Seth Rogen and director Judd Apatow have hit back after a journalist blamed their comedy films for the Isla Vista massacre.



Student Elliot Rodger, son of The Hunger Games assistant director Peter Rodger, killed six youngsters and injured 13 more victims in California on Friday after leaving a 'manifesto' and an online video outlining his murderous intentions.



In the recording, Elliot blamed his bitterness on his inability to enjoy a wild, sex-and-booze drenched college life, and Washington Post writer Ann Hornaday penned an article on Sunday blaming Apatow's movies and Rogen's most recent film Neighbors for portraying an unrealistic image of students.



In one passage, she wrote, "How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like Neighbors and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of 'sex and fun and pleasure'? How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, 'It's not fair'?"



Rogen has now hit back at the journalist on Twitter.com, writing, "I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed... how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage."



Apatow, who worked with Rogen on Knocked Up and Superbad, also joined in the defence of their movies, adding, "She uses tragedy to promote herself with idiotic thoughts... Most of Earth can't find a mate - someone to love. People who commit murder of numerous people have mental health issues of some type."

.@AnnHornaday how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage. — Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014





Most of Earth can't find a mate-- someone to love. People who commit murder of numerous people have mental health issues of some type. — Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 27, 2014

Hornaday has since responded to the backlash.

In a video posted to the Washington Post’s website, the writer aimed to clarify her reasons for mentioning the movie Neighbors in her column and semi-apologized for offending Rogen and Apatow.

“In singling out ‘Neighbors’ and Judd Apatow, I by no means meant to cast blame on those movies or Judd Apatow's work for this heinous action,” she said. “But I do think it bears all of us asking what the costs are of having such a narrow range of stories that we always go back to."