... after a second viewing. My first impression was much like everyone else's - confusing, unlikable people, slow, dreadfully slow, so many things unexplained...who is Joan, who is Alice, and why the rabbit?
And then I read a review on here that explained the movie and decided to take a second look and this time actually pay attention.
On initial viewing, the movie seemed to be 3 hours long. On second viewing, it seemed more like one hour and ten minutes.
The movie actually gets right into it to establish the characters. Yeah, you have to pay attention from the beginning. You are made to infer many things. Some things don't click until after the movie and then you see how clever it really is.
The mom is a doctor. That's established in one short scene. It's relevant only in that, later, we don't see her acting like a doctor when it's clearly called for. Hint #1 that something isn't quite right.
It's also her daughter's birthday. And she just turned 7. Her birthday, if we're paying attention, is immediately disturbing to mom. We don't know why just yet.
The daughter begins to act strangely, and is it because she is possessed or because she's an abused child trying to make sense of her mom's bizarre behavior? Is she being bullied at school or bullied at home?
If we're paying attention, we learn that mom has issues during Mia's, the daughter's, birthday party. Her ex husband, asks her how's she doing and to tell him if and when she's not doing well, feeling sick. Later, towards the end. We see that she calls him and tells him she's not doing well. He comes as quickly as he can.
But before we get there... After the opening short medical scene, establishing mom's a doctor, the mom and daughter arrive home during what looks like what will become a storm - this is foreboding that trouble is ahead.
She finds her garage open, we see boxes inside, and a white rabbit is on the doorstep, which the daughter immediately takes a shine to. Dad and his new gf are coming for a small birthday party that evening.
Mom doesn't want nor like the rabbit and tries to get rid of it that same night. The rabbit bites her. The bite will fester throughout the movie. We get a short shot of the daughter observing this from the window above and the next day she starts wearing a rabbit mask. Mom acts very disturbed by this. What's mom's issues with rabbits? Why is the daughter hiding behind a mask?
Mom's dad has died and the daughter, Mia, misses him. Later we deduce that mom is estranged from her own mother, Joan (we initially don't know who "Joan" is), when the daughter, Mia, says she misses her (she's never met her) and wants to see her; that she's always misses people she doesn't know. We'll understand this better later. Mom is very disturbed by this. Is Mia possessed or a reincarnation?
Earlier we also saw that Joan had sent a birthday card to Mia, which the mom burns. She's also getting phone calls and rejecting the calls. She lies to her daughter when asked who's calling. Mom says no one. Mia said, a ghost? And giggles. Mom is alarmed.
Mom finally answers to the nursinghome where Joan lives, because she now has dementia and dad is no longer around to take care of her needs. Mom is very reluctant to take over. She reluctantly takes her to Joan, so Mia can meet her grandmother for the first time.
Immediately, the mom, Joan, believes that Mia (the granddaughter) is her long missing daughter, Alice. (Besides Joan's name coming up earlier and we had no immediate reference as to who that is, we also don't quite know who Alice is either). Mia responds to this and says, she's Alice. This upsets Mom, and Joan and Mia are forcibly separated and mom immediately leaves. Now Mia revvs it up, saying she's Alice, her grandmother said so, further upsetting mom.
Joan is never leaving this place to go back to the home she kept while waiting for her daughter, Alice, to return. Mom and her dad finally had moved away, while dad kept in touch with his wife and her needs.
Mom now goes to the old house to clean up, but she's descending deeper and deeper into the trauma of her missing sister. She starts to see the sister and starts to see her in Mia. Against her violent objections, Mia takes Alice's old room.
Mom's been having disturbing dreams which revv up. She has a bad dream about her sister. But did the events of the "dream" happen in real life and she's reenacted what really happened to Alice and now Mia? She's removed pictures from the wall, but they are back again. Mia said she never touched them. Mia sports a head injury and nosebleed. Mom grabs a large pair of scissors and violently plunges them at her daughter to cut her hair away to see the wound. Who's hurting you, mom screams. The child is truly frightened and fights back. The wound is gone, but the cuts on her arms are real. Mom is clearly seeing things not there.
