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How I think it all 'went down', + open discussion/interpreta tion

posted 13 years ago by Mr_Ectoplasma
47 replies | jump to latest

First off, we have to look at the clues and pieces laid out here. One has to remember that our narrator, like in ALL psycho thrillers with this brand of "twist" (think Fight Club, High Tension, etc.), is unreliable and provides a lot of room for potential plot holes, lapses in logic, and freedom of interpretation; however, some things do stand concrete here.

The film begins with Sarah out on the water front. Her dad pulls up to the house and she walks back, and complains she had a headache, to which her dad and uncle both think is an excuse for her to get out of working.

From there, it "starts", as far as we can tell, with the Polaroid camera— which I think was the first trigger that we witness as an audience for Sarah. If you watch closely, a look falls over her face when her dad and uncle start using the camera in the beginning to take pictures of the mold infestation, and it looks as if the sound/flashbulb cause her to remember something. So, that's the first seed.

Her uncle then leaves for town, and she moseys around the house downstairs for a bit and opens up a beer. The beer bottle may or may not be a "trigger", but I'm betting it is (I'll explain later). Right after she opens the beer, there's the knock at the door, and we meet Sophia. Sophia is not a real person, and, as everyone else has mentioned, is a figment of Sarah's imagination- maybe a coping mechanism, maybe an aspect of Sarah's personality; I'm not a psychologist, but she's definitely not a real person. Sophia mentions how she and Sarah used to "play dress up" all the time when they were kids, and that she has "some old photos lying around somewhere" and mentions that she'll look for them. All throughout this conversation, Sarah seems confused and embarrassed because she can't concretely remember ever knowing Sophia when they were children, but she goes along with it anyway since Sophia seems to remember her so well. Sophia asks if Sarah's in college, but Sarah says she and school "don't mix" and she's trying to make other plans, perhaps suggesting that she dropped out of college or was in some sort of trouble and is now trying to figure things out for herself. In the meantime, she says she's working for her dad. Sophia then mentions wanting to "do so many things" but being "unable to", and Sarah mentions how she has "holes" in her memory. Sophia says she'll be back later, and Sarah then insists that she does in fact remember her, probably so as not to hurt Sophia's feelings or make her feel weird by showing up like she did, but Sophia still seems totally sure of herself. "How could you forget?" she says, and then she takes off on her bike. This awkward encounter is all foreshadowing.

Later, while Sarah's cleaning out her room, she finds the red tin box which holds some of the photographs, but is unable to open it and she throws it in the trash bag. My guess though is that she had found other pictures elsewhere in the house already, because while she and her dad are investigating the first noise she hears upstairs (prior to her cleaning her room), he comes across some of them spread out on his bed and stuffs them into his suitcase; this indicates to me that Sarah already had found some of the photos and left them laid out for him to come across on purpose. We also see Sarah throw away a pink tutu that's lying on the bed while cleaning in her room. Both the red box and the tutu are other triggers, I think.

Then, notice how the attack that takes place on Sarah's dad occurs while Sarah is cleaning, almost immediately after she throws that red box and tutu in the trash. She hears a loud thud, finds her dad in the room full of the rugs and lamps, and a candelabra is lying on the floor, which is what she presumably clubbed him with. The extreme wound that we witness (where his eye looks practically gouged out) is an exaggeration of Sarah's psychosis. From this point on, everything we see as an audience is a complete free-for-all and is totally up for interpretation.

The chase through the house and property that goes on for a good 40+ minutes is just Sarah's adventure through her past and her subconscious manifesting itself and all of her repressed memories coming back to her. It's a hodge podge of Sarah running from both herself as well as reliving the terror of being abused/chased by her dad. I can't decide if the man in the camouflage(?) suit or coveralls or whatever he is wearing represents Sarah's father, the mentoring aspect of her personality, or perhaps both. It could represent her chasing after herself, trying to force herself to remember the truth, but it could also be fragments of how she remembers her dad when she was being abused. I believe that the makeshift bedroom we see in the basement with the child's bed is a place that she was probably forced to sleep (she may have been locked down there as a child).

Regardless, the billiard room scene is a culmination of all of this. At this point in the film, Sarah's uncle has returned home to find her frantic, claiming that intruders have attacked/taken her dad. They search the whole house and find nothing except the blood left on the floor from where Sarah attacked her dad with the candelabra; as we see later, he's tied up and covered with a plastic tarp downstairs.

