"Dexter Style Killing"? Yeah I have a problem with this.

I dont' know what I'm more disappointed in; the fact that someone thought it would be a good idea to play copy-cat to Showtime's serial-killer-of-killers Dexter, or that they did such a horrible job of it. The Edmonton Journal reported that a 29 year-old filmmaker and show enthusiast (also reads 'Deeply Deranged Lunatic Nutcase Fanatic') has been charged with the murder of a man that went missing three weeks ago. It was reported by Police that Johnny Altinger was lured to a detached residential double garage in the south of Edmonton under the pretense of rendezvousing with a girl he had recently met on-line. Oddly enough this garage was the same garage that had been recently used to film a short movie, by Mark Twitchell (the Dexter-Loving creative mind that felt it was a good idea to base this alleged murder on a project he had just wrapped... at the Same Location!!).

The whole scene is a disaster. First off, if it feels like a stretch to believe that a 38 year-old man would agree to set a first date location with a girl he met on the internet at a garage, how far fetched is Twitchell's ridiculous plotline? If I'm watching a movie and the main character thinks this is a good idea, I'm dropping the old 'Come On, Really?', and then I'm pulling the plug on it. It gets worse because not only did Twitchell first film the scenario (what as some sort of test-drive or trial run?) before following through with the real deal (allegedly of course... still no body to be found), but it looks as though this was his second attempt at bringing his film to life. Two area residents reported seeing an individual fleeing the garage on October 3rd, being chased by a man wearing a black-and-gold-painted hockey goalie mask (a mask that was later found in Twitchell's residence after it was used in his film... come on Mark, are you kidding me?)

If it wasn't bad enough that Twitchell advertised the whole event in his movie, he also went ahead and spent some time alluding to his Dexter-ways on both Facebook and his MySpace page, refering to himself as 'Mark has way to much in common with Dexter Morgan' and 'Mark is set to Evil'.

How Creepy is this Guy? And how badly does he want to be Dexter Morgan? Messed up.

So at this point we have two issues thanks to Mark Twitchell; the first being that he is running around doing a horrible impression of Dexter, the second (and the more serious of the two) is that he has provided support to those who disapproved of the television's portrayl of a vigilante hero. When I first brought the premise of Dexter (seriel killer who kills killers) to people I knew, there was a variety of responses that resembled everything from 'Sweeeeeet, I love this guy already!!!!!!' to 'Yikes, I don't think that's sending the right message at all'. But what many viewers realize soon after getting hooked on the show is that Dexter doesn't focus on the Right-vs-Wrong of being a Vigilante, but rather involves the subject. The show is driven by complex characters, clever writting, a twisting plotline, and a devilish narrative that allows the audience inside the head of the intriguing Dexter Morgan. The Showtime series spends about as much time highlighting Dexter's vigilante night-life as Friday Night Lights does football. Sure in FNL's case the show's shell is a high school football team, but you don't need to be the guy who watches eight-hours of NFL every Sunday with the option of a couple bonus quarters on Mondays, to enjoy the strength of the Dillon Panther's team dynamic, the adolescent dilemmas, and the intricacy of human behaviour. Dexter Morgan follows a strick code, continually battles with his Dark Passenger's hunger, and is constantly faced with The question of the Vigilante way of life. What Dexter is not, is some Loony-bin Applicant that runs around in a black-and-gold-painted hockey goalie mask, poorly re-enacting his own troubled fiction. My hope is that Mark Twitchell is seen as a Crazy Person with one too many voices in his head, wanting not to make a movie, but to be a movie. My fear is that the show Dexter will be in anyway associated with this ridiculousness. The unfortunate thing is that most people won't get the chance to see passed the 'Filmmaker charged in 'Dexter' killing' headlines, and will question whether or not a show like Dexter should be on TV. The answer to that question is a definite yes, the answer to the other question (should the Mark Twitchell's be allowed to compare themselves to Dex?) is an outstanding No.