That night, mom knew the killer would be there to stab her. And yet she allowed Libby to sleep with her. This makes no sense.
And it sounded like Libby always goes to her room at night since Ben heard the footsteps and when his girl friend asked who that was, he simply answered it must be Libby going to their mom's bed. So, the mom must have expected that Libby might want to sleep wit her that night.
Her mom said I love you Libby and told her to go back to bed. Libby said it was strange because her mom had never done that before.
sharelol!! Or why have someone kill you in such a brutal way where you are sure to traumatize your kids! Stupid movie, glad I never finished the book.
shareThe murder was probably arranged to take place outside of the bedroom, away from her sleeping daughter, and at a prearranged time. Remember that the mom woke up, looked at the clock, and then rushed out of the bedroom, where she then encountered the killer.
As for why the mom was asleep, I think that was an accident on her part. It would only make sense for her to stay awake so she could come out of the bedroom at the prearranged time.
That part made no sense. I'd like to go back to the book and read that part again. The only thing I can think of is that the daughter did that often in the middle of the night and the mom was asleep and just let her in like she normally did. But how could anyone sleep knowing what would take place? Unless the murder was supposed to be a surprise and she didn't know it would be that night? I think that was how it went. Great acting by both C.T. and C.H.
When you get up in the morning, how do you decide what shade of black to wear? (Shallow Grave)
Everything was set up in a way that would supposedly keep the children safe. The killer was going to slip in at a certain time and the mom was supposed to meet him in the living room away from the children. He was going to stab her once and leave when she bled out. It was supposed to be quick, quiet, and relatively painless.
In the book it makes a little more sense the way they have it set up. The guy just goes to the front door at a specific time, the mom answers, and he stabs her. He wasn't even supposed to come inside. But then the one sister came running out of the bedroom and all hell broke loose.
In the book, it's 2:03 am when Patty's part of the narration mentions that she's late. At that point, you don't know what she is late for. She opens the front door and is stabbed.
It's not really explained until another chapter that Calvin Deihl killed Patty and Debby and why he did it.
So, when you find out that the stabbing was prearranged, you realize that Patty meant she was late to meet Calvin at the front door. Probably supposed to meet him at 2 - but she got up at 2:03 instead.
I'd have to read this again - I didn't realise the plan was for the "murder" to take place at the front door, I thought he was supposed to come into the house and stab her when she entered the living room (which was risky if one of the children got up for a drink at that time!).
The front door would make more sense because Calvin mentions that he wanted to frame Runner for it, or at least make his life difficult for a while as he'd be the prime suspect.
It begs the question then as to how and why did Calvin go into the house?? If Patty didn't come to the front door at the agreed time, would he not just figure the plan was off?
So the mom knew that the killer was coming to kill her that night. And while waiting to be killed, she ... fell asleep. Now, that woman really had nerves of steel.
shareknowing that she had a way out and that she'd be leaving soon filled her with so much relief that for the first time in forever she relaxed and that's why she fell asleep.
Explained easily in the book but impossible to portray in the movie, one of many reasons it apparently didn't work and was so poorly received