Ending Opinions (Major Spoilers) - Exhibit A (2010) Discussion

[–] anonymous_104 14 years ago

Maybe she survived the attack, but buried under the weight of the other bodies for a few days until discovered by the neighbour... and she was half dead anyway... I don't rate her chances of survival.

But who knows, maybe the reporter got it wrong?

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[–] ImTylerDurden 14 years ago

I agree, she was still breathing, the steamed up lens and definite breathing sound on the soundtrack. Not having seen any behind the scenes I went away with the impression she survived. It seemed to me a clever way of letting you off the hook if you couldn't cope with the ultimate bleak ending. Personally I think it has more resonance to assume she survived because it allows you to think beyond the end of the film into what might have happened next rather than just feeling a depressing stunned emptiness.

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[–] cracked_machine 14 years ago

Just posted this on a newer thread:

"Yeah I was wondering that. Leaving the breath in seemed too deliberate to be an accident to be caused by bad film making(they could have just cut it at that point).
Perhaps she survived? Personally I was most affected when the daughter was murdered so I would be happy to think that maybe she survived.

Also the slide at the start said the film was discovered at the scene of a murder. Not *one* or *all* of the family. Perhaps the daughter survived. After all, the wife had clearly been assaulted when she walked in the room (blood already on her face). It hints that the husband assumed he had already killed the wife when in fact he hadn't. Maybe the same happened for the daughter.

Of course it could just mean that the daughter was alive when the camera was running but still died by the time the paramedics/police arrived. I guess that makes it all the more harrowing.

good film though. And fair play for Warp to associate themselves with it. "

http://advicefromxmaspast.blogspot.com

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[–] jabberttp 11 years ago

Hi Tyler. You spelled spoiler "spolier". lol I find usually at least 1 thread like that for every movie.

---
"Into every life a little coffee must spill."

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[–] ImTylerDurden 9 years ago

Heh heh, I spelt it right at the start though. My brain is not illiterate but my fingers are.😃

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[–] theflukeman93 11 years ago

you can also see the son breathing and hos chest and hand moving, I don't know whether this is an error during filming (the actor couldn't stay still) or if it shows that the son also survived.

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[–] Erin-Leigh-14 10 years ago

i think that was more that the father and mother were lying across his legs, so as they moved, they jiggled the son's body. the son was bleeding pretty profusely from the back of his head.

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[–] bl-telfair 10 years ago

I have no doubt that the director showed the girl's breathing to indicate she would survive. She was the only character we cared for. 3 unlikable characters and 1 very lovely character. She was a thoughtful and intelligent girl surrounded by lunatics. She played dead. She lived. Good call by the director. It actually seem more likely that she would manage to make it out alive than just go out like that. We get the expected ugly and dark ending but a last second surprise that the character we cared for made it out alive. Well done.

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[–] SweetD19 9 years ago

He had a psychotic break, he killed everyone in that house.

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[–] iamthehollow 9 years ago

I don't think the father died at all...why would there need to be an 'exhibit a' if there was no trial?

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[–] trombleykyle 7 years ago

Exhibit A just means it was booked in as evidence. I think he killed himself with the overdose, and bludgeoned all their heads in at the very very end to make the deaths stick. The whole point of it was for him to simply be with them.. He wouldn't leave his girl alive, and didn't..

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[–] iamthehollow 7 years ago

Yes fair point, it certainly works better if he died.

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] essex9999 9 years ago

We do see Judith's breath on the lens, but then I thought I heard Andy yell "no" and then a thump. I assumed that he saw the misted lens, realized that his daughter was still alive and killed her with the bludgeon (candlestick, someone said?). His cry was the anguish he felt at having to kill her again.

We don't know exactly what happened to Andy. He could hardly kill himself with the candlestick. Bludgeoning yourself to death must be just about impossible, I would think. We saw the pills and vodka, so he could have died that way, or he could have survived the overdose and been found unconscious but alive. It's not all that easy to kill yourself with modern sedatives, even when combined with alcohol. Or maybe he lost his nerve and ran away, or just sat there, waiting to be found. The filmmakers were careful not to say exactly who died.

Regardless of whether anyone lived, those final minutes were harrowing. Exhibit A was a very good film, but it was hard to watch.

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