So, Sarah goes around the house with her uncle and her dad is nowhere to be seen. Sarah then insists that they "check upstairs" once more, and her uncle agrees to it (I believe she snuck up there and turned the generator on, since her uncle says "that wasn't turned on before"). She goes with him up to the top floor where the billiard room is, and at some point attacks/confronts him and winds up getting a hold of the gun and shooting him in the stomach. It's unclear if she shoots him in the staircase or in the billiard room, but we do see blood smeared all over the walls when she comes downstairs a bit later, indicating that he may have been shot in the stairwell and struggled to make his way downstairs. Either that, or he was shot upstairs and dragged down there by her as we physically see. Remember, this is all up for grabs and could go either way, really.

In the midst of this (probably after the blackout scene, which is when she may or may not have shot her uncle), she recalls being molested on the pool table by her dad and having the photos taken. The scene in the bedroom after this with the blood on the bed, as well as the craziness of that bathroom scene is all just hallucinatory symbolism; the toilet on the wall with the blood is symbolic of vaginal bleeding, and the little girl in the bathtub full of beer bottles and bloody water suggests that she was probably violated/raped with the bottles by her drunken father. Pretty heavy stuff.

Then, wham! The electricity comes back on. Not sure how this happens, but she manages to find a way to get the lights in the house back on. This is where we see massive amounts of black mold covering the ceiling and walls of her bedroom where she had been cleaning. You could argue that the mold, which was not visible in the dark, may have contributed to her psychosis and/or been a psychoactive trigger to her memories (in reality, black mold exposure, especially that heavy, can in fact cause hallucinations). Remember how Sarah complained of a headache at the beginning of the film and had gone outside for the fresh air? It was already established that the house had a mold problem when her uncle discovers it growing behind the wall in the beginning of the film. This is a possibility, but I don't think it hinders the validity of her memories at all, but simply serves as another potential trigger.

So, she makes her way downstairs (this is when we see blood all over the walls of the stairwell I believe, leading down to the foyer) and Sophia is there. She's got the key to the box, which Sarah had all along. Sophia returned with those "dress up" photos, as well— they're in the trash bag on the floor. Remember, again, Sophia is a figment of Sarah's imagination. Think Fight Club. The red box is sitting on the table, and Sarah uncovers her father, who has been covered in the plastic sheet since she initially attacked him and beat him unconscious. Her uncle is lying on the floor on the verge of death, and Sarah's started a nice fire in the fireplace for her own little family intervention.

Anyway, back to the action here. Sarah, confused by Sophia's presence, attacks Sophia and slashes her hand with the garden shears, to which Sophia responds "Stop blaming yourself". Since Sophia IS in fact Sarah, the slash appears on her own hand, which suggests that Sarah self-mutilates as a method of dealing with the repressed memories (which is also probably why she has those inexplicable slashes across her wrist when her uncle picks her up after she breaks out of the cellar— think about it... where else did those come from?). It's here for the first time that we witness Sarah snap into her crazy self, which is what her uncle and dad both encountered when they were attacked by her. She's ranting and raving, pours beer all over her dad and suggestively rubs against him, asks if he wants to "play with her now", etc. Then, just by holding the beer bottle itself, she snaps back into her childhood and regresses like a little girl, crying and saying "ouch, daddy, it hurts" (more implication that she was violated with bottles), and then snaps again and tells her dad "Shhh, we wouldn't want mommy to hear" (something her dad often would have said to her while this sexual abuse was going on). This whole scene reminds me of Mrs. Voorhees in the original Friday the 13th, really.

Then, for a second, we're led to believe that maybe, just maybe, Sarah is absolutely nuts and made all of this up in her head and her dad may be totally innocent, but the second she lets him free, his violent and domineering nature comes right out and he starts whipping her with his belt as she lies on the floor crying and screaming at him like a small child (keep in mind, she's probably in her early 20s and she's acting like she's 9). This just tells me that this is in fact what he's actually like, and this is probably the kind of treatment she got from him as a kid. The uncle, who seems to have been more of an accessory to Sarah's childhood abuse, feels remorse and tries to stop him, and dad dismisses him and says something about how he "liked to watch" too. This small confrontation between the brothers gives Sarah the 5 seconds she needs to grab a hold of the sledgehammer and thwack daddy upside the head once and for all. She decides to have mercy on her uncle since he appears to have been remorseful and had a more passive part of the abuse. Fact of the matter is, she already had shot him and he was probably going to bleed to death anyway. Sarah walks out of the house, mission accomplished.

