Questions about movie/ending *spoilers*

i dont think everything has a meaning i think that its a horror movie and wishes to just disturb you but i have to see this for myself and maybe see what i see in it, perhaps everyone is suppose to see something for themselves, or watch it over and over till they do.

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What was the meaning of painting over the bird with the hanging man?
i looked it up and found the correlation between francis bacon's work and how he started one of his more disturbing paintings by beginning with a bird and then just kept adding disturbing images to it.

I'm guessing that in the end you're suppose to have found out that he didn't in fact find out who the killer was. But rather, they'd shot the wrong person. The person who was doing this was trying to show that he's Uncle Eddie. It's like an in-your-face approach to tell the lead detective they'd got the wrong person. But I think he's refined his methods to be more gruesome. Just like the painting of francis bacon. The "birdman" is just his way of showing his artistic side, evolution let's say.

What does the bird symbolize in this movie as it is painted over, and sculpted?

If you notice the bird created with the body is only to portray the killer's artistic side. The sculpture in the museum is only there to taunt the public much like the painting in the store. If you notice in the museum everything there are more evidence from the crime scenes(ie. the eyehole and grid from the birdman, the pinhole effect for the hanging guy).

The serial killer is the same as the uncle eddy killer? He goes to AA meetings to get to his previous victims best friend?

That's what I got from the story line. He befriended the girl because she was close to him. But maybe you can see it as Stan is a personification of Uncle Eddie. I think he feels it's not closed, so he mimicked the killings, unknowingly becoming the killer himself. There isn't much to support this though.

When the younger detective (scott something) sees all the reflections in his coffee cup and finds each painting is an anamorph of the next, what is the meaning of this?

If you notice in the painting of the hanging guy it shows the bird. In the bird picture it shows the face. In the face you see the carousel. That's why he knew where the killer would be.

What's the deal with the chair and the 'dealer' that dafoe keeps talking to? What is the purpose of dafoes character quirks in general? (The alcoholism, re-arranging furniture, folding napkins certain ways?)

Maybe he isn't real. Who knows? But the fact is he just got him to tell him the stuff about the art.
Stan's OCD behavior is there to show the audience that he's still troubled by something. Maybe to show he's the killer or maybe he felt bad because of Crystal, and he believes the case is not closed. Or maybe it's because it seems that everything's routine to him. But nothing's ever in place.

The serial killers paintings, what do they mean? They are obviously derivative of bacon's work trying to recreate 'the decisive moment' or the scream over and over... but specifically whats the point of the dismembered bird sculpture, and the 3 panels of giant paintings?

The killer has stopped waiting for the decisive moment. He took it to his own hands and recreated art. But the more he did it the more gory it became. I think also if you look at each particular crime scene, each has a method of copying art. Pinhole, the grid, and then the arm thing (don't know what it's called). This could mean that the killer's trying to copy something or maybe someone else, something he views as art. Also if you notice in the intro, it seems it goes in and out of what's real and what seems to be a painting. It could mean something.

In the final scene where dafoe dies, is it as simple as seeing him in anguish as he is shown in 3 states in that blur effect? (Regret over the girls first murder, him dying that moment, and sadness for her best friend that was just murdered?)

I actually don't know, but good insight. I understand the blurring, maybe to show that now he's become a memory, which would implying him dying. (Most of his memory has that effect). You could also think of it referring back to Francis Bacon. He's become his eternal art.

Ok one more why did the uncle eddie killer write DEAD on his victims?

To claim that it's his. All serial killers have a particular signature to show that it's theirs. Some collects a piece of the person, some add to the person. Uncle Eddie's is writing dead on his victims. The final picture where he sees DEAD on the girl signifies that it is Uncle Eddie and that it was him who did this all along.

Again this is all my interpretation. Feel free to comment on anything or disregard some. It's just my insight on the movie, please have respect when responding.

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