This movie is the scriptwriter's deceit. He made it for himself and not an audience.
I like slow burns, well done horror, and movies that don't explain everything. I'm okay with flashbacks and voiceovers.
But not weird just to be weird. Or esoteric just to be esoteric, without coherent meaning.
I get the manipulative, abusive parent trope and the child who's now an adult, who doesn't trust themselves because they were manipulated by cruel, narcisstic, must always control others parents. I also get movies where we can't completely trust what we're seeing and we can't trust the protagonist's version of the story.
Okay fine.
This movie had some supernatural elements that can be explained through guilt, misremembering incidents from childhood, and possible emotional and mental disturbance.
But it was impossible for the dad to have done what was implied, so now we're going from melodrama into science fiction.
Are we to believe the voiceover that you can turn common metals into gold; therefore, you can create life in a tube with some ooze? Is Ellie a creation and an imperfect one at that and Cara was the perfect one? Why would mom be jealous? She knew what dad was doing and participating in it. Or was Cara the result of an affair that was alluded to. ("She's not really a Maybrick".)
The ending was overdone. I became annoyed with Ellie stumbling around and falling over boxes. She's pregnant, not an invalid. Just leave. The minute she saw Cara, she should have left, but the movie would have been over on 10 minutes
The other element that was overdone in the end were the visuals. They were so overdone as to be laughable and I'm one of the few who doesn't laugh at serious, but unintentionally funny moments in movies.
The dad could have simply been dead as much as his present didn't contribute anything. He was just a babbling annoyance in the background.
What a mess this was. I gave it a 7, because it held my attention enough to want to see what the hell was going on.
I'm still not sure.
Okay here's a go: spoilers below
Mom and dad didn't have a good marriage. Dad was into creating children from scratch, so to speak because mom was barren. He had a stroke right have creating another child, Cara, after creating Ellie (or Ellie mayn have been natural, but disappointing her imperfection - she wasn't a particularly nice little girl).
For whatever reason, Mom doesn't like Cara, apparently a sweet child. Ellie is also jealous of Cara and did things to get her in trouble and mom all too eager to believe that Cara is at fault for things that Ellie has done.
Ellir has faulty memories of her childhood and also feels guilty for doing something that ended up in Cara's death. Mom reinforced that it was her fault, but we find out Cara's death, which appears to have really been an accident was actually caused by mom, although initiated by Ellie. We see glimpses of these events throughout the movie. We see the truth at the end.
Over and over we are treated to a voiceover lecture talking about supernatural things (how we transitioned from belief in magic to belief in science). We also see that Ellie did a lot of peeking through keyholes and seeing strange things she didn't understand that haunt her, along with feeling guilty over Cara's death.
Simultaneously we're treated to mom and daughter's strained relationship and the distance among mother, father, and daughter. Dad is just a babbling idiot in the background. Ellie has strange waking dreams that mingle what she saw in childhood and her guilt.
A glass vase is significant and we do find out why. There's a man doing work on the house in preparation to sell it (Ellie's back to sell her grandparents' home - Mom is supposed to be packing, but not having much luck.) The guy working on the house is a completely useless character and is there only to rescue (sort of) Ellie in the end. The fact they used to date only served to bring home the point that mom ruled everything. That's it. They could just have had Ellie leave and drive her own self away in the end.
Maybe we're to believe that poor dead Cara is at rest andEllie will birth her devil spawn of blackooze (there's lots of that, too) and live happily ever after.
If this sounds incoherent, well that's how I remember the movie.
I like slow burns, well done horror, and movies that don't explain everything. I'm okay with flashbacks and voiceovers.
But not weird just to be weird. Or esoteric just to be esoteric, without coherent meaning.
I get the manipulative, abusive parent trope and the child who's now an adult, who doesn't trust themselves because they were manipulated by cruel, narcisstic, must always control others parents. I also get movies where we can't completely trust what we're seeing and we can't trust the protagonist's version of the story.
Okay fine.
This movie had some supernatural elements that can be explained through guilt, misremembering incidents from childhood, and possible emotional and mental disturbance.
But it was impossible for the dad to have done what was implied, so now we're going from melodrama into science fiction.
Are we to believe the voiceover that you can turn common metals into gold; therefore, you can create life in a tube with some ooze? Is Ellie a creation and an imperfect one at that and Cara was the perfect one? Why would mom be jealous? She knew what dad was doing and participating in it. Or was Cara the result of an affair that was alluded to. ("She's not really a Maybrick".)
The ending was overdone. I became annoyed with Ellie stumbling around and falling over boxes. She's pregnant, not an invalid. Just leave. The minute she saw Cara, she should have left, but the movie would have been over on 10 minutes
The other element that was overdone in the end were the visuals. They were so overdone as to be laughable and I'm one of the few who doesn't laugh at serious, but unintentionally funny moments in movies.
The dad could have simply been dead as much as his present didn't contribute anything. He was just a babbling annoyance in the background.
What a mess this was. I gave it a 7, because it held my attention enough to want to see what the hell was going on.
I'm still not sure.
Okay here's a go: spoilers below
Mom and dad didn't have a good marriage. Dad was into creating children from scratch, so to speak because mom was barren. He had a stroke right have creating another child, Cara, after creating Ellie (or Ellie mayn have been natural, but disappointing her imperfection - she wasn't a particularly nice little girl).
For whatever reason, Mom doesn't like Cara, apparently a sweet child. Ellie is also jealous of Cara and did things to get her in trouble and mom all too eager to believe that Cara is at fault for things that Ellie has done.
Ellir has faulty memories of her childhood and also feels guilty for doing something that ended up in Cara's death. Mom reinforced that it was her fault, but we find out Cara's death, which appears to have really been an accident was actually caused by mom, although initiated by Ellie. We see glimpses of these events throughout the movie. We see the truth at the end.
Over and over we are treated to a voiceover lecture talking about supernatural things (how we transitioned from belief in magic to belief in science). We also see that Ellie did a lot of peeking through keyholes and seeing strange things she didn't understand that haunt her, along with feeling guilty over Cara's death.
Simultaneously we're treated to mom and daughter's strained relationship and the distance among mother, father, and daughter. Dad is just a babbling idiot in the background. Ellie has strange waking dreams that mingle what she saw in childhood and her guilt.
A glass vase is significant and we do find out why. There's a man doing work on the house in preparation to sell it (Ellie's back to sell her grandparents' home - Mom is supposed to be packing, but not having much luck.) The guy working on the house is a completely useless character and is there only to rescue (sort of) Ellie in the end. The fact they used to date only served to bring home the point that mom ruled everything. That's it. They could just have had Ellie leave and drive her own self away in the end.
Maybe we're to believe that poor dead Cara is at rest andEllie will birth her devil spawn of blackooze (there's lots of that, too) and live happily ever after.
If this sounds incoherent, well that's how I remember the movie.