Can you believe that I was intently watching the movie last night on This Network, only to fall asleep right after the mother and Jane threw crate, which contained the father's body, over the cliff.
Maybe someone slipped me some sleeping powder!! I don't know when I'll be able to see this movie again...and I'm dying to know what happened.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER AHEAD!!
A bit hazy on the details (it's been years since I've seen it): Mother & daughter return home after dumping hubby to a surreal scene: his apparent corpse, or a dummy that looks like him swings from the ceiling at them (I never could figure out that bit). They run in terror, I think the mother may take a bad fall down some stairs. Cut to: breakfast. He is still alive after all, cruel smile on his face. Daughter: terrified & silent attempting to eat breakfast. Son, all dressed up for serious business at the work place. The mother has gone completely insane and cannot speak to answer her husband's cruel jibes. Looks like mom & daughter are in for a hellish life!
Thanks for the information. Maybe it's a good thing that I fell asleep before the ending!! :)
shareI think possibly a dummy hanging upside down, there was a shot earlier on where there was a mask in a box that looked a bit like the father.
http://centuryofobscurity.blogspot.com/
Reviewing films 100 words at a time.
I thought it might just be a dubious special effect - Michael Gough was a fairly older man even back then; I'm not sure they could've gotten him to hang from the ceiling by his ankles and swing his body at the camera.
shareThe mother also has a black eye. Punishment for attempted murder. POP! Don't do that.
shareSomehow I got that the final scene depicted the afterlife, and that the three of them were experiencing a hell in which there is no escape from one another forever. Or that it's sort of like a samsara concept where karma that's not overcome in life (in this case their relationship dysfunctionality and the women's idea of a solution to the problems) will plague one over and over forever until it's transcended.
It really is hard to say what officially happened here overall. The whole climax and ending section was quite the fragmented dream pastiche verging on total nonsense, wasn't it? And was that hanging body meant to be a dummy or a special effect that was supposed to be the dad? Because it did look about as convincing as the dummy body at the end of Don't Torture a Duckling, which was supposed to be a real guy and looked barely more alive than a made up crash test dummy. So mysterious! I kind of love it.
Overall I was surprised to see this rated in the 4/10 range on imdb. I thought it was so great and atmospheric! I watch a lot of these sorts of slow, kind of sleepy weeoooeeeooo 60s/70s eerie weird tales flicks and this one really got me wicked hoisted. Definite relationship to Let's Scare Jessica to Death as others have said - I actually enjoyed this one more.
I would ambiently view infinity hours of just the hoity-toity English kept household life stuff in this movie tbh.
share