MovieChat Forums > Kynodontas (2009) Discussion > Protection or sadism?

Protection or sadism?

posted 12 years ago by infinity8
15 replies | jump to latest

What are the motivations of the parents in Dogtooth?

The father insinuated to Christina that she was a bad influence on the children. Is the bad influence of the outside world all that he is worried about?

At times, it seemed as though the parents enjoyed figuring out the fake details of their children's reality--when the wife tells the husband that she is pregnant, for example, or when they decide that the brother on the other side of the wall must "die."

When the father beat his daughter with the VHS and Christina with a VCR, was he enjoying the control, enjoying the violence, punishing a rule-breaker, freaking out that his daughter should learn anything that he had not taught her? Something else?

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] girlfrom_ns 12 years ago

Pure insanity if you ask me. They are acting over protectively, transferring fear and internalizing phobias into them.
I am still under impression... what a mind-twisting movie...

[–] twelvepointnine 12 years ago

Frankly, I don't think this is a real family, as in blood-related, at all. There's a short conversation between the "son" and his "father", where the son requests hair dye, possibly to keep his look in line with that of his "relatives".

The scene where the "mother" announces her pregnancy to her husband emphasizes this: she can deliver twins, (girl/girl, girl/boy), triplets and later even a dog. Pregnancy means bringing new "family" to the house. Language is relative.

This is pure Skinner, radical behaviorism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner

Chaos reigns

[–] kdk7 12 years ago

Yeah, i definitely got a kidnapping vibe from the situation. Especially when the mother "decided" that she was pregnant, like they'd go out and acquire a boy and a girl, just like the dog.

[–] Erin-Leigh-14 12 years ago

interesting.. someone in another thread mentioned the possibility of the "parents" kidnapping the children - and considering kidnapping more with the mention of the twins or triplets. makes sense in regards to keeping them confined and, as you pointed out, the hair dye.. the only part that keeps me from going, "yep, that's what happened" is - why bring Christina into the house then? if the children weren't blood siblings, and they weren't taught that sex between blood siblings was wrong, the parents wouldn't have had to bring in an outsider.

[–] mulligan2 11 years ago

I don't know why they brought Christina into the picture, but once she was out again they did end up giving the brother the elder sister.

[–] LEMONPIE_30 11 years ago

The son doesn't request hair dye, he requests paint for the portrait of his father he's making. Maybe the subtitles have got it wrong.

[–] twelvepointnine 11 years ago

I was not aware of that, thanks for pointing it out.

Chaos reigns

[–] candyshapedratpoison 11 years ago

I don't think they were kidnapped. If they were, they would know what the outside world is like. But they seem to have no concept of it and believe all the crazy lies they're told. They've never been outside.
(Unless, of course, you believe they were kidnapped as babies. But that's just unnecessarily risky: Why kidnap kids and draw attention to yourself when you can just have some of your own? So yeah, I don't believe that theory.)

I'd ask you to play House, but you'd be a weird example for our kids.

[–] MelanieSwift 12 years ago

They're control freaks who crave power rather than love, but it won't do to focus on these people as flesh-and-blood characters with back stories. Instead, think of repression writ large. State vs society, for example.

No, this is not part of my post.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] robcap912 9 years ago

It's child abuse to me. They were held hostage in their own homes and "brainwashed" about the dangers of the world so they won't leave.

[–] kojinmalia 9 years ago

Are there known case of such things IRL, where the kids ended up asking for repair to their "family"?

[–] somethingclever1 8 years ago

Are there known case of such things IRL, where the kids ended up asking for repair to their "family"?

I've read about a bunch of incidents where kids have been isolated from the world by parents or caregivers. Certainly there's been some instances with cults where kids are sheltered in a similar manner through lies and manipulation.

The movie "The Village" had a sort of similar idea on a grander scale.

[–] DaveBowman2001 (520) 4 months ago

Another reviewer on youtube also mentioned something about destroying language (gaslighting their captives with changing meanings of words) and it destroys the persons character in a way (paraphrasing badly). But that is also a Marxist thing and someone on here said this was an anti-communist/totalitarian theme and I'd agree with that to a point, but it's more than just that too.

There's a definite parallel with the dog training/child rearing going on and it's an absurd very black comedy/satire too. Like the Father, he can't give him the dog until he's completing all his training.

In the few movies I've seen of the director, there is an underlying theme of challenging culture/norms/conditioning we all get growing up in society and it's interesting to see these characters journey/experiment without it or with extremely different upbringings. Most people miss that. They just see something off-putting and poo poo the movies altogether, because they are expecting something traditional.