I know that the movie didn't offer a concrete answer either way, but my take on it is different from the two replies above.
I actually felt that it was very likely that the uncle had abused her before (or at least done something untoward) during the time she spent with him after her father died. Here were the things that added up to me thinking that:
1) As mentioned, she seems very unenthusiastic about seeing the uncle at the airport. I know that her circumstances are really rough (dead father, mom in rehab), but outwardly the uncle is a nice guy, so it seems like if their relationship was a good one, she'd be less dour about spending time with him.
2) There's a scene that takes place one of the first nights that she is at his house. She is sleeping in bed, facing the door. It cuts to a shot of the door and you can hear the uncle moving around. The look on her face (in my opinion) is one of apprehension/anxiety or fear.
3) In the scene where he walks in on her as she is changing (which is before we see any abuse) he is unapologetic and she seems unsurprised. In this kind of situation (adult male relative walking in on young female relative), he should be embarrassed/apologetic, and you'd expect her to be more surprised. There was a weird energy in that moment and it seemed like him asserting himself past decent boundaries (opening her door becomes symbolic of his abuse of her).
4) It seemed to me like there was something "extra" in the way that she reacts when he says to her "I really miss him," when talking about the father. Throughout the movie it becomes clear that he is pretty masterful at being emotionally manipulative. He says things like "We messed up" or "I don't want to get you in trouble". She would have been 13 when her father died. I could totally see where he would have done something to her and then managed to convince her that it was actually her fault OR that he had done it out of grief. Couldn't you see that character convincingly telling her "We were just so sad" or "I just wanted to be close to someone" or something of that nature?
5) When the actual abuse starts (in that moment that he opens her door when she is sleeping), there isn't even a moment of surprise. I got the sense that she was expecting it. Now, I can see how you might say that he'd been building up to that moment (by stuff like walking in or her changing). But to me it felt like something that she was familiar with. His abuse of her was very ritualistic (open the door, pull back covers, get in bed, touch her hair, and so on). That connects to the way that she was watching the closed door in the earlier scene--she knows that him coming into her room at night it how it starts.
Now, like I said in the beginning, this is just my reading of the movie. There is no giveaway moment as to what happened in her earlier trip.
One thing that I think is incorrect is people who are saying "If he'd done it before, she'd never have gone back." I disagree on that point, pretty strongly. Lots of people--adults and children--return to their abusers. She's in a bad position--her father is dead and her mother is in rehab. And if she blamed herself for the abuse (or if the uncle convinced her it was a one-time mistake he made out of grief), then I could see her thinking that if she was good and careful, it wouldn't happen again. She might also have a skewed sense of how love, affection, and sex interplay. We two times see her trying to use sex to get closer to someone--both times it goes really poorly. She's very sexually immature, and her circumstances are complicated--expecting her to do the "logical" thing doesn't really fit with what happens in many abuse cases. She might even be strongly in denial and not wanting to confront it. Remember--even after she becomes incredibly close to Bart, when he asks her about it she strongly asserts that "nothing happened". I think that the fact that she went back to him does not equate to her not having been previously abused by him.
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Cheappleasuress
8 years ago
StovePipe99, I completely agree with you; McKenzie had been abused before the movie started, and her actions reflect that. She felt imprisoned by her circumstances, and when they went on a hike, she saw the opportunity to break free. All your points are valid. One other hint - recall that McKenzie tried to seduce Bart in the tent. She didn't do this because they were having adult intimate moments that might logically lead to sex, but because she had been conditioned into thinking that was what was called for under the circumstances. She is very confused, and that confusion was wrought by previous and (in the film) continuing abuse. I'd like to think his rejection of her advance help open her eyes to what a healthy relationship with an adult male might look like.
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mme3924-1
8 years ago
recall that McKenzie tried to seduce Bart in the tent. She didn't do this because they were having adult intimate moments that might logically lead to sex, but because she had been conditioned into thinking that was what was called for under the circumstances.
Yes. And it's made even more obvious by her earlier attempted seduction of the boy in the hotel room. She has already been "groomed" in a sense to use her body to get what she needs. Bart's horrified rejection was eye opening for her, I think.
And from that, should we assume, perhaps, that her own father may also have sexually abused her? It's not said, but perhaps implied, especially since he and the uncle were, apparently, brothers.
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MermaidsRreal
8 years ago
I didn't think about the uncle abusing her previously, until I read your take on it. I think you are right. Also, there's a picture of Mackenzie and the uncle from before. I think they showed us that picture to let us know she spent time with him previously. She was very scared for the beginning. She went there because her mother told her to, and she had nowhere else to go. I was sexually abused by a female babysitter as a 4 year old. I never told my mom until I was an adult. I continued to have to go over to my abusers house on the weekends so my mother could work. So yes, as a child, you don't feel like you have a choice in such matters, which is how sexual abusers continue to get away with their actions. I was thinking that maybe the uncle had abused Mackenzie's mother as a child as well. Her mother is on drugs, so she doesn't think about the risks associated with sending Mackenzie there.
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mme3924-1
8 years ago
Good post!
And I agree completely.
I actually couldn't watch the scenes with the uncle, saw them only as images as I fast forwarded through them (saw this film on Netflix). Maybe I'll go back and watch, but I assumed, from what little I did see, and from her earlier reaction to him, and his behavior with her, that earlier abuse had occurred. He was not mean or hateful or harsh with her, so she may have hoped that the previous abuse would not reoccur. He was clearly an immature man, with no sexual boundaries, a sexual predator, excusing his behavior and as anxious as she was to keep it a secret.
I've wondered what Bart said to him when he went to his house. Because Bart himself could have come under severe suspicion, traveling alone with a 14 year old girl!
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