During the screening of the film at the 1989 Telluride Festival, nearly half the audience walked out during the family massacre scene. When the film finished, it was met with complete silence, as the audience were so stunned by what they had just seen and didn’t know how to react. As director John McNaughton was leaving the theatre, he was approached by a distressed man who informed him “You can’t do that.” McNaughton asked him what he meant, and the man explained that you couldn’t make a film about a murderer who gets away in the end, without punishment or without any kind of moral resolution, reiterating “You can’t do that.” McNaughton thought about this for a moment, and then said to the man, “We just did.
Permalink
