MovieChat Forums > The Canal (2014) Discussion > The Wife was kind of a bitch...Spoilers

The Wife was kind of a bitch...Spoilers

posted 10 years ago by zombiesatemyneighbors81
26 replies | jump to latest

I just don't understand how she could more than once declare she loved her Husband while at the same time screwing around on him. Then to find out her friends and own Mother knew she was having an affair for a year and was planning on Divorcing him. Lol . Just playing with his emotions. It's just a movie and all and she didn't deserve to die but she was messed up. I guess she got it from her Mom who had the nerve to talk about how sad her lover is taking it hard at the wake to the Husband. I couldn't believe how insensitive that comment was. This movie just makes you feel so bad for the little kid :(

[–] gogumadonut 10 years ago

Yeah I agree, she was a bit of a beyatch ... especially when he confronted her about the affair and she said she was going to take Billy away from him on top of everything else.

[–] mamporrero 10 years ago

I thought that was too realistic for my taste, to be honest. I watch horror movies because I don't want to be constantly reminded that people are the real monsters. Killing her is not even satisfying in a case like this, because either way she already ruined his life.

[–] Ras_lupo 10 years ago

Killing her is not even satisfying in a case like this

LMFAO. You are insane.

Oh my god, unisex names killed my family.

[–] koalacanth 9 years ago

I thought that was too realistic for my taste, to be honest. I watch horror movies because I don't want to be constantly reminded that people are the real monsters. Killing her is not even satisfying in a case like this, because either way she already ruined his life.

Definitely identify with this.

[–] fiatlux-1 10 years ago

Agreed!
She was rather bitchy. But oddly, I do think she cared about him. She seemed like a confused person, a little lost, as well as selfish.

I don't think she deserved to die, but given her actions, she was no sweetpea.

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Penfold, shush.

[–] Foxbarking 10 years ago

I agree with it all. The grandma pissed me off the most. I can't believe anyone could be as insensitive as that old bitch going on and on about the boyfriend. I've seen some low and disgusting behavior in movies and that ranks up there with the worst.

[–] activista 8 years ago

@Foxbarking

I won't lie---that really tripped me out, when the grandmother never once tried to comfort the man on losing his wife---that was just straight-up out cold right there. And then she had the nerve to talk about how his wife's boyfriend was taking her death----no wonder the guy snapped and said that he didn't give a damn--who wants to hear that kind of shyt at a funeral?

The thing is, though, I never understood why the man's wife was cheating on him to begin with. I could see if he were an abusive husband, but there was nothing to even indicate that, or that they even had problems in the first place. It's never really clarified in the film exactly what made her want to cheat on him in the first place--that was my only problem with the film, besides the gore. Very dark, disturbing, and creepy flick. That really should have been expounded upon a lot more. But to say that the husband's job wasn't "masculine" and that he was a "beta" male? I mean, come on--that just sounds ridiculous to me. Maybe like another poster said, the demon just manipulated things to make it seem like she was cheating---that makes a little more sense then. And it did seem like the house was cursed because of the previous murders that had taken place there.

I also thought that from the beginning that his co-worker liked him---she really no business pushing up on him when he was trying to show her the demon thing he filmed, but then he was just as damn wrong for what he did to her--that was just straight up horrible right there.

[–] ashley-eileen-rowe 10 years ago

WHAT IF....and I'm just reading way to much into this but....

They moved into the house before she started the affair right?
What if, in order to obtain ALL the souls in the house the demon had to first manipulate the wife by making her a cheater (remember the original wife WAS a cheater...) and by making the wife a cheater, the husbands mind became weaker making it possible for the demon to manipulate him. He manipulates him to kill her, kill the assistant (because the nanny got away) and while he is attempting to take the son as well the cop intervenes. Then the demon acts on its own to obtain the boys soul by still using the husband to manipulate his child. The child having a weakened state of mind because of obvious trauma.

As an added F you, I win, the demon reveals the husbands actions to him before he is taken.

And to top it all off the real estate agent is the gate keeper of the house, bringing all potential souls to the demons literal doorstep.

ALSO, the wife's mother was a bitch to him...in the house. Her mother having a weakened state of mind could have been manipulated by the demon to break down the husbands walls even further.

Ok I'm done.

[–] Roddenhyzer 10 years ago

They moved into the house before she started the affair right?

Yeah, long before it started. The police inspector mentions that the affair had been going on for a year, meaning they had already been living in the house for four years before she started cheating on him.

[–] kat3723 10 years ago

Great interpretation Ashley! That makes so much sense and I think you are correct. It was like this entity made the situation the same as his own.

[–] brettjtalley 9 years ago

Nice.

[–] hopy-2008 8 years ago

that's actually is a great point and it makes a lot of sense.

The director should have made it clearer, but he did't. He showed us how the sex was with her husband vs her love and that why she cheated, not because of the ghosts or the house, but because of the sex.

i believe that what he was going for, although your idea is better and i loved it.