The next day, the father shows up and Mia is missing. Dad is banging on the door and mom awakes as if in a trance. She'd been lying on the floor drawing something black, like a door, on the floor. Earlier, the back of Mia's homework had shown disturbing pictures that appeared to be drawn by a child. Mom never did anything about it after being told about it at school. She thinks someone is bullying Mia. She also found drawings in a library book. Mia swore she never did that. Mom had looked behind Mia's drawings and saw the same disturbing drawings, but did nothing - all this happened back at the house, but indicates Mom may have been doing things and then had no memory later, adding to the stress of Mia and may explain her earlier and later behaviors...Anyway, back to the ending -
Ending: In the end we learn Mom was the one drawing the pictures. The birthday of her daughter began to trigger the trauma of killing her sister at the same age of 7 and lying about it. It appears she didn't much like her sister and wasn't a protective older sister. She may have repeated some of the behaviors with her own daughter, like playing hide and seek but never seeking her, just like she did with her sister, Alice. She locked her up one day, perhaps when they were playing hide and seek, and when Alice got out, she was furious and attacked mom who struck her with a heavy object. The head injury and nosebleeds are mimicked in the daughter's nosebleeds and injuries - are they real, or imagined?
When the Alice realized she was covered in blood, she screamed and afraid she'd tattle, I suppose, mom pushed her sister off a cliff. She then told her parents she had runaway. Dad took her and moved away when Mom Joan couldn't move past her grief. She never spoke to her mom again.
When she was hallucinating that Alice returned, it was really Mia and she pushed her off the same cliff or killed her in some other way. She also killed the husband. We see Mia in Alice's room and the husband, both "sleeping" in odd positions. She hallucinates that Mia and Alice are going off together towards the cliff in the end. She appears helpless to stop them.
But what about the rabbit? I believe she brought the rabbit and she's the one who left the garage open. The husband mentioned he noticed the garage and all the boxes (which contained pictures of Alice, mom, Joan, and the now deceased dad), when he went to check the kids during the birthday party early in the movie. He was not the one who left the garage open so had to be mom. We constantly see the rabbit and it may be real or mom's hallucination. We never see the daughter interacting with the rabbit again. Did Mom kill it and burn it along with the birthday card and Mia saw?
We later learn that Alice loved animals, while the mom had no problem going with dad to clean the rabbit traps. Signs of a sociopath? No regard for living things including her own sister? Alice would bring home strays like rabbits, a dog, and even a bird (mom thinks she hits a bird on the way to the nursing home).
I'm not sure exactly how mom killed Mia, but she may have beaten her with what looked like a horse bridle after thinking she is attacked by the long dead Alice locked in a closet in the barn and then thinking she's chasing her, runs into the house, still holding the weapon, where Mia has insisted she stay in Alice's old room. She may have hit her in the head like she did her sister, and then thrown her over the same cliff and later retrieved her body and put it in the bed, because we later see Mia cradled in her arms. And for a moment we breathe a sigh of relief. She also may have killed dad, her ex, as soon as he arrived and she hallucinated they were both searching for Mia and finding her alive. Mom dived into the water and we see that she sees a body. We think she is hallucinating Alice, but it might have been Mia's real dead body. I mentioned we later see mom cradling Mia. The room is a wreck. She falls asleep, the last morning comes and Mia creepily slides out of her arms - Now we for sure Mia is dead and her body was in that water.
Other things: We are lead to believe that Joan was abusive, but I think she couldn't let her grief go, knew her daughter was mean toward Alice (it's alluded to by Mia that dad knew this and he needed to keep an eye on her even in death), and the distancing on both sides began.
