Seth Rogen has slammed a film critic for claiming movies, like his latest hit 'Neighbors', motivate killers like Santa Barbara shooting suspect, Elliot Rodger.
The actor has called the article from Washington Post writer Ann Hornaday, "horrible insulting", after Hornaday suggested that ''outsized frat-boy fantasies'' like Seth's movie, encouraged Rodger, who left six people dead and 13 injured last week.
Rodger's motivation, posted in a YouTube video, was revealed to be his hatred of girls who ignored him in college. Hornaday claimed in her article that comedies highlighting the "sex and fun" of college life leave men feeling life is unfair.
''How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like 'Neighbors' and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of 'sex and fun and please?' How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, 'It's not fair'?", the article debated.
Hornaday claimed in her article that college comedies like Neighbors may have motivated killer Elliot Rodger
''Movies may not reflect reality, but they powerfully condition what we desire, expect and feel we deserve from it.'' Hornaday went on to write: ''If our cinematic grammar is one of violence, sexual conquest and macho swagger - thanks to make studio executives - who green-light projects according to their own pathetic predilections - no-one should be surprised when those impulses take luridly literal form in the culture at large.''
Rogen has angrily hit out at the article, tweeting last night: ''@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed.
"How dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage.''
Director and producer Judd Apatow, who worked on smash hits like 'Bridesmaids' and 'Knocked Up', has also responded to the article, retweeting Rogen's comments and adding of Hornaday: "She uses tragedy to promote herself with idiotic thoughts."
Hornaday has not responded to the tweets.
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