Did Sam kill his father or did Nick really do it? Does Sam having nightmares about killing his father himself actually represent that he did, or in the alternative, represent the guilt he feels because he wished he had? With so many flashbacks and over use of symbolism, there's just no way to know. If anyone tells you one way or the other they're lying to you - as well as to themselves.
There's more guilt about the cat and abandoning it. Two of the imagined sightings create a different possible ending: One death and the other a new beginning. Again, there's no way to know what the true situation actually is and perhaps that's the point. To offer each viewer a choice for it to end the way in which they'd like it to have? After all, there's more than one reference to the power of ones mind and what's real and what isn't. All one has to do is believe it.
Needless to say, I believe this film outsmarts itself and left me wishing I had watched something else. The acting saved it from a lower rating but could not rescue it.
There's more guilt about the cat and abandoning it. Two of the imagined sightings create a different possible ending: One death and the other a new beginning. Again, there's no way to know what the true situation actually is and perhaps that's the point. To offer each viewer a choice for it to end the way in which they'd like it to have? After all, there's more than one reference to the power of ones mind and what's real and what isn't. All one has to do is believe it.
Needless to say, I believe this film outsmarts itself and left me wishing I had watched something else. The acting saved it from a lower rating but could not rescue it.