The end.

So, since this interpretation is extremely tl;dr, here's a shortened crux without the nit-picky details:

1) Sarah was abused by her dad and uncle in that house in a variety of ways when she was a little girl— violated with beer bottles, raped, locked up, beaten, forced to pose for pornographic photos, etc, etc.

2) She's very seriously (and understandably) psychologically f##### up by all of this.

3) Being back in that environment forces her to recall and relive her abuse for a variety of reasons.

4) She finds actual photographic evidence of the sex abuse when she stumbles across the Polaroids, which causes her to have a mental breakdown, so she attacks dad while her uncle is gone, and then eventually attacks uncle as well when he returns from town.

5) Family intervention in the living room ends in a well-deserved blood bath and justice is served.

[–] pjpoconnell 13 years ago

Yourshot: Brilliant work! But I have one major problem. The pool room is neat and clean and bright; things are wrapped in plastic; there is a fire in the fireplace. It is completely different from the rest of the dark, dirty, cluttered house. It is so different it seems to me that it either has to exist at another time or in another psychic state. In my post entitled "The movie's meaning," I postulated that Sarah visits the house alone, as we see her at the beginning, perhaps after a breakup with her boyfriend; the visit triggers the return in fragmented and symbolical form of repressed memories of abuse; the house becomes, in effect, her mind, as she struggles to deal with past trauma; the pool room represents wish fulfillment, the release of her rage, what she would like to do to her father and uncle. But the father and uncle are never really present. It is all in her head, but when she leaves at the end, she is at least ready to face the future. The blood on her is from cutting herself, not actual killings. What say you to this? Please explicate the condition of the pool room if you disagree with me.

[–] Mr_Ectoplasma 13 years ago

I never thought of it that way, but that's a really interesting theory; I took it all literally (her actually being at the house with her dad and uncle). The only thing that wouldn't make sense to me is why she would return to that house by herself, as it seems out of character for a young 20-something girl. I'm a 21 year old guy and I would be uncomfortable going out there to a secluded boarded-up old house (as we see, it is in fact boarded up when she leaves at the end) all alone.

Also, when I was referring to the pool room, I meant the third-floor room upstairs at the top of the house, where the pool table was located.

The fireplace room was on the main floor, where the dad was killed at the end. I too noticed the altered condition of the fireplace room myself (it does appear to be cleaner and brighter at the end, even in the foyer), but I chalked it up to the lights simply being turned on and her having started a fire; it really brightened the place up. That was my take on it, at least— house is dark and dingy, she attacks dad and uncle and gets them downstairs, starts a fire and kicks on the electricity before confronting and ultimately killing them.

Regardless, your theory is interesting and one I'd like to take into consideration for the next time I watch this movie.

[–] pjpoconnell 13 years ago

Thanks for the correction about the pool/fireplace room difference, but you should give more thought to the condition of the fireplace room. When exactly--remember the film takes place in "real time"--did Sarah engage in what must have been an almost Herculean cleanup job in the fireplace room? It is very different from anywhere else in the house. Where did she get the material for the fireplace, and when did she start the fire? Also, Sophia is there, and almost everybody accepts that Sophia is a figment of Sarah's imagination. I firmly believe that my theory is the only one that explains everything in the movie. Otherwise, problems of interpretation keep coming up, as various posters have pointed out. Some event--she mentions that she had a boyfriend but says something to the effect that she broke up with him--causes Sarah to go to the house (back into her memory in a desperate attempt to get her life in order), even though it is closed up and disordered inside (like her mind). This need is strong enough to overcome any fear about going to that location. Perhaps she went there when it was still bright daylight to contemplate things. She is in a contemplative state when we first see her (from above by the water) at sunset. She gets up enough courage to enter the house (and confront her memories). Flashbacks to scenes of blood cause her to cut herself, but she gets beyond that in the wish-fulfillment scenes in the fireplace room, when she (psychically) strikes out at her abusers. She can now leave the house and start down a new path. The "silent house" of memory has spoken to her, and she has heard what it had to say. Her future is not certain, but we wish her well.

[–] Eve_of_Destruction 13 years ago

as she struggles to deal with past trauma; the pool room represents wish fulfillment, the release of her rage, what she would like to do to her father and uncle. But the father and uncle are never really present. It is all in her head, but when she leaves at the end, she is at least ready to face the future. The blood on her is from cutting herself, not actual killings. What say you to this? Please explicate the condition of the pool room if you disagree with me.

