The most powerful scene was the ending, but not the part you think…
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Excision
mistela67 — 12 years ago(March 02, 2014 06:52 AM)
To me, it was the embrace and mutual screaming of the mother and daughter.
So much can be tied into that one shot for both characters. SPOILER While both seem to realize the horror of the double murder, they both seem to also finally surrender to their personal demons.
The crazed sister cries miserably, but not so much for what she just did, but for her succumbing to what she has become. You can almost feel her descending into insanity, and you can sense that the daughter knows she's descending, but can do nothing to abate her decline.
The mother, almost eerily, chooses to embrace the daughter that just killed her child, the daughter she could not love, and screams in horror, perhaps, in reflection of her failings as a mother, the indifference of her maternal efforts, the horrible relationship she had with her own mother. There's much more that can be interpreted there, so many directions you can go with it. It was a brilliant ending, executed to perfection by both actresses.
I'm a fan of competent writing and direction, and I'd love to hear the writer and directer's mindsets on that last shot. Incredible work. -
nilbog_king — 12 years ago(March 04, 2014 01:04 AM)
I agree, the mutual screaming and crying where Pauline appeared to grasp the implications if what she had done seemed incredibly powerful and well acted.
self-respect is simply the act of respecting your own wants and needs. -
Benjen_Snark — 11 years ago(June 28, 2014 11:28 AM)
No, that's completely wrong. The second the mom walked into the house and saw her husband tied up, she knew something was terribly wrong. Running into Grace's room and finding that she wasn't there only affirmed that for her. She knew the second that she walked into the garage that Grace was one of those two bodies on the table, and even Pauline's dialogue confirms it, begging her mother to come see the sutures she did on Grace.
The mother's decision to hug her only remaining daughter was a very maternal thing to do (and considering her lack of maternal instincts towards Pauline previous in the movie, it was a very powerful moment.) Here is a mother who knows that she only has one child left, and despite all of her intentions raising her, that child is clearly and irrevocably broken, just like she was by the things her own mother did to her. That final moment, when both mother and daughter are crying and screaming is the moment when both of them finally realize the full implications of what has just happened, and how their family has been truly destroyed.
We're all stories in the end -
MargeWhipley — 11 years ago(January 06, 2015 03:04 PM)
Up until that point, I don't think Pauline's parents realised just how screwed up she was. She was practically begging them to see a psychiatrist but they didn't feel it was entirely necessary.
The embrace, IMO, was her mother realising just how sick her other daughter was and that she wasn't just a problem child acting out. She had real issues and her mother was so focused on Grace's physical illness that she completely missed Pauline's. -
audiopinions — 11 years ago(January 07, 2015 10:59 PM)
"The embrace, IMO, was her mother realising just how sick her other daughter was and that she wasn't just a problem child acting out. She had real issues and her mother was so focused on Grace's physical illness that she completely missed Pauline's."
I like that interpretation. By not taking Pauline's issues seriously enough and trying so hard to save Grace she ended up losing the very daughter she was trying to save (and the one she'd neglected). Obviously there is tremendous grief, but also remorse and guilt in that final scene. I thought it was really well done and I admired its brevity. -
andrea_psh — 10 years ago(September 26, 2015 08:03 PM)
I actually had a feeling at the end, that the mother grabbed a knife when she hugged P. and stabbed her in the back, so the mother was screaming for losing Grace and having to kill P. and P. was screaming because she was dying and not getting the recognition she wanted
I don't know, that was my first impression when I saw the end before seeing the posts.