Director(s): Charles & Thomas Guard. Cast: Emily Browning, David Strathairn, Elizabeth Banks. 87 min. Rated PG-13. Horror.
I generally stay away from movies that start with the line: "I love you, and I have a condom"; but being a sucker for horror movies, I reluctantly stayed on. I'm glad I did. Although the movie suffers from weak direction, it has a very surprising ending. You'll be guessing the story's mystery one way or the other, but I defy you to be able to guess correctly, even though the clues are there. Since the trick ending is duplicated from other films, I wouldn't give it a Mojo, but as a small weekend movie, it's worth the experience.
Mo says: 
At first I thought whether the movie is another imitation of Hamlet?!but then after I tried to follow the rules of prediction in horror-mysterious movie and doubt about anybody who is the least suspicious &seems most innocent guy in the story , but again ,i went wrong! I couldn't guess right and need to practice more !I think two brothers( Filmmakers) were inspired by " The others " and "Sixth sense" or other instances . Don't you think?
ReplyDeletei agree with you : the movie was good. ,especially as an early work of filmmakers
Spolier Alert!
ReplyDeleteDear Maryam, I was very sure of myself that I had correctly guessed the killer to be ... the older sister! But the ending was quite surprising. If you look back, you'll see the clues were there: we never see the older sister interact with other people, except with the younger sister. This trick had been done before in "The Sixth Sense", where at the end we realize Bruce Willis had only interacted with the boy throughout the entire movie.
In addition to the movies you wrote, other similar movies that come to mind are "A Beautiful Mind", and "The Machinist". That's why I say the idea wasn't new.
spoiler alert!
ReplyDeleteI realy enjoyed the movie actually when I found out I've mistakenly chose the killer the step mother. when the camera profrtionally focused on her.... finaly it made me think a day about all other people's reactions in the absence of the older sister and you can not find an error .... I need to practice more on analysing while watching honestly!!
I think the stepmother was already out of the question ... because there was too much focus on her.
ReplyDeleteBut that could be another trick ending for a future film: just because we automatically rule out a character due to too much attention on him/her by the filmmakers, they could use the character as the main guilty party. That would really burn.