Did you know advertisers sometimes invent words? They'll generally do it to separate their product from the pack and make it seem like it has a certain... je ne sais quoi (which is French for 'this doesn't sound as fancy when you're not saying it out loud').
Sometimes the strategy works and these words stick around, just becoming part of our daily vocabulary. Other times... not so much.
Case in point: 'Teenicide'.
Teenicide is the core theme of The Last Date, a driver education scare film from the '50s. According to the film, Teenicide is: "the act of killing yourself or maybe someone else before you hit your twenties, it's easy! You do it with an automobile."
And if you're not sure you'll remember all that, well don't worry! Because when you watch it that's going to be repeated for you over and over again, until it's burned into your brain right alongside "not happy, Jan!" and the jingle for the reading writing hotline that you definitely didn't just start singing without realising it.
The Last Date follows a teen named Jeanne as she explains the tragic circumstances that have led to her being sequestered in her bedroom, unable to leave the house ever again. If you're wondering how she got herself in that situation, well you just better watch it for yourself:
Okay, so if you didn't have time to watch it, or you just don't want to be that guy watching educational films from the '50s in the middle of the office, I'll summarise: Jeanne can't decide whether she wants to date nice-guy Larry or obvious serial killer Nick (played by a pre-Bewitched Dick York). Larry is sweet and kind and he cares about her wellbeing, but that Nick is just so golly-gosh-darned exciting!
After a dance at the lake, Jeanne goes for a ride with Nick in his hot-rod that his dad bought for him. Nick, who's had the best driving lessons from his old-man (who's only been arrested three times!), refuses to slow down and they get in an accident.
This is where we find out that Nick was killed in the crash and Jeanne's face was so badly disfigured that she can never leave the house again.
The film ends on a tense note as Jeanne approaches her mirror. Before we see the horror-show her face has become she pulls away and smashes the mirror.
Now look, in the scheme of things it's not the scariest educational film. It's not even the weirdest (as anyone who's ever seen Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue will tell you). What's interesting about it is where it sits in the scheme of educational scare films.
Well... that and how much Robert V. Stern (the actor who plays Larry) looks like Craig Lowndes.
The Last Date came before films like Signal 30 and Red Asphalt, which even if you haven't seen you know about because you've seen them parodied somewhere:
Instead of being a half-hour long carnival of horrors like the scare films to come, The Last Date is more 'moral of the story' oriented. It still wants to freak you out, but it doesn't want to freak you out too badly.
It also reeeeeeally wants you to hip young teens to make 'Teenicide' a thing. It's sort of like the '50s version of a huge, multinational company setting up a Facebook page for their spicy memes.
What's the weirdest driver education film you've ever seen? Tell us about it in the comments below.
.jpg)
