I'm still on the fence, and I feel like the movie was intentionally leaving this ambiguous on purpose. But maybe I'm missing some essential clues that may sway it one way or the other.
But no one interacts with Maurice in the film other than Phillip. Phillip might be repeating the cycle of abuse that his uncle had once did. By finally killing Maurice, Phillip is basically extricating himself from the evil that traumatized him.
I don't think he was real either, when he initially returned to the boarded up house he calls out and is all alone for some time until he disposes of the Doll (which i think could have actually been the missing boy) only after that when he's ultra paranoid does the uncle appear.
Because its a very slow film with little dialog its hard to piece everything together but it looks like the uncle abused the lead as a child (physically and Sexually) and may have also been a killer himself, he mentions something about you seeing me do my work in the barracks.
So he's killed the young boy and is just mooching about his old town with hallucinations of his creepy uncle taunting him.
I am still unsure on the puppet, i think it may be everytime he throws it into a river or the woods or whatnot it has something to do with the dead boys body, and the spider is the monster inside him, or something like that but im not 100 percent
That's a good point, and the home itself seemed so rundown, like it was abandoned/condemned.
Yeah, I think the movie implies that the uncle abused the lead (from the way the lead seems scared and reluctant to be with him combined with that closing sequence), and it's all but clear that the uncle was a kidnapper/murderer himself.
If we're going with the uncle is not real theory, I feel like the kidnapped schoolboy (the one he saw on the train, and the one he let out at the end of the movie) may have been the lead's first crime. And he stopped himself before doing anything truly horrible. So I don't think he killed anyone yet.
I think the puppet might just be symbolic of his suffering/abuse. The puppet is a character from his story, and I think it's basically representative of his uncle. It's a beastly thing, with a human face. He sentimentalizes it but also fears it.
Because its a very slow film with little dialog its hard to piece everything together
'may have been the lead's first crime. And he stopped himself before doing anything truly horrible. So I don't think he killed anyone yet'
Yes i do agree with you on this one it's something i wondered myself, i have to confess embarrassingly that i switched off a bit toward the end and completely missed the boy being let out of the box.
But i have had a little rummage on reddit and while there is not a whole lot on this film there is some and funnily enough the the whole consensus is that Uncle Philip was real and the one behind the missing boy and the spider represented him and his hands all over the main character when he was boy.
So having quickly re watched the ending to catch that bit i still found myself saying the same as you did that the True timeline was
Little boy loses mum and dad in fire, goes to live with creepy uncle
Uncle abuses him and boy becomes aware of more more murders to others and attempts to tell teacher of it but is too affraid to go through with it
Uncle dies and Boy is now grown up trying to be a puppeteer with creepy doll but gets fired
He then kidnaps boy but begins a war in his own head battling his demons
Uncle reappears to taunt him
he goes back into his childhood psyche revisiting places that maybe the uncle struck before or some dark significance
he goes back the school to try and confess about uncle but is still too scared
goes home and kills the image of his uncle thus releasing the child
Some else that may be possible is the kidnapped kid may not even exist either this could all be a part of his fantasy/nightmare because the news reports were always timely/surreal
So the film could just be him in his dilapidated house all alone having a psychotic episode.
but the common narrative online is that uncle was real and puppeteer totally innocent but i think i lean towards the fake uncle angle more
great creepy score as well btw
LMAO, glad you caught the ending again. Yup the boy is totally safe.
funnily enough the the whole consensus is that Uncle Philip was real
Some else that may be possible is the kidnapped kid may not even exist either this could all be a part of his fantasy/nightmare because the news reports were always timely/surreal
So the film could just be him in his dilapidated house all alone having a psychotic episode.
but the common narrative online is that uncle was real and puppeteer totally innocent but i think i lean towards the fake uncle angle more
Hell yeah, creepy music combined with some of the most creepiest imagery and jumpscares I've seen in....a very very long time. I didn't think a movie could get under my skin and creep me out to that degree anymore.
shareThere is another film you might appreciate called The Ghoul (2016)
It's not as disturbing as Possum but another English psychological horror that is very cryptic which will leave you scratching your head
Again even more than this film there is very little forums or explanation threads online, i think i have an idea though, if you watch it we can be the first to post in that forum and who knows in 5 years someone might get back to us with an answer
oo, adding to the list, and will watch it with a friend of mine. Shall comment in its forum when I do!
And who knows in 5 years someone might get back to us with an answer
i will be lurking lol
shareHello again old boy, i have an update that should give us a bit of closure to this film.
I just watched a long video breakdown on youtube by a super fan of the film and it totally fits so i am going with it. We actually weren't very far off at all i am quite impressed reading back through the comments but there are a few things to clean up so to i will break it down.
So Phillip (Lead) parents died in a fire and he either had to go in orphanage or Uncle Maurice come look after him, one day he tells Maurice about the boy's forcing his face into the dead Fox so Maurice 'takes care of it' for him. That being putting a mask on and kidnapping the boy in question and taking him to the deserted Army barracks. There we don't know exactly what happens but he scares the living shit out of the kid. (We can guess what he probably did)
This was a big deal in the town and it wasn't a quick in and out job the boy was held captive for several days/weeks
Phillip then told a teacher who said he accompany him to Police but it needed to come from him as he saw it. Phillip doesn't do it for whatever reason most likely fear of Maurice. Maurice rewards him with those green sweets but he also begins to molest Phillip over several years.
Fast forward present day and Phillip has been suspended from his job pending investigation, in the film they say it's because he showed the puppet but the puppet like Maurice is not real so what most likely happened is he has done something inappropriate like expose himself to child.
On the train home he spots the new boy and can't resist taking him. The rest of the film is him facing the demons of his past and overcoming them and the urge to repeat the cycle of abuse thus letting the kid go.
That is basically it very good stuff i may have to re visit it again soon
If Maurice isn't real, Michael isn't real. The TV turns itself on with the news of Michael's disappearance, so it could be just a hallucination. Or maybe Michel is the representation of the other boy that went missing when Phillip was young. Remember "Maurice" tells him: "This happened before, in your time"
shareThe Tv going on could be a hallucination given i don't see how the house would even have electric given it's derelict but the boy is real and the police are around town searching for him.
Otherwise it's one of those entire film exists within one mans daydream/psyche and i don't think thats what they were doing.
He is going to do something awful to the boy but he doesn't really want to he's fucked up because of what happened to him, and what we are seeing him is confronting his demons and eventually overcoming them at least long enough to let the boy go
Could be. I thought the fact that Michael also had a coloring book was a clue, not just a coincidence. Also, the boys in his group were talking about something that happened at the marshland, and the police were involved.
Phillip is an unreliable narrator and he doesn't really separate reality from fantasy, so it could all be in his head ( I have no problem with that). That's what I like about this movie, it keeps You guessing and nothing is spoonfed to us.