I'm wondering why Alice's reading was so similar to her mother's reading... when the mother went into Alice's room but didn't see her, but Alice was in her room and saw her mother walk in. Could Alice somehow see the future before she died... such as seeing her dead ghost at Lake Mungo? Or are these two readings just purely coincidental? Thanks in advance to any responses!
shareI think you're right - Alice could see the future (at least as it related to her own demise), as established by seeing her ghost at Lake Mungo.
She had a vision of herself standing at the foot of her parents' bed, feeling like things weren't right...and later her ghost is caught on tape standing at the foot of her parents' bed.
Her mother has a vision of going into Alice's room and seeing her there, and Alice had a vision of being in her room and seeing her mother walk in - this is repeated later, at the end, when the mother walks in and can't see Alice there anymore, and Alice (on tape) is simultaneously relating her vision and saying, "I don't think she can see me."
The father related a vision of being in Alice's room and having her come in, not realize he's there, and then yell at him to get out once she realized he was there - I'm sure if the film had been longer, we would've gotten a scene where Alice related a vision of being in her room and seeing her father sitting in her chair.
I thought it was quite beautiful at the end the way Alice (in the past) and her mother (in the present) were having the same vision. Though, like the photo at the end, it implies that Alice, regardless of whether or not her family has moved on, remains as a ghost in the present.
Thank you so much for your response. You explained it much better than I could have. The movie was beautiful and creepy at the same time. Movies don't usually give me nightmares, but I was up all night thinking about this movie. It was eerie and heartbreaking.
shareI agree that Alice's ghost is still in the house. That was the impression I got after two viewings of the film.
shareYou got it right. Alice and her mother were having the same vision, although for Alice it was in the past and for her mother it was in the present time. Alice's ghost remained in the house.
share
Yes, she seemed to remain in the house which I thought was very sad. I thought that once the secrets she wanted her family to know were revealed she would find peace.
Alice was just a teenager when she died. She was not mature enough so she didn't think that she was haunting her family & she didn't know how to move on so when her family finally moved on & left the house, she felt sad that they left her alone..
shareYes, she seemed to remain in the house which I thought was very sad. I thought that once the secrets she wanted her family to know were revealed she would find peace.
She had a vision of herself standing at the foot of her parents' bed, feeling like things weren't right...and later her ghost is caught on tape standing at the foot of her parents' bed.
I don't think it was caught on tape. Wasn't it in her diary and her mother reads about it?
Her mother has a nightmare about her standing over the bed, staring at her.
You were scared?
Yeah, I thought you knew that about me...
somewhat towards the end of the film, they freeze frame a shot of the footage where alice is at their bed looking at them
shareI agree B-Bomber, the merging of experience at the end is sublimely done. It is the keystone for the story.
shareThe father related a vision of being in Alice's room and having her come in, not realize he's there, and then yell at him to get out once she realized he was there - I'm sure if the film had been longer, we would've gotten a scene where Alice related a vision of being in her room and seeing her father sitting in her chair.
I agree with you. There is a story here that has not been told I think.
shareThing is, her mother had this reading after she had already seen the video of her daughter. So she could just play along to what she had seen her daughter do, or if she started to realize there was some sort of connection we'll never know. Or if this story is all complete *beep* we'll never know either...
shareI think that the father may have been remembering seeing the video tape footage (ie maybe some visions of ghosts are simply dreamt memories of past events with loved ones, and since you're in a state of trauma you lose the ability to distinguish between the memory/ dream/ recollected vision). I think it was there to build on top of the son's "faked" photos and staging of the sister's ghostly existence (to give his parents at least the comfort in knowing that souls exist and something of their daughter still remains).
I love how the director and writer set up the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY angle, then discounted it and then REintroduced it.. but unlike the PA movies where it is a straight-up gimmick (which I don't mind, as they were always "haunted house" movies anyways), this is more about the after effects of someone dying in your family and what is left behind... which is what makes me shake my head when you have people calling this "Lake Bung-Hole" and "Boring."
This isn't really about ghosts, other than the less typical ghosts of lingering memories of something painful.
Sorry but where do we see the footage of Alice standing at her parent's bed? I don't remember seeing her in her parent's room at all. Her mum says she had a dream that Alice was standing at the end of her bed but we never actually see Alice.
shareI completely agree with you B-Bomber & frost1013
shareI just wanted to bump this back into view, because few recent viewers seem to have noticed these parallels (the father's vision, and the mother and Ally's dreams). This connection between mother and daughter especially is both touching and disconcerting.
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"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"--Pres. Merkin Muffley
I think the whole thing is about how this family was never really connected yet they were always attached. They never knew how to connect so they were going along with the program until Alice died. The brother tried to give the family something to stay connected to Alice, but ironically not realizing that Alice's spirit was really there still trying to connect to them.
I felt really bad for Alice because it seems as if her whole life was about everybody else's impression or use of her and really not about her at all. Now that she's dead, she can't even haunt them without being upstaged by her brother's shenanigans and the tape she probably never wanted seen. so they spend all their time talking about the stuff her brother did and the stuff their neighbor did, while not discussing what Alice meant to any of them. Then they accept her death and decide to move on before Alice gets her own closure.
alice saw her mother leaving the house, in the future, while the mother saw a past image of alice sitting there in the room. they were both edited together as to make it clear one woman saw the other in a different time.
"It doesn't matter what Bram Stoker has told you... dead people don't come back from their graves"
An interesting explanation of the movie: https://youtu.be/VLGN1wVKw3Q?t=21m52s