[–] IslandDweller 10 years ago

I'm glad other people had this reaction:)

The wife, as played by the actress, was a charming but enraging character; and her mother pushed the whole thing over the edge. My desperation for the main character to keep his sanity, not be the killer, and transcend the situation is so much greater because I don't want the son to go live with that bizarrely insensitive woman, who is clearly desperate to get her hands on him.

I always hate the cheating character, male or female, but in this case there's a sharper edge because it's likely the wife would get primary custody, and the main character would be separated from his little boy while the boyfriend would get to share a home with him.

That said, I think Ashley-Eileen-Rowe's sympathetic speculation of how it all came about is as valid as any interpretation.

[–] Spellbinder888 9 years ago

I always hate the cheating character, male or female, but in this case there's a sharper edge because it's likely the wife would get primary custody, and the main character would be separated from his little boy while the boyfriend would get to share a home with him.

Gargantuan chip on your shoulder or what...

I can't even begin to explain the huge amount of misogyny in your thinking. I suppose you're too stupid to notice you were watching a misogynistic film given your already deeply held bias.

[–] Xex-Arachnid 9 years ago

Spellbinder888, by this remark and the one after it, it seems like you're the one with the chip on your shoulder. I don't find anything wrong with what IslandDweller wrote.

Aside from that, killing someone for any reason isn't morally right unless it's to protect your own but when you're dealing with love, family, marriage = commitment well...breaking that contract in the most odious of ways leaves that person open to dire consequences.

[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 7 years ago

It's misogynistic to not like cheaters? Male or female? Your comment is actually the misogynistic one because you correlate cheating with women.

[–] fuchsiasattic 10 years ago

I agree.
Plus she was crazy because her husband is wicked cute.

[–] essex9999 10 years ago

Plus she was crazy because her husband is wicked cute.

Ha ha! Yes, that's what I was thinking. Why would she want that sleazy-looking creep with such a handsome husband at home? Then again, David was quite short, and the lover was taller than she. And David seemed a passive, quiet kind of guy and maybe the lover was a dynamic, virile type. Looks aren't everything, I guess.

[–] asiamatron 9 years ago

The wife and her mother were both pretty horrible and I felt bad for the husband despite what happened. I find it hard to believe the wife still loved him, especially when she wanted to take his son away too.

[–] Spellbinder888 9 years ago

Grow up you people. Adults cheat. A significant amount of adults cheat - as many as half perhaps.

We need to all grow up and realise it's just something a LOT of people seem to do. It's not something that people should die over. This 'bitch deserved to die" logic is much worse than the cheating you deride the wife for.

You're the kind of people who in Salem would have been shouting "burn the witch"....

[–] BadSurge 9 years ago

Adults also rape each other. A lot. Should we be okay with that?

Slutty self-righteousness. Jesus Christ.

Now tell me what a misogynist I am.

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[–] Batmans_Striking_Coach 9 years ago

Sounds like you're a piece of $hit cheater

[–] essex9999 9 years ago

I don't see too many people at this board advocating that "the bitch deserved to die." I see a lot of people disapproving of her behavior and judging her to be a bad person because of it.

Alice didn't have a one-night stand, a drunken weekend, or a brief, mad fling. She had an affair for a full year, all the while telling her husband that she loved him. Then, when she confessed to the illicit relationship - which, mind you, she only does after being caught in the act - and announcing her plan to leave, she adds that she's taking their son. Why the hell would she pick that moment to announce that she's going to take Billy away from him, too? She was a terrible, terrible person.

I think Alice did still "love" David as a companion or friend. The opening scenes of the movie plus some of his later actions suggest that David was a passive type who nervously seeks his wife's approval, lacks self-confidence and feels insecure in the relationship. He works at what is probably low-paying and not particularly masculine job. (Remember that Alice's colleague called him a "librarian".) IOW, he is a beta male. Alice ended up falling out of love with him and falling in love/lust with someone who (maybe - we really don't know) is more of an alpha type. This is not what makes her such an unlikable person; people do fall out of love. It is the full year of blatant deception - which David obviously already suspected - the patronizing lies and, worst of all, the threat to take away their son at exactly the moment when she's breaking his heart that lead viewers to despise her.

Also, note how the wild passion of her sex scene with the lover is deliberately contrasted with the restrained, under-the-covers moment with David. Later, when we find out that she was pregnant, we wonder if she initiated that rather joyless encounter in order to keep her options open, in order to be able to claim the child was David's just in case things didn't work out with Ponytail McSleazebag.

In other words, Alice was written to be a character most viewers would hate (as was the frowsy, weird grandma) so all sympathy would be focused on the main character. It worked, at least for me.

[–] Wildechild (193) 7 years ago

This alpha and beta male concept is very sexist IMHO.

[–] LordManhammer 9 years ago

So, the husband is a psycho murderer, yet people are flocking to this board in order to say that the WIFE is a bitch? Double standards much?

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[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 7 years ago

The husband is possessed by an evil entity whereas the wife is a plain bad person all by her lonesome.