If you read the book you'll remember that when the Kennedys realized that Kim was responsible for the evil in that house they decided to kill him.Colquitt's husband said "Call him in here and give me a minute" The next page they were disposing of his body.They didn't say how Cols husband killed Kim.Does anyone have any ideas?
shareHow was he responsible for it? Did he purposely do smething to put it there?
shareHe isn't deliberately responsible--that is, he isn't a bad person per se, he just...produces evil buildings. There's something about the way he designs that taints them. The book doesn't try to explain how or why--the Kennedys find out when he's telling them about previous buildings/designs that have all had similar problems. They start putting 2 + 2 together and realize--he's the problem, even though he's a decent guy.
shareSo they think that murdering him makes them good people?
shareNo, but murdering him will stop all of the evil and save others from having their life ruined. They were not doing this without personal sacrifice either, they planned to die that night right along with him. Little did they know, while killing him stopped him from creating new buildings and houses, he still had plans out there.
shareBut they did not die, right? They saved themselves, then went on to live as though they did nothing wrong. Sounds like they were the evil ones to me.
share[deleted]
Yeah, the book is different. As the other poster pointed out, Col and Walker die as well - the book switches to present tense for Col's final thoughts before she and Walker head to the house to destroy it, as they know the house will not allow them to escape alive (it has already killed their pet). In the book they kill Kim in their own house first before heading next door to destroy the other house.
The thing you have to understand about the book is that the relationship between Col, Walker and Kim is much more nuanced and complex than in the movie. In the book, they have all been friends for a long time and they love each other - in Col and Kim's case, romantically as well as friendship. But Col and Kim never act on their feelings because they also truly love Walker (Kim as a friend). Walker knows of their feelings for each other but continues to allow Kim to be around because he loves Kim as a friend and (rightly) trusts them not to betray him. When Col convinces Walker that something in Kim is causing the evil that is tainting everything he creates, Walker is really devastated. They realize they have to kill Kim because otherwise more of his creations will be built and lead to the deaths of many other people, but it's that knowledge that makes them okay with their own suicides-by-house-destruction. Having killed their dear friend, they don't want to live anymore either.
The movie clearly wanted a happy ending, so it had the couple live. Plus the movie did a really bad job of trying to at least make a nod to how the couple felt in the book with Col's mention that maybe the house saw something in them that it was able to exploit to cause Kim's death. But since the film had eliminated all the backstory and depth of the couple's longstanding friendship with Kim, it didn't work.
Exactly. There is a whole lot of dimension in the book that it completely missing in the movie.
Whatsmore, the people are not all cardboard cutouts. Not everyone is pretty and handsome. Some of the friends and neighbiors are more earthy then what they show here. There's emotional trauma/drama and a lot of pieces missing.
Actually, in the book Colquitt and Walter do die; in her final monologue Colquitt says "It has already reached across to our yard," a reference to the fact that the house has killed their two pet cats. And her final thought is "I wonder how it will happen."
I don't think that leaves much doubt as to the Kennedys' fate in the book.
Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
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I haven't watched the movie yet (and probably won't bother, given most of the reviews here), but I just finished the book and it was fantastic.
I just wanted to mention an interpretation I had. In the book, Colquitt and Walter (why the heck did they change his name for the movie?) realized that Kim was responsible for the evil, that anything he built would be just as haunted as the house next door. And so they killed him.
However, was Kim actually responsible? I think it makes the ending much creepier if he was completely innocent. Perhaps the evil wasn't in Kim, it was the House, and its ultimate revenge against Walter and Colquitt was convincing them that it was necessary to kill their dear friend Kim.
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."
I think it makes the ending much creepier if he was completely innocent.
"My brain rebelled, and insisted on applying logic where it was not welcome."share
"... and people would start going home with haunted bread and stuff."
Oh man. I hate when that happens.
On a somewhat more serious note:
I also enjoy the way the events are open to interpretation. I don't think we can be sure that the terrible things that happened in the house are because it was designed by Kim. I don't even think that Colquitt and Walter are sure. But they have come to a point of desperation where they are willing to be wrong. They are sure enough that they will be preventing more disasters that they are willing to risk that they could be wrong, and committing unnecessary murder. That is my interpretation.
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My Patronus ate my lunch.
Kim wasn't consciously responsible. He was never deliberately malicious.
The book strongly hints that Kim's parentage is demonic and/or evil.
And yes, Kim WAS responsible for the evil in the House. He tells Col & Walter that other projects he did before this house all ended it tragedy, one person even goes blind.
So he is described as a *carrier* for the evil, it will infest everything he ever builds.
Walter & Col knew this, and knew they had to kill him. Even if it meant themselves being killed by the evil.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."