MovieChat Forums > February (2017) Discussion > Answers to the big questions (spoilers)

Answers to the big questions (spoilers)

posted 7 years ago by Oreolove
3 replies | jump to latest

1. Was Rose pregnant?
Her sigh of relief when she checks the test in the bathroom suggests not.

2. Were Kat and Joan the same person?
Yes. Kat killed everyone at the school nine years earlier. The cop shot her in the shoulder (you see the scar on Joan when she's in the shower) and she was taken to a mental institution after her impromptu exorcism. Nine years later she strangles a nurse named Joan and takes her ID before escaping.

3. What happened to Kat's parents? Did she kill them?
No. In the very beginning, Kat is having a bad dream where her father shows her a destroyed car. This is a premonition that her parents have died in a car accident and the reason why she tells Rose she knows they're dead. This is also the reason that Mr. Gordon returns to the school with the police - to tell Kat the bad news.

4. What the hell was in the stairwell?
It looks like Kat wrapped the two women in sheets (you see her stripping some pillows before she stabs them) and dragged them back to the main building. There are two trails of blood and bare footprints leading from the house to the building. But it could be a pile of bloody sheets or maybe a murdered security guard. Not sure.

5. Was Kat possessed?
Yes, it looks that way. Or she might just be seriously crazy.

6. What did the demon say to Kat on the phone?
Not sure, but it seems to use her dad's voice to tell her to kill.

7. Why was Joan/Kat crying at the end?
This is up for interpretation but it seems she wanted to go back to the school to find her "demon", which she first connected with in the boiler room. She repeats several times that she wants to live at the school before she starts killing people. Nine, years later, when she sees the school is locked up and the boiler is cold, she realizes she's all alone - hence her sorrow.

[–] ryanmichaelwheeler 7 years ago

I can't decide if Kat was actually possessed, or is she was just absolutely insane. I feel like it was more insanity than actual possession. But she did do the weird spider-crawl up her own body in her bed. *beep* fantastic movie.

[–] JimmyStrudel (600) 6 years ago

I don't care how crazy you are, you don't start floating in the air when a priest is attempting an exorcism on you. She's 1,000% possessed.

[–] chadwick_labonte 7 years ago

You have covered some of the big questions that really stuck out with me after the first viewing as well. After many follow up viewings, I have some things to add to your observations.

1. I believe it was the arrival of her period that causes the relieved smile and sigh, letting her know she is not knocked up. Which makes her death, I guess - slightly less horrible.

4. It is hard to tell exactly what it is, but I believe it is the heads of the two female workers still staying with the girls during the break, in pillow cases sitting by the door when Rose looks out the doorway. Kat has conveniently placed them there until she adds Rose's head to the pile, then off to the furnace room. We never see or hear of any reference to a security guard at the scool.

5. As someone else mentioned on another thread, there are certain movies that walk that fine line of demonic posession/mental illness and make it hard to tell which side it falls on. I don't think this is one of those movies, even though Kat obviously is not the picture of mental health. There are also many instances of Kat seeing or hearing things that no one else does, but we do see several images of the demon, and by we I mean the audience, not just a vision that only Kat can see.

Questions I still have:
When Kat asks Rose "Who told you?" after hearing the story about the nuns, and Rose ignores the question and tells her to get out of her room. I feel like there is something to be found both in the answer Kat may expect to hear and that Rose ignores her and never actually answers her.

Does the demon come back? As Joan/Kat is crying at the end and we assume that the demon is gone and she is alone because of the abandoned school and cold unused furnace. But just before the credits roll the sky and frame gets darker and Joan/Kat stops crying and looks forward as if something catches her attention.

I must say I do love a film that doesn't spoon feed you all the details and makes you think about it and watch it over and over again.