So, did those people really die? We see them at the end, but what happened? They came back to life? How?
And ok, that guy's wife and the bully seem like they came back, but we see Thomas Jane being with his son who was dead, so...really, I didn't get it.
And also, they didn't show us at all what happened to the second family of the kid, the ones who they both disappeared.
everyone that disappeared gets cancer!
shareAt the end of the movie the people are still gone, but I figure they might come back. The boy might have two different abilities:
1. Materializing things from his dreams temporarily that vanish as soon as he wakes up (or stops creating them with his mind). These manifestations can manipulate real matter and hurt people but they are not permanent.
2. The second ability is to destroy real physical matter, like making the people vanish. It's different, and it's possible that he can start to control it and also bring back people really back from where they are when they vanish.
The ending is a bit spooky, the mother says she won't abuse his ability anymore but immediately goes on to plant ideas in his mind to bring the people back. She even still wants Cody to bring back Shawn. This might or might not be possible, but might put additional pressure on him. It might also help him to deal with the situation (having killed many people at the age of 10). Maybe she finally learn to let go.
The other spooky thing is that she plants the idea in his head of bringing the bully back changed, basically change his personality to be agreeable. Which is a special kind of horror imho. It's definitely a good ending imho, a truly ambiguous ending.
My only complaint about the movie is that they didn't immediately talk with Cody about what was happening when they first realized it, and not make a plan for how to deal with it. They were very weak and stupid, negligent (no wonder their first son died!). The movie even mentioned lucid dreaming, so the sensible thing would have been to read books about lucid dreaming and train him in that. There are techniques on how to train yourself to remember dreams (dream journal) and how to achieve lucid state while dreaming (e.g. if you see the cankerman you'll know you are dreaming, and you can influence your dream). If they had talked with him they would have quickly discovered about his boogeyman and could have easily avoided the problems. I would have loved to see how that story plays out. But essentially these parents were fools, or at least not very genre savvy.
The ending in the script I read is a bit different (not the final draft), Cody didn't have the ability to bring people back. After she told him the bedtime story, it just ended with a close up on Cody's sleeping face, identical to the opening shot, except he was smiling.
That's why I didn't get the idea of the mother trying to plant things on Cody's mind so he could bring all those people back when I read the script. She just wanted Cody not to feel guilty, and in the end he didn't, hence the smiling. But I get your point, I think they wanted a happier and ambiguous ending. 😃
PS: I haven't seen the full movie yet. Even though it has been released in other countries, my country (Indonesia) hasn't released it yet. I think they're waiting for it to be released in the US first, but now I have to wait longer since it's postponed again. 😢
Thanks that's interesting! I think I would have liked that ending better. Then her character arc would be about acceptance and letting go of the dead. And being there for the kid.
They are all dead. Cankerman represents cancer and how lifeless and emotionless and unstoppable cancer is. Once you are gone, you are gone and only left as a memory. This movie is about accepting the loss of someone to cancer and how there is no coming back.
I really hope they will make a sequel, so they explain the ending a little more. They have so much material to work with.
"One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason." - A. Camus