While i will admit i had to watch this movie twice AND the 4-part mini docu in the dvd special features to fully absorb what was going on, the movie makes complete and total sense, you just have to be patient and understand what your watching.
First of all, this is a supernatural thriller, so suspend some belief or dont watch it. None of the events are random, not one. Woman moves into a home with a history of demonic energy/possession, it made her otherwise normal father be sexually abusive towards her. The same demonic "force" we'll call it, caused the spirit of her father to haunt her and make her lose her already weakened and fragile mind (due to her childhood truama and history of heroin abuse)causing it to eventually snap as she was being taken over by the same demon that possessed her father.
Also, stop reading into the whole "horse" thing so deeply, the horse was simply the symbol of the demon that possessed her father (as shown in the special features) hense the horse pictures on the walls, the hoof clapping noises in the house, ect ect. Just as you see a goat representing demonic icons sometimes.
The source of the supernatural "force" was in the basement, thats why she dragged her husband down there to kill him, also why she dragged the body of the dead deer she found down there.
As for the affair between Tim and the neighbor, theres no way of telling how long it was going on, but it was NOT in her mind, she had it on video and tims reaction to seeing the video on the camcorder was proof of this. Theres a scene, easily missed if your not paying attention, where she mumbles something like "he knows what your doing, youd better stop it" refering to her fathers spirit knowing about the affair Tim is having, thats why she kills the neighbors daughter and tim after finding out about the affair. She spys on the neighbor because her father told her Tim was cheating on her.
The ending? Made just as much sense as the ending of the BWP. The image of her father, in some sort of demonic-horse form, takes her, possessing her completely at this point. We dont know exactly where or how, again, supernatural thiller, suspend some belief, but it isnt any more far-fetched than the ending of the BWP, where we have no real idea what happened to Heather when she dropped the camera or who did it. I believe Sanchez showed the actual demon in this movie to not have to deal with the people who were pissed off for "never seeing the witch" in the BWP. Both were cryptic endings, both ask the viewer to suspend belief, both leave you to belive that a demonic force ultimately wins over the victim.
Lastly, there are two valid theories about the father. One is he was possesed innocently by the demonic force and that made him go insane, the other is he himself was worshipping the demon willingly and made him an abusive father. Both theories fit the plot.
Again just my two cents as a fan of the movie, but again, after watching this movie once, i was confused, pissed off, and angry. Watch it again after watching the special features, it made me a fan after being able to fully understand it.
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smashsmack
12 years ago
I saw it as a recovering drug addict returns to the house in which she was sexually abused at and ended up relapsing, since every corner she turned opened up old wounds that never fully healed. She pictured her abuser (in this case being her father) as being some demonic figure with a horses head (maybe because they owned horses, or frequently went horseback riding) and at the brink of insanity replaced his face with a horses head in all the pictures she had with him.
She more than likely already had suspicions of her husband being unfaithful, which caused her to stalk both the woman he was having an affair with and her child. After being fully "possessed" by her fathers demon, she kills the young girl out of pure insanity, since she reminds her of the youth she once had. She murders the weak minded Priest (who would also be known as "Father"), out of her own sexual rage towards another man who was supposed to be there to help and protect her and of course murders her husband soon after due to his infidelity, resulting in her being "fully possessed" by the demon.
At the very end, her sister gets possessed by her own demon since she knew about the abuse and didn't do anything about it, as well as completely ignoring all the early warning sings of her relapse and convincing the husband to put a hold on getting Molly the help she so desperately needed.
I understand from posts on here that the making of goes in deeper about there being rituals and such, but since there's no real signs on that in the finished movie, it seems like a rather unnecessary plot detail to explain outside the movie and really should have been left up to the viewer to decide what happened. So I'm going to ignore all of that and go with what I feel is best.
Because sponges never have bad days.
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genericericpunkrock
12 years ago
i liked the movie. your take on it is the way i saw it (i think), though you explained it better than i could have. to me, the idea that it was purely psychological and the demon idea was was just a metaphor makes the whole plot that little bit deeper than an actual supernatural explanation......thanks.
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DreadFox
9 years ago
Of course it was supernatural.
So the sister at the end just happened to open the same closet door and extend her hand in the exact same way?
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maniuis
12 years ago
How can anyone sit through this so called "movie" once without falling asleep is beyond any human comprehension... but to find someone who actually saw it twice... and enjoyed it! Well, now I've completely lost faith in the human race!
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michahardy
12 years ago
I didn't realize so many people hated this movie.
I was entertained and interested during the whole thing (I just watched it). Although ok I do admit I paused it a few times on my laptop to do stuff on the internet. cough.
But I really liked the story, or actually I liked the demon. I thought he was pretty creepy and I appreciated the fact that they let us hear him and see him in the end. I thought the design was pretty neat. Because these days it seems like they never want to show the demon...I guess because they want to keep it realistic. But i thought the director did a good job of making the demon in this movie realistic. I know its a typical demon design but it looked really great to me. I could imagine him popping up at my back door. huur..although no rape thanks.
The girl who played Molly was really good. She's really pretty and likable so I was invested in her character. But I wish there was more to the story. I wonder what would happen after you embrace/accept the demon? I also wanted someone to believe or discover the supernatural stuff happening to Molly and her family. I really like it when that happens in horror movies it gets me all pumped up and tingly for some weird reason. haha what.
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april_l
12 years ago
I didn't really hate it but I was confused watching it. Of course that could be because I was completely bored while watching it, so started doing other things. I'll probably give it another chance but it's hard to keep my attention when I start getting bored. I'm the first to admit that I'm not really into symbolism in my movies but that does not mean that I won't give it one more shot.
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NoseofNicko
8 years ago
You've lost faith in the human race because someone liked a movie you didn't like? What a total retard...
CG gore is the worst thing that has ever happened to the horror genre.
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jinx_malone
11 years ago
why in the hell should anyone need to watch the special features in order to understand a film? i mean, seriously. show, don't tell. if you can't get your story across without the special features/commentary/mini-docs then it's not a well told story IMO.
regardless, on first viewing it was pretty *beep* obvious that this movie is about a girl who was sexually abused by her father as a kid; who may or may not be getting sexually abused again by his ghost. ambiguous in that she's mentally ill and possibly using more than we see, but yeah. that part is clear as crystal.
but the 'demonic force' which may or may not have possessed the dad or now is trying to possess molly...whatever. unnecessary, stupid and over-complicated, especially since it makes no sense on screen.
i also thought it was a sort of distasteful movie. a film whose major plotline is that of a girl who gets raped (again, and repeatedly) by her dad after he's dead is kind of nasty, JMO.
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"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch
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