I hope someone can help. The film was on AMC last night but I missed a few minutes. Was Catherine {the virgin bride} raped on her wedding night by the ghost of the first Silas? I know he cursed the family but how did the baby look just like him at birth?
shareHey-
haha, i saw it to the other nite on AMC. yes, i believe it was implied it was the ghost, givien the disembodied hand and the bloody stump... no other character but him had those features (which is odd, considering his grandson was the only one whose eyes were shot out! maybe a bit of foreshadowing?) well, i suppose the rape resulted in a pregnancy... i suppose that the logic of the movie follows that if the ghost can affect physical reality in one way(the rape itself) he can in another (the pregnancy). thats my take on it. if you found this post helpful, please comment on mine!
Thank you. I tuned in late and was so confused. I guess the husband {I can't remember his name} would be charged with murder in the end. It was a strange but fun film for a Friday night.
shareTo validate the other posters, yes, Catherine was raped by the ghost of Silas. That was the punishment for what the lord of the manner had done to his daughter or wife and also, chopping off his hand. In the timeframe this story takes place, the lord of the land could take the daughter or wife of any man that lived of his land & that's what occurred. As a part of his revenge, the ghost of Silas took Catherine on her wedding night.
shareI like the film but it dumbs down the plot of the original novella considerably. The novel begins with Dr. Pope arriving at the castle with all of the other stuff already in action. Catherine is convinced that she was raped by a ghost (literally, an incubus - in the novella, Catherine has been reading some of the occult tomes in the castle's library). Pope believes that Catherine has convinced herself of that to justify sexual fantasies that she has been feeling guilt over. When the baby is born without a hand, Charles does go nuts and kill the living Silas, having come to believe that he raped her as part of a revenge for what happened to his father; Pope having done away with all supernatural explanations for what happened. However, it is discovered that the baby is missing and that Silas could not have taken it because he was dead so it ends with the possibility that Catherine had in fact been raped by an incubus who then came to claim its offspring.
shareIn the timeframe this story takes place, the lord of the land could take the daughter or wife of any man that lived of his land & that's what occurred.
Hahaha complete bollocks. Lovely way to start a reply to somebody.
That really cheered me up.
Clearly the film-makers were a little confused as regards hereditry.... :o)
I could be wrong here (my memory is awful), however wasn't there something about the virgin bride being killed? I'm glad she didn't die, but I somehow got that into my head, that he promised to kill her.