The Horrible Batman Fanfilm With Which The Aurora Shooter Was Supposedly Obsessed

So there's a guy named Diggity Dave. Yeah, I know, I don't know how thousands of years of culture brought us here either. Anyway, Diggity Dave is on the show Pimp My Ride and has ridiculous hair. He also made a Batman fan film called Suffocator of Sins, which looks absolutely insufferable. At least judging by the trailer, which calls to mind Rob Zombie, hit with a massive stroke, directing a video for Staind. Featuring a guy in a Batman costume. 

The trailer is horrendous, and among the many grotesque things in it, it features Batman using a gun. This is an extraordinary violation of the character (the YouTube description claims this is a 'new spin' on Batman. A stupid spin. The same description uses the word 'suffrage' to mean 'suffering.' One assumes Diggity Dave wasn't the best student).

Anyway, Diggity Dave - surely not looking to get attention or anything - called in to an LA radio station and claimed that the Aurora shooter called him a couple of times before the massacre, obsessed with the film. According to LAist, this is what Diggity Dave said:

"He would tell me what he really liked about the trailer," said Dave. "He kept pressing if I could give him more information on the story. He wanted to know how many people Batman kills." The filmmaker added, "He wanted to know if it was selective killing. Does he make a list of people he wants to kill or is it a mass body count?""

"The filmmaker." Gotta love it.

There's a lot to learn about the Aurora shooter in the months ahead, and what we think we know now may be very wrong in the long run. One of the things we have heard a number of times is that he was a fan of Batman - a Batman mask was found in his apartment, he claimed to be the Joker when arrested. But if this fan film was what the shooter gravitated towards, could he really be considered a fan of Batman? This film, judging by the inept trailer, contains no understanding whatsoever of Batman. There's not a moment in the trailer that says to me Diggity Dave understands what the character means, or that he grasps why Bruce Wayne took up the costume (except for suffrage, of course). What that trailer shows me - and what it indicates about the shooter - is an obsession with juvenile posturing and meaningless, gritty 'kewlness.' 

The shooter's actions alone proved he didn't 'get' Batman, but take this as further proof. It wasn't a character or a concept that appealed to the shooter. It was the nihilistic dumbness of dark for the sake of darkness, a reflexive pose put on by the weakest and shittiest among us. That these people glom on to characters and properties that touch on darkness is no surprise. And it's also no surprise that these people - whether they be Diggity Dave or the Aurora shooter - have no true understanding of what they mean.