MovieChat Forums > The Daisy Chain (2010) Discussion > Interesting but falls apart in the last ...

Interesting but falls apart in the last minute

posted 12 years ago by scovazze
5 replies | jump to latest

I was really enjoying the ride: at no point the balance was tipped more in favour of "changeling, and the villagers know well" against "maladusted, abused, autistic kid and the villagers are just ignorant". Daisy doesn't do anything *supernatural* all through the movie; she is violent, weird, upsetting, you could even say evil, but I didn't see her fly through the air, and you didn't either. For 90 minutes I thought this was a very intelligent thriller, the old ways vs the new ways, lost traditions, stuck-up townies.
Then suddenly the new baby is perfectly clean and healthy and washed in his cot. Umbilical cord cut and knotted, presumably, as there is no blood anywhere.
Even the fact that Daisy physically hurts and probably kills Martha was still ambiguous (fairy murder or unadjusted-child violence?), but sorry, she's a feral kid, how is she supposed to know what to do with a bloody, screaming, slimy newborn?
Therefore I believe she is a changeling, and my whole interest in the movie collapsed in the very last scene. Clunky, clunky writing for lovers of cheap thrills.

[–] pullgees 11 years ago

Agree they should have kept the ambiguity going but blew all the mystery in the last scene.
Also aiding the death of the only person who loved her made no sense.

[–] psdhart 11 years ago

Agreed too, did you also watch it last night on tv?

[–] pullgees 11 years ago

Yes. At first I'd thought I'd seen it but was thinking of THE DARK with Sean Bean which has some similarities: bereaved parents, a coastal location - this time in Wales, a strange young girl and locals with their mythology.

[–] ForTheNonce 10 years ago

Remember the old man who goes, "Just don't tell her no?" Martha did.

I assumed the baby was a changeling due to him not looking like a newborn would UNTIL she pulled up the doll's blanket.

[–] craig.duncan 10 years ago

I had somewhat the opposite experience of this film – expectations tainted by the zombie-esque cover art displayed on Netflix, for the first 20 minutes or so I was bored waiting for some supernatural horror to be trotted out. Once I realized the film was going to remain realistic, I began to enjoy it.

I and the folk I watched it with had some criticism of the realism of the final scenes, but weren’t overly distressed by them. Movie depictions of newborns are typically unrealistic. High realism is technically difficult, because for safety and ethics reasons, either, as appears to be the case in The Daisy Chain, an older infant must be used, or a special effect, typically some sort of animatronic puppet, must be used. When an actual infant is used, ethics preclude “glopping him up” excessively, so they resulting image is of a clean, healthy, well-tended baby.

It’s a common misconception that failure to carefully clamp and cut an umbilical cord is fatal – although they’re too tough to just yank lose, a child like the titular Daisy could easily cut with a common implement, or even bite off, one, without seriously short-term harm, and with absolutely no pain, to the child. Due to risk of infection and anemia due to blood loss, this isn’t good obstetrics, and is messy, but not implausible in the context of this movie.

I quite enjoyed this movie, because it did leave the “natural or supernatural” question open to the viewer’s interpretation.