What if Joshua isn't Evil?

He faked it, badly, every time he showed loving emotion and the film made a point of showing this. The best example is the scene where he exactly emulates his father's emotion over the death of his dog. He has no idea why normal people show emotion the way they do, and so he simply copies them.

Just because he was able to hide the evidence (made a lot easier by the way since no one suspected a nine-year-old) doesn't mean he never did anything. Most of what goes on does so between the lines but the film was not ambiguous about who is responsible. There is also hard evidence in the tape he made that his father found and the embalmed pet near the very end of the film.

He wasn't loved? His parents treated him well by any standards. Obviously they thought he was a genius and were very proud of him. He was just mentally ill, like the mother. So he got bad ideas into his head, and after that the mother's illnes resurfaced and the whole family broke down like dominoes.

The only mistake they did was not interpreting the signs the kid made correctly earlier.

But for evil people to do good things, that takes Islam

You know, I really do wish that it was that ambiguous. But I think the film makes it fairly clear that Joshua's at fault. He's just an evil little kid.

This is what ruined it for me. I was hoping for something more than just another "sinister child" movie. And despite an effective first half, this one basically degenerated into that.

What a shame.

Congratulations, you are the latest winner of The Moron Award.

I'd say he's more damaged than evil. Watching his baby videos tipped him over the edge - only then did he start hurting his sister.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that he wasn't evil. He was just a child that felt like he didn't fit in with his parents and like he wasn't loved. His parents were horrible people. All he wanted was to feel like his parents cared about him, but all they did was ignore him. They ignored him even more after the baby was born.

I think his bizarre behavior such as collapsing at the piano recital and slicing the teddy bear was just Joshua trying to get his parents to pay attention to him, but when that didn't work, he decided to do whatever it took to get away from his parents...which is why he drew those pictures for the psychologist. He knew they would suspect abuse and take him out of the home, and that's what he wanted. He didn't feel like he belonged with those parents. He felt like he belonged with his uncle, and he felt like his uncle was the only one who cared whether he was dead or alive. His uncle was the only one who truly understood him, He expresses those feelings with the lyrics of the song he played at the end.

As for the grandmother and dog, it didn't show Joshua kill them on screen. So their deaths could have been bizarre coincidences for all we know. We have no proof Joshua killed them. If Joshua wanting love, feeling like he belonged, wanting to be understood, and wanting to feel like he was not alone makes Joshua evil, then we're all evil because we all want these things.

"Come, fly the teeth of the wind. Share my wings."

** SPOILERS**

Well, the filmmaker was actually trying to get a mixed reaction by the end of the film: that some people would think Joshua was evil and that other people would root for Joshua. So, the filmmaker intentionally did not show Joshua physically hurting others.


However, according to the filmmaker and writer of the story, Joshua IS evil.





"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois

Here we go, another IMDb user that reads way too much into a movie and overanalyses it......it is what it is.....a movie about a sociopathic child who is evil......watch the running commentary on the DVD and it will confirm that for you.