This is almost exactly what I walked away believing.

[–] JC_Aliss 13 years ago

I only disagree with your literal interpretation of the bottles. The bottles are a very phallic symbol, IMO. Still representative of sexual abuse, absolutely, but not with the actual bottles.

[–] pjpoconnell 13 years ago

Couldn't it be both? Incidentally, in the thread "The movie's meaning," crouse makes an interesting point about the water that Sarahg is sitting beside when we first see her.

[–] JC_Aliss 13 years ago

I think I saw that point you are referring to; I'll have to go back and check.

Yes, the bottles could definitely be both now that you mention it. I take it you mean that she was both abused with bottles and therefore they represent that AND the phallic symbolism of sexual abuse as well? So a double meaning is possible indeed. I just think that the symbolism is at least in there too...that's it's not JUST a literal interpretation of the actual bottles being the (only) method of abuse.

[–] pjpoconnell 13 years ago

Yes.

[–] Indifferent_Observer 13 years ago

To me this movie is pretty cut and dry, but then again I saw the original so I have both movies to go by.. This version does hide the story alittle better then the first one which leaves nothing to interpretation(not saying thats bad, it just is, I liked both versions)

[–] emmawatson717 13 years ago

Thanks so much for this, OP. Your interpretation makes me love the movie even more, and is my interpretation as well.

Also, what if the bottles have a second meaning. I was thinking that the bottles could also represent Sarah "bottling" up her memories. And seeing her young self in the bathtub with the beer bottles almost releases all of those bottled up memories. Then Sarah goes downstairs and the final scene happens.

Overall, I don't care what people say. I REALLY enjoyed this movie A LOT. One of my favorites of 2012.

[–] Mr_Ectoplasma 13 years ago

You're right in that the bottles are phallic symbols, but I still can't help but feel like it was being suggested that she was violated/penetrated with them at some point. It's depraved and nasty and absolutely sickening, but for those reasons, I think the shoe fits.

In the film, the beer bottles come up a lot— there's a scene of her opening a beer; the random bottle rolling along the floor when she is hiding under the table; the bottles scattered throughout the house on the countertops; and then, of course the hallucination of her childhood self in a bath of bloody water and beer bottles. It just seems like overkill to me if they were going for phallic symbolism and phallic symbolism only. It could be suggestive of alcoholism as well; you know, daddy would get drunk and liked to "play with her". Or it could be a combination of all of these things. It's open for interpretation.

I think what really drives the theory of the bottle-rape though is how she reacts at the end when she's holding the beer bottle. When she's snapping in and out of her psychosis, she taunts her father and confronts him about the sexual abuse with the photographs. She then picks up the beer bottle and pours it on him, but she soon regresses into a childlike state and stares at the bottle in absolute terror, crying "Daddy, it hurts, it hurts" and drops the bottle onto the floor. You could argue that the bottle is simply representing her father's alcoholism which was a factor in the abuse, but her reaction to it combined with the bloody bathtub full of bottles just makes me wonder.

[–] blazinglolita 13 years ago

This is messed up thinking, but did anyone get the impression that the father abused her with the pool cue? I feel like they made such a point of showing her on the pool table and someone had a cue.

[–] earl687 13 years ago

She was Definitely abused with the bottles. The scene with her seeing herself in the bath with the blood and bottles really solidifies that theory for me. Good call.

[–] osbornese 13 years ago

Okay, here's what I think, this whole movie is kinda played out in a Sigmund Freud kind of way.

1. Sarah is having troubles in her life, with school, work her b/f. (This is told by her conversation with Sophia)She then states she is working for her Dad so I think maybe he sent her to the house to make preparations for it to be sold. *see #3

2. We find out toward the end of the movie that Sarah cuts herself, it is my belief that the beer bottles are symbolic of many things, the phallic symbol, the incinuation that it was used as an implement of her molestation, but I personally believe (since the place seemed littered with bottles and in the middle of the day, by herself she decides to crack open a beer) that she herself is also an alcoholic which goes along with the other self destructing behavior of cutting. I think this is affirmed when she sees her child self in the tub surrounded by bottles- that she is drowning her childhood in bottles which is another reason why she is having a hard time going to school, holding down a job etc.