Why was Mia acting the way she was? Well, her mother had past trauma and it's alluded to having mental and emotional issues. Mia may have been reacting to what was going on as far as her mom's hallucinatory and abusive actions. Also, she may have been reacting to the fact that no one would clearly explain the family secrets. As she said, "no one tells me anything". She missed people she'd never met, probably because her grandfather shared tantalizing tidbits and she longed for more information on her family. She was a single child, living in a dark house, with no pets and seemingly no friends (none show up for the little birthday party)
When you keep secrets from children, they will create their own truth.
And then I read a review on here that explained the movie and decided to take a second look and this time actually pay attention.
On initial viewing, the movie seemed to be 3 hours long. On second viewing, it seemed more like one hour and ten minutes.
The movie actually gets right into it to establish the characters. Yeah, you have to pay attention from the beginning. You are made to infer many things. Some things don't click until after the movie and then you see how clever it really is.
The mom is a doctor. That's established in one short scene. It's relevant only in that, later, we don't see her acting like a doctor when it's clearly called for. Hint #1 that something isn't quite right.
It's also her daughter's birthday. And she just turned 7. Her birthday, if we're paying attention, is immediately disturbing to mom. We don't know why just yet.
The daughter begins to act strangely, and is it because she is possessed or because she's an abused child trying to make sense of her mom's bizarre behavior? Is she being bullied at school or bullied at home?
If we're paying attention, we learn that mom has issues during Mia's, the daughter's, birthday party. Her ex husband, asks her how's she doing and to tell him if and when she's not doing well, feeling sick. Later, towards the end. We see that she calls him and tells him she's not doing well. He comes as quickly as he can.
But before we get there... After the opening short medical scene, establishing mom's a doctor, the mom and daughter arrive home during what looks like what will become a storm - this is foreboding that trouble is ahead.
She finds her garage open, we see boxes inside, and a white rabbit is on the doorstep, which the daughter immediately takes a shine to. Dad and his new gf are coming for a small birthday party that evening.
Mom doesn't want nor like the rabbit and tries to get rid of it that same night. The rabbit bites her. The bite will fester throughout the movie. We get a short shot of the daughter observing this from the window above and the next day she starts wearing a rabbit mask. Mom acts very disturbed by this. What's mom's issues with rabbits? Why is the daughter hiding behind a mask?
Mom's dad has died and the daughter, Mia, misses him. Later we deduce that mom is estranged from her own mother, Joan (we initially don't know who "Joan" is), when the daughter, Mia, says she misses her (she's never met her) and wants to see her; that she's always misses people she doesn't know. We'll understand this better later. Mom is very disturbed by this. Is Mia possessed or a reincarnation?
Earlier we also saw that Joan had sent a birthday card to Mia, which the mom burns. She's also getting phone calls and rejecting the calls. She lies to her daughter when asked who's calling. Mom says no one. Mia said, a ghost? And giggles. Mom is alarmed.
Mom finally answers to the nursinghome where Joan lives, because she now has dementia and dad is no longer around to take care of her needs. Mom is very reluctant to take over. She reluctantly takes her to Joan, so Mia can meet her grandmother for the first time.
Immediately, the mom, Joan, believes that Mia (the granddaughter) is her long missing daughter, Alice. (Besides Joan's name coming up earlier and we had no immediate reference as to who that is, we also don't quite know who Alice is either). Mia responds to this and says, she's Alice. This upsets Mom, and Joan and Mia are forcibly separated and mom immediately leaves. Now Mia revvs it up, saying she's Alice, her grandmother said so, further upsetting mom.
Joan is never leaving this place to go back to the home she kept while waiting for her daughter, Alice, to return. Mom and her dad finally had moved away, while dad kept in touch with his wife and her needs.
Mom now goes to the old house to clean up, but she's descending deeper and deeper into the trauma of her missing sister. She starts to see the sister and starts to see her in Mia. Against her violent objections, Mia takes Alice's old room.
