This Gun Violence Prevention Ad Turned A Romantic Comedy Into A Horror Movie

Full disclosure? I knew that video was a gun violence prevention ad prior to watching it and the twist at the end STILL hit me like a punch to the gut. Somehow - over the course of two minutes - the director painted such a vivid picture of Evan as the hopelessly emphathetic dork that courts his women through the destruction of school property that it made me forget that he was being used as pawn to portray how ignoring the quiet kid in class basically turns him into a serial killer. I was so invested in the lovestruck fire crotch putting out his burning bush by finally getting it wet that I didn't even notice that he was basically loading the chamber for some nameless psychopath that spends way more time in the library than I would expect of a homidical high schooler. I was sucked in by the romantic comedy-style chance encounter with a girl who's probably too cute to be hitting on guys with prehistoric handwriting via desk inscriptions, and now I feel robbed of a proper ending.

I guess the whole point of the commercial was to get teenagers to stop spending so much time trying to bone each other and pay more attention to introverts so they make sure to cross you off their hit list before they inevitably show up to school with a deadly weapon, but still. Would it have killed (no pun intended) the Sandy Hook Promise to give me a little closure here? Did Evan meet his demise before consummating his unrealistic "relationship" with a girl who didn't find it at all strange that he essentially asked her out before knowing who she was? Did they end up hanging out a couple of times before realizing that the unknown was a lot sexier than the reality of two awkward strangers trying to find things to talk about after discussing their meet-cute ad nauseam? Did they escape the gym unharmed and live happily ever after? We'll never know, and that's why this PSA will never acheive it's intended goal. If the series finale of The Sopranos taught me anything it's that people don't want to hear about your creative purpose if you don't give them what they want, and what the people want is to know if Evan's unorthodox dating tactics eventually got him laid.