
Rodger believed that his brother would be more successful with girls than him when he grew up.
"It will be a hard thing to do, because I had really bonded with my little brother in the last year, and he respected and looked up to me," Rodger wrote. "But I would have to do it. If I can't live a pleasurable life, then neither will he! I will not let him put my legacy to shame."
