There is something ironic about going back to school in September and diving straight into school shooting movies at the Free Friday Films (FFF). Talk about setting the mood for the school year… For those of you who attended this month’s FFF screenings—specifically Elephant (2003) and The Dirties (2013)—let’s take a moment to break them down. These two films take on tragedies in dramatically different ways, but they both leave a lasting impression. School shootings are difficult and uncomfortable topics, but their portrayal in cinema has become an essential means of understanding and critiquing youth culture, violence, and social alienation in the modern age.

First off, why are we watching films about school shootings? I mean, we all know school shootings aren’t meant to be fun, and yet, directors keep coming back to the topic. Here is the thing: school shootings have carved out a permanent scar in American culture. From Columbine to Parkland, the tragedies keep coming, and with each new incident, the media devours it. Movies, unsurprisingly, follow suit. But films like Elephant and The Dirties aren’t just about violence. They’re about the systems, behaviours, and dare I say, boredom that build up to those events. There’s a constant question hanging over movies like these: Are they reflective of reality? Are they glamorizing these horrific acts, or are they trying to say something deeper? 

Elephant (2003)

If you missed the Elephant FFF screening, let me sum it up for you. It was like watching the most chillingly ordinary school day unfold in real time, except you know something terrible is lurking just off-screen. Directed by Gus Van Sant, the film is almost hypnotic in how it builds up to the climactic school shooting. The camera follows students through long, meandering hallways in endless tracking shots, and there is a weirdly serene vibe to it all.

Inspired by the Columbine massacre, Elephant doesn’t spoon-feed us motivations. We see the shooters as blank states—two teenage boys who play violent video games, watch Hitler documentaries, and just walk around like everyone else. There is no clear explanation, no dramatic monologue about why they do it. And honestly, that makes the whole thing feel scarier. Van Sant is kind of a genius in the way he uses distance here. By not giving us answers, Elephant leaves us frustrated—and that is the point! It is a meditation on violence, detachment, and the casual cruelty that can lurk beneath the surface of the most mundane environments.

The Dirties (2013)

Then we have The Dirties, which takes a totally different approach to the same terrifying subject. Directed by Matt Johnson (who was also present at the screening, and if you did not show up, you missed out), this 2013 indie flick blends found footage, dark comedy, and a meta storyline into one strange cocktail. Two high school film nerds, Matt and Owen, are making a movie for class about getting revenge on the bullies, a.k.a. the Dirties, who torment them. Their film? It’s called The Dirties, too. As time passes, Matt starts thinking about taking the whole “revenge” thing off-screen and into real life.

What makes The Dirties unique is how it messes with our expectations. At first, it’s funny. You better believe everyone in Innis Town Hall was cracking up. Matt’s got this goofball energy that almost makes you forget that he is thinking about doing something horrific. The film is loaded with awkward humour and self-awareness (there’s even a scene where the characters talk about Elephant and wear Alex’s famous yellow shirt with the bull). But the further you get into it, the more uncomfortable it becomes. Matt’s obsession with his film project blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, and what starts out as a goofy student film spirals into something much darker.

The Dirties is more focused on bullying than Elephant is. While Elephant lets the violence speak for itself, The Dirties hammers home the idea that school shootings can be born out of unchecked trauma. Bullying and social alienation are at the heart of the film’s critique, but it is also a jab at how easy it is for fiction and reality to merge—especially in a world saturated with violent media.

Arthouse vs. Indie Comedy

So, how do these two films stack up? On the surface, Elephant and The Dirties couldn’t be more different. Elephant is slow, quiet, and makes you feel like a distant observer. It is almost arthouse in the way it captures these long, uneventful moments leading up to tragedy. The Dirties, on the other hand, is in-your-face, mixing humour and horror in a way that makes you feel like you are on this messed-up ride with the characters.

But at their core, both films are dealing with the same thing: isolation. In Elephant, the shooters feel detached from everyone around them. They are not fully part of the world they inhabit, and that’s what makes the violence so jarring. In The Dirties, Matt’s isolation comes from being an outcast. He is a victim of bullying, and his only outlet is his camera, which ends up feeding into his darker impulses.

What is also interesting is how both films handle violence. Elephant treats violence as sudden and shocking—it happens, and it’s over. There’s no glorification, no buildup. It is ugly and abrupt. The Dirties, though, slowly leads you towards it. It makes you laugh, makes you think things are going to be okay, and then it twists that knife just when you are not expecting it.

Some might argue that films like Elephant and The Dirties are exploitative, using real-life tragedies as entertainment. Others might say these films serve as a reflection of our broken systems—school, mental health, gun laws, and everything else. What makes both these films effective is that they don’t really try to offer solutions. They are not trying to tell you, “here’s how to fix school shootings.” Instead, they are showing us the complex web of factors that can lead to something so terrible. In Elephant, it is about a breakdown in communication, a sense of detachment, and the random chaos of the day. In The Dirties, it’s about how bullying and isolation can push someone to the edge. Whether or not you think these films should exist is up for debate. But one thing’s for sure: they make you think, they make you uncomfortable, and they definitely spark conversation.

So what do we take away from Elephant and The Dirties? Besides the urge to avoid high school hallways for a while, these films give us two very different, but equally unsettling, perspectives on school shootings. Elephant reminds us of how ordinary a day can be, even when disaster is just around the corner. The Dirties shows us how quickly the line between fantasy and reality can blur, especially when trauma and isolation go unchecked. In the end, each film offers a distinct exploration of teenage angst, social isolation, and the desensitization to violence in schools. They don’t give us easy answers or neat conclusions, but maybe, that is the point.