3. I was having a hard time figuring out what the heck the bag of tools thing was all about and since I've only seen the movie once I'm not positive but I think what happened was she was doing a little gardening when she happened to dig up the box and find the pictures. I believe this is where she found them (even though the box is shiny) because it is the only thing that has happened in the movie that takes place b4 her dad and uncle show up. So she finds pics-

BOOM!!! Psychotic break!!!
This is where we go Freud-

4. At this point her mind shatters and her 3 psyches come to war- Sarah represents her Ego, the reality part of her mind, Sophia represents her Super Ego which is basically your conscience, and Camo man is her Id, the unorganzied, irrational, dark part of your mind (which is said to be developed in life rather than instinctual)

5. Throughout the movie Sarah is recollecting memories of her past while Sophie eggs her on and gives her hints. Inside (Sophie) she knows what happened and Camo man comes out as an angry lashing out type feeling to combat the the feelings she, Sarah has been repressing.

6.The mold I do believe symbolizes a tarnished childhood, the toilet symbolizes the the loss of her innocence, and the creepiness of her dad and uncle are apparent not only to us but to herself, Sarah, the rational part of her brain.

7. In the end she defeats her oppressor (mentally though bc none of this actually happends) and as for her uncle, I think that at times during the abuse he was more of an unwilling bystander, maybe he too was subjected to torments of his older brother (or some other family member) and thus learned compliance as a survival tool. Meaning, he was so subordinate from abuse that even though he didn't neccissarily agree with it he went along with it out of fear and maybe even a little bit of his own sick mindedness from his abuse. I think in the end that is why she spared him, bc she knew had it not been for her domineering father her uncle would have just been a creepy uncle with perverted thoughts. I also think in some strange way her uncle actually loved her. I believe this bc throughout the movie her uncle makes an honest attempt to protect her (from the intruder, from her dad at the end) after her super crazy moment she snaps to and the other two imaginary ppl are gone bc she has finally made the connection her mind was seeking.

8. I think when she leaves the house and it appears brighter and somewhat in less of a disaray, this does in fact symbolize that even though she is still broken (as the house is) there is still hope. I think this is also symbolized each time she sees light outside but can't escape.

I'm def sure of the Frued thing, #3 is the only one I'm not sure of. i know alot of ppl think the break happens with the camera but I don't think it does bc I don't think her father and uncle are actually present the whole time and in order for them to be there she must have already "snapped".

Sorry for the spelling.

[–] Mr_Ectoplasma 13 years ago

Whoa.

Thanks for the input. I didn't look at it that way, especially in terms of her being an alcoholic as well— I guess it didn't cross my mind because she seemed so young, but I think it's implied that she's in her earlyish 20s, and lots of people can become alcoholics at young ages. Looking back at it, the prominence of the bottles may not just be referential to her dad's alcoholism and abuse, but hers as well— we see her open a beer and take a drink before she is interrupted by a knock at the door.

I also like your idea of her finding the red box buried in the garden; it makes sense considering the details of her doing yardwork, which before seemed sort of irrelevant to the plot, but maybe that was insinuating something more. The first time we see the box is when she is cleaning her room, but, correct me if I'm wrong, I think her father finds some of the photographs in the hallway before that— which would indicate that she'd either already opened the box, or had found other photos elsewhere and left them scattered in the house.

This is what I love about movies like this— the discussions and multiple interpretations that can be taken from them. This definitely isn't an ordinary horror movie.

[–] osbornese 13 years ago

Exactly! I came to the conclusion about the box bc like you pointed out, it seems as though things in the house were already set up and when the movie first opens she's down at the water reflecting, comes back up and her dad asks her if she left the tools out. She seems unsure if she did or not, or why they got there which is odd bc why wouldn't you remember gardening? I think she found it, was like "Whaaaaa????", went down to the water to think bc it brought up memories she had surpressed, and while down there she snapped bc even though inside she knew after seeing the pics the part of her that had been trying to bury it and had been causing all her destructive behaviors was saying that it did not happen. Also, the Camo dude I think was initially portrayed as an intruder whom she thought was out to get her. But in the end he ends up attacking her pops and uncle. I think as her Id, this dude also reflected her self destructing habits such as drinking and cutting, but in the end she realized "it wasn't her fault" and she directed that anger towards the real culprits.

[–] afeshs 12 years ago

I think you nailed it.

