MovieChat Forums > The Pact (2012) Discussion > Great movie but HUGE plot hole (spoilers...

Great movie but HUGE plot hole (spoilers)...

posted 12 years ago by julie_robin2
22 replies | jump to latest

I loved this movie so am prepared to try and ignore what seems a huge plot hole.

So, the mother had locked her brother up (in 1989, date of his last murder)in a room in her house to keep him from further killing. She locked the bedroom door and then boarded it up, somehow finding 1950's wallpaper to cover the whole hall in to hide it. So, how was she feeding her brother? How was she disposing of his waste? Presumably she knew about the hole between his room and the closet -which WOULD be big enough to fit a 'toilet' bucket through and parcels of food, but in that case she would also know he could fit through it too. In which case she would know he wasn't safely locked away at all!

I prefer Imaginality to reality.

[–] zzyxx 12 years ago

she didnt try to lock him away, she was trying to protect him.

[–] irstte 12 years ago

There is a possibility the cops caught up on him and that secret room was a hiding place. What zzyxx said.

[–] LeonardPine 11 years ago

She was protecting him, so its not really a plot hole.

"It is time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man"

[–] julie_robin2 11 years ago

Okay she was hiding him to protect him, but she must also have been doing something to prevent him from killing? The distinctive Judas Killings ended in 1989 and he didn't kill again until after she had died.
Apparently serial killers don't just 'stop', their activities escalate until someone else stops them by catching them and either killing them or imprisoning them, or they go somewhere else to continue their spree. (All the Jack the Ripper identity theories are based around these options, that serial killers are stopped, they cannot just stop themselves).

I prefer Imaginality to reality.

[–] gammapaladin 11 years ago

She didn't really care that he was killing people, she was only worried about the shame that would fall on *her* if it came out that her brother was a killer (And inevitably once the police started investigating, someone would figure out that she had been having an incestuous relationship with him as well).

My guess is that she stopped him from killing simply by threatening to turn him in if he did, and keeping him sort of halfway compliant by letting him torment and possibly molest the girls (She locked them in the closet where she knew he could reach them, and we know that something terrible happened to them when they were in there).

So yeah, no plot hole IMO. It all made perfect sense to me.

[–] LordManhammer 8 years ago

You might be right about a threat of exposure being enough to stop his killing, and also that he was doing the molestation of the girls in the closet--otherwise, it would be a strange place to lock the girls in. Yet, the psychic friend said she could see the things the mother did to abuse the children, and also the girls could probably tell whether it was their mother hurting them or some unknown person who only came to them once the closet was closed.

Of course, children also block out traumatizing memories, so who knows. But this would mean the blind friend was wrong as well.

__ __ __
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"--Pres. Merkin Muffley

[–] ajjones-198-340523 11 years ago

Jack the Ripper stopped because he died. They knew who he was. And his family was rich so they did not ever want that info shared.

[–] RiverAvon 9 years ago

"Jack the Ripper stopped because he died. They knew who he was. And his family was rich so they did not ever want that info shared."

There is absolutely no proof of who Jack The Ripper was, just a load of mostly poorly put together theories that ignore what evidence there is.

[–] A_Llama_Drama 11 years ago

I figured she'd found a way to protect him but when she died, his care ended and he returned to murdering people. Bit weird that two of his victims were family...

My teenage angst has a body count

[–] bb8977 11 years ago

I assume that the pact was she would hide & protect him so long as he stopped killing. Once she died he was free to kill again.

[–] masodark 11 years ago

This is addressed by the scene towards the end of the movie when Annie is warned by the ghost giving her the message "Below".. .and then the brother(the Judas serial killer) suddenly pops up through an unknown door in the floor. The brother does not see Annie and she watches him slip out of the room through a secret panel in the room. She watches him go to the refrigerator and get some food.

The implication is that he kept himself hidden but snuck out when it was safe to get food and presumably, use the bathroom. Admittedly, this isn't addressed explicitly in the movie, but I think it is safe to assume if he could sneak out on his own undetected, then he was capable of taking care of his basic needs.

As far as to why there were no more Judas killings, you are making some basic assumptions about serial killers that I don't think you need to make. Many serial killers go a long time between kills, read up on BTK(Dennis Rader) for one example. In addition, perhaps he still was killing, but the deaths were not linked to the Judas serial killer.

I would not consider this a plot hole, a plot hole would be where the movie sets up some basic rules about what should happen logically in the movie and then violates those rules later.

[–] MissAnnThrope 11 years ago

Right. It's never said he stopped killing, just the Judas letters stopped arriving at the police station. So he could have been killing all that time, but no letters were sent. Not to mention, masodark is right, some serial killers will stop for a very long time, only to start again years later.

[–] PenguinCat 9 years ago

As far as to why there were no more Judas killings, you are making some basic assumptions about serial killers that I don't think you need to make. Many serial killers go a long time between kills, read up on BTK(Dennis Rader) for one example. In addition, perhaps he still was killing, but the deaths were not linked to the Judas serial killer.

But it was an interesting coincidence that they started again after the mother died.

★

[–] LordManhammer 8 years ago

The plot relies, then, on the brother being careful to come out only when he deems it safe. Yet he couldn't even tell that Annie was in the room directly above him, even though she would have been making noise (squeaking floorboards when she entered, talking to the ghost, and plus I think the ghost was moving furniture around and Annie was screaming in fear).

__ __ __
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"--Pres. Merkin Muffley

[–] TonyC4444 11 years ago

I'm sorry, I must have missed something because I thought the mother was helping hide her brother. It's called "The Pact" after all.

If she was intent on boarding him up I'm sure she would have done something about the hole in the closet.

And on top of that, clearly the mother had very serious mental issues of her own if she was locking her kids up in a closet. Which just furthers my point.

[–] krijes7 11 years ago

On top of all other comments, one addition.
The mother had daughters locked in closet sometimes, so the brother could get out and eat, go to bathroom etc. That's my assumption.

All Is One

[–] ajjones-198-340523 11 years ago

That is the only thought I never considered. She likely locked them away, fed him, perhaps even had intercourse. Meanwhile the girls were in the dark and terrified by the cruel woman. Strange things and strange family.

[–] YourLipsareRed 8 years ago

Ah that is a very interesting theory. I had not thought of that. Makes perfect sense honestly.

"But when the walls came down, the sh*t got real.." - Jenny Lewis

IheartRiloKiley.

[–] dargorrof 8 years ago

This doesn't make sense. The room's door was hidden (Annie said she never knew there was a room there during the 16 years she lived in that house) and the only way out was through the hole in the closet. I think it's a little awkward to lock the girls away in the closet if that's the only way out of the room for your incestuous brother.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] PenguinCat 9 years ago

somehow finding 1950's wallpaper to cover the whole hall in to hide it

haha

★

[–] PiaPuffytail 8 years ago

A lot of the time when people do something like paint a house, re-shingle a roof, put up wallpaper, they plan to have a bit of extra lying around in case they need to do repairs later. That way they don't have to worry about the color / style being gone if and when they ever need to do patch jobs.

It's entirely likely that's where the wallpaper came from.