Joker comes out on October 4th, next week. The promotion is really ramping up, and I think the studio (Warner Bros) was surprised that the film got such a good reception at the film festivals in Venice and Toronto. But adjacent to the “is the movie any good?” conversation is the conversation about “will this movie actually inspire violence” and “why does this seem like an incel fantasy?” In 2012, a young man committed a mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado theater which was showing The Dark Knight Rises. The shooter James Holmes was “inspired” by the Joker. And now Aurora survivors and Aurora police are very worried that Joker will inspire the same kind of violent nutjobs.

Family members of those killed in the July 20, 2012, mass shooting at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, have signed a letter to Warner Bros. sharing concerns about the upcoming Joker film and asking the studio to donate to groups that aid victims of gun violence. “We are calling on you to be a part of the growing chorus of corporate leaders who understand that they have a social responsibility to keep us all safe,” reads the letter, a copy of which was shared with The Hollywood Reporter.

Seven years have passed since James Holmes, clad in full body armor and armed with multiple guns including an assault rifle, terrorized the Aurora Cinemark theater, murdering 12 people and injuring 70 during a screening of Christopher Nolan’s Batman film. Now, as Warner Bros. gears up for the Oct. 4 release of Todd Phillips’ R-rated Joker, which is attracting attention for its gritty, realistic violence as well as for its artistry and the performance of star Joaquin Phoenix, some survivors and relatives of the victims are expressing fears about the film.

“I don’t need to see a picture of [Holmes]; I just need to see a Joker promo and I see a picture of the killer,” says Sandy Phillips, whose 24-year-old daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was among the slain.

Sandy Phillips (no relation to the film’s director), who with her husband Lonnie created the nonprofit group Survivors Empowered, worked with Igor Volsky of the gun control advocacy group Guns Down America to craft the letter to Warner Bros., which was signed by five family members of victims and sent Tuesday morning. In an interview, Sandy Phillips says that Joker, which centers on the isolated and mentally ill antihero who becomes Batman’s eventual arch-nemesis, is “like a slap in the face.” She adds that she’s concerned about audiences connecting to and even emulating the film’s protagonist in a cultural climate where mass shootings have become commonplace. “My worry is that one person who may be out there — and who knows if it is just one — who is on the edge, who is wanting to be a mass shooter, may be encouraged by this movie. And that terrifies me,” she says.

One theater that apparently will not be showing Joker: Century Aurora and XD, the remodeled venue where the shooting took place. The theater chain did not respond to a request for comment. But as of Monday night, no showtimes were listed online for Joker at the Aurora multiplex, and a theater employee told THR that advance ticket purchases were not available because the film will not be shown at the venue.

Holmes, convicted of 24 counts of first-degree murder and now serving life in prison with no possibility of parole, will be forever linked to the Batman film. In the days following the massacre, Holmes was compared to the Joker character because he sported bright dyed hair and, according to a now-debunked report at the time, called himself “the Joker” as he was being arrested. Daniel Oates, Aurora’s chief of police at the time, maintains “there is no evidence” Holmes ever said that. Nevertheless, says Oates, “Every time there is a mass shooting or, in the collective media culture, a portrayal of a mass shooting or an evil character who engages in the wanton, random, senseless killing of innocents, we are all traumatized again.” Sandy Phillips expands on that: “For me, it’s the gratuitous violence that this film glorifies and elevates with the Joker character.”

[From THR]

The Hollywood Reporter piece is a lot longer, with more interviews from the survivors and family members of the victims. I appreciate that the Aurora chief of police even said something on the record, and this just has the feel of a slow-motion horror about to happen. And even if something doesn’t happen and no one is “inspired” by the film – and here’s hoping, fingers crossed – then we still need to have a conversation about why people GLORIFY and justify the terroristic acts of white dudes.

Photos from ‘Joker’ and Backgrid.