Photos (spoilers)


The father tells Emma that the pictures are all of empty rooms. What happened to the two shots she made of the psychologist? Did her parents destroy them? If so, why? Was the psychologist in her imagination also? Then how did he interact with her parents and the cops? Sheesh. I give up.

reply

The Shrink was real. You see him talking to the cops at the end of the movie about how he warned her that Beth is real in her mind and she is in danger.

reply

Holy schnikies, this is one crucial detail i must have overlooked and then forgotten. Along with the other posters on the majority of this movie's threads, the sloppy climax at end of the movie had me so confused that I gave up trying to make sense of it all. Obviously this movie was not merely about the darker side of mental illness, even if everyone believes nearly the whole movie was in her head.

My theory is that the attic is haunted, or at least certain objects—primarily the mirror—and that whomever goes into the attic or looks into the mirror gets tied to house, at least their soul. The voice speaking through Frankie kind of explains this when Emma brings him up there. Perhaps those who are linked to the mirror don't show up on film.

The intro scene where the first girl dies from another lookalike ghost, and the outro scene where the "detective" poses as a real estate agent, reaffirms any doubts viewers may have that this is a movie about the paranormal. If the shrink wasn't in any of the photos this means that the pictures were switched, the film provides more than a few reasons her parents might switch the photos. Since we don't know much for certain about "Trevor", and given I thought he was a creep: he could just of well lied to her about his real name and being a detective just to win her trust in order to sleep with her. "Detective" sounds more trustworthy and reliable compared to a common EMT paramedic. So he was real, but its possible he didn't photograph because Emma took his photo after he looked through the mirror.

Now, continuing on the assumption that the movie wasn't all in her head—what else is real? We know the gun was real—I don't know enough about guns to know if its police issue, which might explain if he was lying about being a detective.

I say the birth certificate IS real, that she did have a twin. The Father didn't just deny it, it made him furious. His anger here and throughout the film, makes him suspicious of the twin-death theory, as does the way he treats Frankie due to his autism. We also know for sure that Frankie did legitimately seem to recall having a sister named Beth, however briefly; this was before he saw the mirror.

Finally, I'd say we know that Beth—or someone/something mimicing Emma's appearance—was real from the start, paranormal or not. This we know from the following events, all of which occur BEFORE Emma discovers the attic (remember that the house had been creeping her out for a month, she'd already lost her appetite and become a frightened shut-in: the tire-swing moves with some force despite absence of wind; at times Emma is able to see the girl swinging, and many times catches glimpses of a figure sneaking past her periphery; lastly, the intro to the movie shows another young woman chased out of the house by another lookalike, to be murdered in the same spot Frankie will later be stabbed to death. Also of some importance is the matter of the murder weapon never being found.

The major thing I can't figure out is why Emma thought she was shooting at "Trevor" while holding the barrell to her head. Maybe it was like a physical Freudian slip, where because of any subconcious guilt about the death of her parents, she subconciously felt she deserved to die. That or she was possessed by the attic or the entity she called "Beth" or she really was crazy in which case this whole post has been a waste. If she wasn't crazy, it certainly seemed within reason to kill her parents in self-defense. Uggggghhh.

reply

could be a reach but I suspect the father took the picture of the psychologist and destroyed it. He seemed Jealous. I know Emma asked if her mother and psychologist had an affair. We don't know if that was true. The father did freak out on the mother and asked her why she was dressed up and she said she wasn't dressed up, The psychologist was with Emma at that time, and there was another scene with the mother acting in my opinion weird when she came into the house, she looks over where Emma was sitting earlier with the psychologist and then goes into the office where Emma is writing down the symbols, the movie sure implied there might have been some history between the mother and the psychologist but maybe the house took what Emma asked about the mother and the psychologist having an affair and influenced the parents to act the way they did?



reply