MovieChat Forums > Under the Bed (2013) Discussion > Not what I expected at the end...

Not what I expected at the end...

posted 9 years ago by Boanthrope
6 replies | jump to latest

Two thirds of the way through this movie I was convinced that this movie was about a folie à deux (shared delusion) brought about by the brothers having been sexually abused when young (with the younger brother being abused after the older one was sent away).

Firstly, I thought the premise was too silly to be taken literally in a non-comedic horror.

Secondly, the monster was particular associated with bed, where you might expect abuse to have taken place.

Thirdly, when the monster's hand touched the young brother he said it felt cold and that it made him want to go to sleep - perhaps like being chloroformed?

Fourthly, their nightmare scenes sometimes involved a demonised incarnation of their father, suggesting the father was the abuser; although at one point I thought the overly friendly neighbour might be the cuplrit.

I figured that in the end the truth would come out and the monster would be 'put to bed', so to speak (pun intended).

So I was quite surprised in the final act when it revealed that, no, the monster was literally real. What happened to enable the monster to come out and slaughter everyone? Why hadn't it done so before now? When the monster was manifesting in the neighbour's house, who was wandering about under a sheet? Why would the mother's ashes defeat the monster?

Dumb movie!

[–] snakesrule97 9 years ago

So it's dumb because nothing was spoon fed to the audience? I liked that it was left open to interpretation. Cool monster, great gore, (what I thought) was good acting, and an original story. 7.5/10 from me!

[–] kass-jazz 9 years ago

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this movie, I was also half expecting it to turn out to be a psychological thriller instead of a gore fest. I agree the last 30 mins were just ridiculous, none of it really made any sense, almost felt like 2 very different films meshed into one.

[–] AceRoccola 8 years ago

It was exactly the ending I was hoping for. I'm sure that it was intentional on the part of the filmmakers to have the audience question whether or not the creature was real at first, and to make allusions to themes of real life child horror (e.g. abuse). And one could argue that the film is an allegory for abuse (it might even explain some things).

But ultimately, this was a horror movie - not a psychological thriller or an after school special. And it delivered on that front. After a slow build up and a few chilling moments, the final act with the monster loose was really satisfying. The ending was a little abrupt, and the mom's ashes thing begs a few questions. But I enjoyed it overall.

[–] SilverGameDog 8 years ago

You sir just wrote a better movie on an IMDb message board.
Seriously, your shared delusion idea is 100 times better and a lot smarter than what they gave us.
Sadly even a good idea woukd have been wasted on the horrible acting. Especially that guy that played the father... Atrocious

[–] svalinanikola 8 years ago

This.

What OP wrote sounds like a much better movie.

[–] brjess38 8 years ago

I just didn't like it, the brothers weren't believable and were too old to play monster under the bed stuff, I give it a, 1, and I'm not even picky with horror movies.