MovieChat Forums > The Stepford Wives (1975) Discussion > Were the Children Killed?

Were the Children Killed?

posted 4 years ago by Jeepster (1033)
4 replies | jump to latest

That’s really the only question I had in this movie. It would make this scarier & Walter unforgivable if he had it in him to kill his own kids just so he could fulfill his selfish fantasy of the having the perfect family. Not that I don’t think him killing his own wife for the same reasons isn’t unforgivable either.

But the real chilling thing that I hate to even come out & say because it feels perverse to say this is how could he possibly avoid it? How are they going to react to the alternate Joanna? Uh, the children are definitely going to know, no doubt about it. Walter may do his best to BS them for awhile, until they grow into teens & then adults. Then they’re definitely not gong to believe his nonsense & press for the truth on their own. Does anyone believe he has a choice?

[–] PaladinNJ (20335) 2 years ago

Good question. I know this was addressed in Stepford Children but they definitely weren't thinking that far ahead in this film.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

no. all the other women had children.

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

The whole town, including the school, would probably gaslight the kids into thinking everything’s fine. ‘Mommies change as they get older’ etc.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

That would have been where to go with a good sequel!

But I can believe that it would never cross the mind of these men to change out the children the way they changed out the wives, because even if the kids were trouble, they'd be sure, quite sure, that the way to fix the kids was to change the wife. Once they had the perfect wife, the kids were bound to become perfect too - right? Of course right, they'd say!

Of course it wouldn't work that way, the kids would develop serious problems when their mothers stopped any genuine interaction with them, and their fathers, being the worst sort of utterly selfish dickheads, would either pack them off the boarding school, or try to figure out a way to make a replacement that would grow like a normal child.