The Paperboy

Infobox Film
name = The Paperboy/The Paper Boy


caption =
director = Douglas Jackson
producer = Tom Berry/Franco Battista
Stefan Wodoslawsky(co-producer)
Pierre David/Henry Seggerman(executive producer)
writer = David E. Peckinpah (written by) (as David Peckinpah)
starring = Alexandra Paul,
William Katt,
Karyn Dwyer,
Krista Errickson,
Frances Bay,
Marc Marut
music = Milan Kymlicka
cinematography = Rodney Gibbons
editing = Yves Langlois
distributor = Starlight/Transmundo Films/Satch-Mo/The Image Organization/Blue Rider Pictures/Allegro Films
released = 1994
runtime = 97 min
country = USA
language = English

"The Paperboy" is a 1994 Canada Independent Film/Mystery film/Psychological horror starring Alexandra Paul & William Katt that references (1939's) The Wizard of Oz. After a secretly abused local child slays an elderly neighbor, he ends up bringing her Next of kin out from the city into the country, only for said kid, who works as a paper-boy begins an obsessive campaign to win them over. When he is rejected by them, things turn nasty!

Taglines

*Mysterious Multiple Deaths Plague Quiet Neighborhood
*He's bad news

Plot

The movie begins wih Johnny McFarley as he is riding his bike to an elderly Mrs. Thorpe, to deliver her newspaper he was able to go in the house with a key he has. He then smothers Mrs. Thorpe (while she was watching a home movie of her daughter Melissa) with a plastic bag inducing a heart attack. he then takes the bag off and continues his route. The movie cuts to Melissa just finishing her last 7th grade english class for the summer. When Melissa and her 10 year old daughter Cammie return home, she receives a phone call from her friend about her mother's "passing". They both go to her mother's home and are met by Johnny, who kindly offers to take their luggage into the house. He then askes if he could come to the funeral because as he implied "She was my friend, if I died she'd come to my funeral." They then go to they funeral in a limo where we find out that Johnny's mother died and that his father is rarely around because of his job as a sales rep. After the wake Johnny takes Cammie to play in a room full of empty coffins, if she promised not to tell Melissa. When the funeral was over Johnny sneaked into Melissa's house and placed a baby monitor in the vent so he could eavesdrop on their conversations. Melissa invited Johnny to a BBQ that She and Cammie was having, Johnny accepts on the condition that he cooks. He video tapes the BBQ while he waits for Melissa only to find that she is going out with brian while Brenda (whom Johnny despises as much as she despies him.) babysits Cammie. Johnny freaks out, smashes the BBQ plate and goes tohis room beating himself up about the outburst chanting "Never be a bad boy." Later that night he walks back to Melissa's house with a letter of apology only to accidently catch Brenda making out with her boyfriend. Brenda catches him and im the next morning tells Melissa that Johnny has been spying on her. Johnny gets even by rigging the antenna that she used to sneek back into her bedroom window and she falls. Johhny later explains to Melissa that Brenda is now paraplegic. Cammie sneaks up on Johnny while he was making a shrine out of photos he stole from the house. Johnny is mad at her at first but says he was making a surprise presnt for them and that Cammie is his little sis. Johnny then takes Cammie while he collects from his paper route, where he later says that one of his customers Mrs. Rosemont is a witch. Mrs. Rosemont tells him that his money is in the mailbox. When johnny walks away from Cammie to get his money, Mrs. Rosemont warns Cammie that Johnny has the Mark of Cain and that she should stay away from him. Later on Cammie tells Melissa what Mrs. Rosemont said and Melissa Confronted her about it. Brian invites Melissa and the family (not including Johnny) to a pizza dinner. When Melissa and Cammie get home they see Johnny in the kitchen peeling apples expecting Melissa to make an apple pie. She was shocked to learn that he has a key to the house, and that he could have snuck in at any time, and insisted Johnny to leave. Johnny held the knife he used for peeling in a threatening matter and stabs it on the counter before storming out. Later at night Johnny along with his father apologizes for what he did, but Melissa says he cannot come to the house unless he is invited and that his father should spend more time with him. His father gave him a set of golf clubs as an apology for not being there for him and tells him that they will be spending much more time together in California because of a promotion he got. Fearing that he will not see "his family", Johnny kills his father with a fold out putter. Melissa then goes to Mrs. Rosemont and it is explained that Johnny was abused by his mother and that he murdered her. Melissa doesn't believe that Johnny is capable of murder and leaves. Johnny confronts her about Mrs. Rosmont and that all she said were lies. Later on Johnny overhears on the babymonitor that Melissa is calling child welfare and that with proof and Mrs. rosemont's statement Johnny will be placed in foster care. Johnny freaks out and grabs his bat and rides to Mrs. Rosemont's house, luring her dog, Peaches with a hot dog and confronts Mrs. Rosemont. Johnny cuts the phonline and steals her puffer, knowing she can't breathe without it. Johnny takes the dog much to her horror and walks out of the room returning with his bat and a white pillow case supposedly with the dog in it. Johnny beats the pillowcase with the bat, causing Mrs. Rosemont to die of an asthma attack. Johnny opens the bag to reveal two broken bottles of ketchup and ribs implying that he didn't kill the dog. Johnny then goes to Brains work place knocks him out and sets it on fire. Brian managed to regain consious long enough to escape. Johnny then calls Melissa and tells her to come to his house. Melissa refuses until she hears Cammie calling her name. Melissa goes to Johnny's house, Johnny now completly insane to the point where he is calling her "mom". Johnny's intentions are then revealed that he killed Melissa's mother to lure them to the house in hopes of starting a new family with them. Melissa is searching Johnny's house wherever Cammie's woice is heard only to find the sound coming from Johnny's home movie and the baby monitor in the basement where a hole is dug for his father. Melissa refuses to be Johnny's mother. Johnny then tries to bury Melissa only to have her escape through the window. Armed with a pickaxe Johnny pursues Melissa carrying Cammie as she is running. She tires out and tells Cammie to run. Johnny tries to strike her with the pickaxe and misses breaking the handle off. Melissa manages to get a hold of the broken handle and just before she could hit him she is stopped by the police. Johnny tries to use this as his advantage and franticly lies to them claiming that Melissa is crazy and trying to kill him. Johnny then sees Brian step out of the car too saying that it's over and the cops take Johnny away as he is begging Melissa to tell them he is a good boy.

See also

* Cinema of Canada
* The Bad Seed (film)
* Psychological horror
* Horror-of-personality
* Horror-of-demonic
* Lists of films
* Patricide
* Sicko (disambiguation)

External links

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