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>There are a few things that still don’t add up to the
>chosen victims here:
>
>-The desire of The Beast to be given a sacrifice of pure
>individuals who were unmarred by the suffering of he/Kevin.
>
>-The two controlling personalities were acting to bring about
>the Beast by providing a sacrifice he demanded.
>
>Given the fact that these personalities arose as a mechanism
>to protect Kevin, the sort of sacrifice demanded by the Beast
>seems wildly off base in relation to the sort of suffering
>endured by Kevin/the Horde. Certain personalities may have had
>their preferences but as those personalities were in essence
>disciples and, to a degree, clergy for the Beast and his
>ideology, “pure teenage girls” comes across as a
>particularly clichéd bit of prey.
Cliched or not, the "teenage girl(s) attacked by predator" is a time honored trope in horror flicks. It's used in supernatural horror, slasher horror, campy horror, etc. Maybe it's because moviegoing horror fans probably skew younger or it's a chance to get some skin on screen or because females are generally easier to scare than males... or all of the above. It's fair to say it's cliched, but I don't think that should detract from the movie (as long as it makes sense).
>To that end, even if his rage was merely focused on the
>unblemished, pure and unmarred among us, why wouldn’t he
>simply demand children of an age that lacks true
>accountability? The notion of teenage girls being pure as the
>driven snow is just as clichéd and outdated as the use of
>said girls as the lone survivor and/or primary object of the
>villains murderous plan.
I would posit that the suffering The Beast was searching for could only be derived from victims who understood on some level what was happening. A baby or toddler or young child would only know that they're suffering, but not why or how. Whereas a teenage girl is old enough to know what, why and how pain occurs... but individuals will vary in terms of how much *suffering* she's endured. There's a big difference between a girl who complains about inviting the class outsider and another who grew up far, far too quickly.
>The direction of the character seems to justify a motivation
>of “absolute judgment for the wicked” much more than
>“pain for the pure” such as abusive parents, or at a
>minimum, “pain for the pure” would be reserved for the
>truly privileged, perhaps those arrogantly ignorant to the
>suffering of others.
Yeah, that's basically correct. Kevin/The Horde researched his victims ahead of time and followed them extensively (12 days, IIRC). He knew who these girls were, their upbringing, their wealth, their shelteredness. They may not have been "arrogant" or in any way malicious but they fit the criteria for The Beast's hunger.
>I’m sure there are ways to justify this choice within the
>narrative but as-is it’s the least of potential creative
>options. For my money there were far more realistic and
>appropriate choices and the “final girl’ route was, dare I
>say, the laziest choice possible.
We could go round and round about theoretical victims that may or may not have worked better in the narrative. But we may have to just agree to disagree for the sake of brevity. I'm not saying that other options couldn't be more effective, I'm just saying that the counterfactual doesn't exist in this case.
So why do I think the girls were effective? For one, we knew Casey the Outsider wasn't part of the original plan and we knew this because he didn't spray her until she opened the door. The film repeats this motif throughout: the first shot of the girls on the cots, the differing "fight or flight" responses, Casey's rape (after Patricia said they Dennis is "forbidden" from touching them), then her scars.
We're constantly reminded of the ways Casey is different from the other two girls and this is perhaps especially poignant when Claire is trying to give Marcia a peptalk when she's opening the latch. That false sense of security is never felt by Casey, the survivor of more trauma than anyone should ever experience at that age.
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