so, a few questions for those that watched...

I'm wondering the same

I'm wondering the same. I wonder what others response will be.

Some things also don't add up to me.

In the house, when his mom says to the best friend "what the *beep* are you looking at?" The best friend makes eye contact with the "dead" mom.

It's not till the end of the movie we find out she died in the accident,

Also, the Satanic zombie looking people, what's that about?

Is this film one of those we shouldn't look to deep into?

I think there's a whole lot in this film that is left ambiguous on person. My thoughts on the points you mentioned...

1. I do think the abuse was true, as well as Jack having a twin that was drowned by his father. Jack clearly repressed the abuse and the video tapes, cassettes, and news clippings brought it all back. His mother explaining it to him was his mind remembering things, as we know by the end of the movie, she's dead and so the conversation where she tells him everything is just his brain recalling.

2. I honestly don;t know whether or not the gay neighbor exists. One could argue he does because at the club, he was speaking to the bartender. But you could counter that argument by thinking Jack made up the entire club scene in his mind. You never see the neighbor talking to anyone who we know for sure is real (like Jack's best friend). Maybe Jack made him up as a way to process his own sexual identity which he is unsure about. You could make a good case either way.

3. The end is fun because Jack going back into the house shows that he is now basically trapped in that house of horrors- trapped in his own mind. But his friend hearing the music gives us the notion that maybe something otherworldly or supernatural is going on.

This is one of those films where you can really make assumptions and back them up with points and not be considered wrong. Whether or not Thomas Dekker intentionally left so much stuff ambiguous would be interesting to find out.

I do think that the abuse was real, and that being back in the house and the stress of his parents' death just brought it all back. I have thought about it, and I don't think that the gay neighbor was real, or at least, I don't think he was real in the present time. I think that the gay neighbor may have been the same one who sexually abused Jack when he was a kid, and he was just remembering and imagining him in the present. Because his mom said that it was a 19-year-old neighbor who had abused him, and although not all same-sex abusers are gay, we can infer that in this particular case the neighbor might have been gay.

Then, Jack just happens to come back home for his parents' funeral, and his next door neighbor is a gay, 19-year-old? That seems unlikely to me. And we know the neighbor is 19 because when they are doing coke in his bedroom that one time Jack says something like "What do you know, you're only 19" which was weird since we'd never heard the neighbor tell Jack how old he was. So basically I think Jack is remembering the sexual abuse that he suffered as a kid, and is imagining the neighbor who babysat him back when he was a kid as his current neighbor.

And I think that everything that we see the neighbor do, like masturbate in front of him, call him a "good boy" while holding him down and forcing him to have sex, might have actually happened to him when he was a kid, and he's just now remembering it and his mind is processing it like it's happening to him now instead of when he was a kid.

Of course, I might be completely off with my assessment, but it just seemed to make sense to me. Overall, this movie was really odd.

In regards the neighbor character: In my Opinion & 100% Belief, the character was definitely only in his head. I believe so due to All the Very blatant reasons many have listed here; but all are still not totally Certain. The reason I feel so certain?

What sealed the deal for me was the Final shot of the film, as the camera pans up from the house, showing us for the first & Only time in the film, the Entire house. AND the Fact that there are No neighboring houses close enough as the shots we see though the movie of Rory's character seeing this charactor's window & all. No homes on all sides of the house are that close!, so the literal house was also in his head; in order for his distraught mind to "create" this neighbor charactor.

Now this is just Theory, but he was probably just gazing out his own window & then saw a house next door & it's window with this charactor there for him to "meet," & the rest in the film goes from there. The many Valid reasons I heavily suspected he didn't exist (until that final shot of house at the end..), such as the 19 age thing & such; have all been listed by others here.

But That is why I feel so certain/believe he was only in his mind. I even feel the director (Dekker) actually Purposefully did that final shot to solve That question. In this film full of ambiguity; I think Some questions can & were Fully answered, while others Never will be & remain ambiguous. I think when I watch it a 2nd time, more things I'm not so sure of may/probably will be answered. That's why this movie realy surprised me how much I enjoy it; I love films that have such mysteries!! (Lynch is my favorite director, so yeah..) But that's my opinion & belief on That question though.

-deadpopstar

1. I think Andy was in Jack's mind but the abuse was real. Chandra saw the legal paperwork, too. Andy represented to Jack what he wished he had been; a happy smiling baby grown to be a happy smiling person.

2. When the film ended and panned upward there was no house so close to Jack's where the neighbor could have been within range of Jack's bedroom window, etc. So I believe the gay neighbor was in his mind. Note, also that the age of the neighbor was the same age of the babysitter (assuming Jack got that from the case files as his mother was dead) that abused him.

3. The music could have been a recording the mother made as she apparently was a pro level violinist. The piano was playing too so unless there were two spirits, it had to be a record. That is why Chandra heard it too.

And yes, I think Jack is mentally done for. How the rest of his life will play out I do not know. With no other relatives mentioned having him committed would be difficult unless he acts out in pubic. Chandra could not have him committed. Chances are with the inheritance, insurance, whatever liquid assets he gets, he'll be set up for a while there.

I feel bad for the finance who will never see or hear from him again. She'll think it is all her fault.

I think that Duncan was supposed to be the 19 year old neighbor that molested Jack when he was little. He was the same age as the neighbor who did it, and it kind of looked like him in the news article Jack saw.

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