Creepypasta Critique

Jeff the Killer

We all knew this was coming, guys. Jeff the killer is known worldwide as being one of the worst written Creepypastas. However, I don't actually think his story is that bad! I mean, don't get me wrong, there's still loads wrong with it, but compared to other Creepypasta on this list, his story is like Shakespeare. (AHEM clockwork AHEM)

The only reason I'm reviewing him today is to get the elephant out of the room. A lot of Creepypastas are inspired by him, so to review them, I need to go over Jeff. I'm changing up the formatting for this.

https://www.creepypasta.com/jeff-the-killer/

[ 2011 version so you can read beforehand ]

Jeff's story, his popular one at least, is very well known, so I don't feel like I can give it a proper review. Everything that can be said about it is done. There's nothing I can add. Here's a list of some stuff wrong with the story:

- Moved to a new neighborhood trope

- 3 bullies trope

- None of the characters have any kind of personality

- Jeff's urge to kill to is described as a weird tingly feeling in his stomach. Idk man, sure you aren't just hungry?

- He's able to take on 3 guys at once in a fistfight even though he has no experience in one before

-Liu goes to Juvenile prison for like, 10 days before he's back just so he can be murdered

- No one decides to stop the bullies from hurting Jeff at the party even though there are like 20+ adults there.

- None of Jeff's medical injuries make sense

- Jeff has no motivation to kill his family other than "I'm insane now so everything random I do is excused"

HOWEVER, a 2015 remake was made, which is absolutely amazing, and really fixes all of the problems I just brought up, here it is:

http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Jeff_the_Killer_2015

It's great you guys. It makes Jeff more of a vigilante of justice than some crazy off the wall killer. I mean, he's still insane, but he's also 10x more badass than before. I'd give the new rendition a 9/10. The only reason it's not a total 10/10 is because there is still the argument to be made that Jeff doesn't need to have an origin story, you don't need to sympathize with him, you just need to be scared of him.

But I suppose the true horror of his story is that, anyone can be him. Jeff was a kid pushed too far by the cruelties of this world, and it's unfairness. A comment in the 2015 version by Banningk1979, the author of the story, summarizes it well:

I discussed in an interview with UK Horror that the driving theme here was that Jeff was simply a kid that was pushed too far too many times by events that he could not control. 

Jeff didn't want to move, Jeff didn't want to fight Randy, Jeff didn't want his parents to treat him like a burden and Jeff certainly didn't want to be disfigured. 

I wanted to emphasize that everyone, even the most sane suburban kid, has a limit. Sometimes that limit is so distant that no one ever hits it, other times it's closer than we think.

Jeff (in my version at least) didn't want to be a killer, he simply wanted to be. Be a son, be a brother, be a friend.

Jeff the killer is a damn good story, thanks to the rewrite. I'm glad we finally have a story to match one of the biggest characters in this fandom.

I'm guessing you want a longer review, but there's not much to say! Jeff's story used to suck and now it doesn't, and I'm really happy about that. I wish newer stories coming out will follow the new story's example.

(By the way, does Liu have his own story, and if so can anyone link me to it? Preferably an original one for review purposes but honestly I can do with some nice Liu stories for fun.)