[–] earl687 13 years ago

My one comment is, and forgive if this is addressed my attention span is low, but why would the dad and brother bring her there. I mean that just would seem odd in any scenario. Like they got away with abusing her and now they want to take a chance. Maybe this was mentioned like she had been back to the cabin only a couple years prior, so maybe she was going often.

Anyway, if it wasn't already mentioned, I think I agree. She found those pictures and scuttled them about on her own. She was kinda losing it etc etc. Was the other girl just a figment of her imagination, or real? Never got that one. Guess I need to actually read through the thread :)

[–] osbornese 13 years ago

Read my earlier post. I think it's a couple above yours.

[–] earl687 13 years ago

There was definitely a key line of dialogue I see that could go in your first post (not that you didn't do an outstanding job, you did!!). The dad mentions something about the yard tools being outside, and if she put them there or not, and she say "I don't know." You may have covered this later in the thread, but I have such a short attention span tonight :(

Nice thread and thoughts by the way. Cheers.

[–] GeeksandFreaks 13 years ago

I am not sure if this is posted anywhere else on the forum, but I didn't see it in this thread so I thought I would add my 2 cents.
The first moment that stuck out to me in the movie as I was watching it was when they were looking at the mold in the wall. Yes, I noticed her face when they were taking polaroids but the conversation the 2 brothers were having really stuck out to me, not just the words themselves but they way they said them. Then knowing what happens in the end, going back and re-watching that seen almost seems symbolic of the abuse itself. I may be reading too much into it but before even knowing what happens, the scene got my hairs sticking up.
So the scene goes down like this...
The uncle says I made a hole and the dad proceeds to make a bigger hole Sarah giggles like a girl. Dad says now that little brother is a hole and they both say thats not good and the dad tell the girl to stand back this is bad. Then the uncle says "just looking at it is making me sick" whilst staring oddly at the wall.
Then when the uncle says "this whole house could be infected" the dad makes a point of saying "affected not infected"
Sarah says "if you cover it up they'll never know"
Uncle says "just a minute ago we had a tiny hole to deal with now we have a big hole" and then the dad says "did you remember to bring the..." and the uncle gives him the camera. Then they proceed to discuss what they are going to do and the uncle complaining "this is where it gets tricky" and that the dad dumps this it on him to deal with and the dad not being here. Then he proceeds to tell him he will "deal with it" and the dad says "if you do it right the first time" and "have you checked the basement"

Re-watching it just makes the whole seen feel like a metaphorical view of the actual molestation, Sarah's mind fragmenting and the "coverup".

If you get a chance to re-watch or you remember the scene, let me know your thoughts??

[–] jadorediorr 12 years ago

Good points @GeeksandFreaks - I was a little distracted and didn't pay close attention to that part of the movie because I thought it was just housework-related talk and filler. Rewatching it, knowing what happens in the end, it's really creepy and disturbing. It must be metaphorical. Especially Sarah's "if you cover it up, no one will ever know."

I noticed that when her father starts taking pictures of the hole/mold with the polaroid, the click of the camera is loud and the light from the flash is so intense. While he's taking pictures, and it keeps flashing, the camera slowly closes up on Sarah and the picture-taking seems to almost mesmerize or distract her from the conversation, as if that, specifically, is beginning to extract memories. She has this expression on her face, like she seems lost for a second. It's such a fleeting moment, but on second watch, it feels like a very important detail.

[–] FreshBrains22 13 years ago

Whoa, I did NOT see that toilet on the wall as symbolic in that way, but that makes so much sense! That is super eerie, and really disturbing, but it definitely makes sense.

I thought that part where her uncle comes into the house and attempts to "save" Sarah is important because he never saved her when she was a child being raped by her father, and he couldnt save her as an adult, either.

One thing I was wondering about- the gray-skinned man. Was he a boogey-man type symbol, like a monster under the bed who wants to terrorize Sarah? That would a be a childhood fear that triggers her memories. Or is he literally supposed to be a manifestation of her father, someone dark and frightening and harmful?

I was surpised with the intelligence of this film. It only got buzz because of the filimg style, but it was so much more than that. It was nothing like I expected.

[–] osbornese 13 years ago

I think the boogie guy was the unknown part of her concious. In the beginning she thought he was after her (the movie also hints at self destruction) but in the end she realizes it was her father and uncle and then the boogie man goes after them.

[–] onesunday 13 years ago

youshotandywarhol, do u review other horror movies or have a movie blod? i'd like to read it :>