Mom's been having disturbing dreams which revv up. She has a bad dream about her sister. But did the events of the "dream" happen in real life and she's reenacted what really happened to Alice and now Mia? She's removed pictures from the wall, but they are back again. Mia said she never touched them. Mia sports a head injury and nosebleed. Mom grabs a large pair of scissors and violently plunges them at her daughter to cut her hair away to see the wound. Who's hurting you, mom screams. The child is truly frightened and fights back. The wound is gone, but the cuts on her arms are real. Mom is clearly seeing things not there.
The next day, the father shows up and Mia is missing. Dad is banging on the door and mom awakes as if in a trance. She'd been lying on the floor drawing something black, like a door, on the floor. Earlier, the back of Mia's homework had shown disturbing pictures that appeared to be drawn by a child. Mom never did anything about it after being told about it at school. She thinks someone is bullying Mia. She also found drawings in a library book. Mia swore she never did that. Mom had looked behind Mia's drawings and saw the same disturbing drawings, but did nothing - all this happened back at the house, but indicates Mom may have been doing things and then had no memory later, adding to the stress of Mia and may explain her earlier and later behaviors...Anyway, back to the ending -
Ending: In the end we learn Mom was the one drawing the pictures. The birthday of her daughter began to trigger the trauma of killing her sister at the same age of 7 and lying about it. It appears she didn't much like her sister and wasn't a protective older sister. She may have repeated some of the behaviors with her own daughter, like playing hide and seek but never seeking her, just like she did with her sister, Alice. She locked her up one day, perhaps when they were playing hide and seek, and when Alice got out, she was furious and attacked mom who struck her with a heavy object. The head injury and nosebleeds are mimicked in the daughter's nosebleeds and injuries - are they real, or imagined?
When the Alice realized she was covered in blood, she screamed and afraid she'd tattle, I suppose, mom pushed her sister off a cliff. She then told her parents she had runaway. Dad took her and moved away when Mom Joan couldn't move past her grief. She never spoke to her mom again.
When she was hallucinating that Alice returned, it was really Mia and she pushed her off the same cliff or killed her in some other way. She also killed the husband. We see Mia in Alice's room and the husband, both "sleeping" in odd positions. She hallucinates that Mia and Alice are going off together towards the cliff in the end. She appears helpless to stop them.
But what about the rabbit? I believe she brought the rabbit and she's the one who left the garage open. The husband mentioned he noticed the garage and all the boxes (which contained pictures of Alice, mom, Joan, and the now deceased dad), when he went to check the kids during the birthday party early in the movie. He was not the one who left the garage open so had to be mom. We constantly see the rabbit and it may be real or mom's hallucination. We never see the daughter interacting with the rabbit again. Did Mom kill it and burn it along with the birthday card and Mia saw?
We later learn that Alice loved animals, while the mom had no problem going with dad to clean the rabbit traps. Signs of a sociopath? No regard for living things including her own sister? Alice would bring home strays like rabbits, a dog, and even a bird (mom thinks she hits a bird on the way to the nursing home).
I'm not sure exactly how mom killed Mia, but she may have beaten her with what looked like a horse bridle after thinking she is attacked by the long dead Alice locked in a closet in the barn and then thinking she's chasing her, runs into the house, still holding the weapon, where Mia has insisted she stay in Alice's old room. She may have hit her in the head like she did her sister, and then thrown her over the same cliff and later retrieved her body and put it in the bed, because we later see Mia cradled in her arms. And for a moment we breathe a sigh of relief. She also may have killed dad, her ex, as soon as he arrived and she hallucinated they were both searching for Mia and finding her alive. Mom dived into the water and we see that she sees a body. We think she is hallucinating Alice, but it might have been Mia's real dead body. I mentioned we later see mom cradling Mia. The room is a wreck. She falls asleep, the last morning comes and Mia creepily slides out of her arms - Now we for sure Mia is dead and her body was in that water.
Other things: We are lead to believe that Joan was abusive, but I think she couldn't let her grief go, knew her daughter was mean toward Alice (it's alluded to by Mia that dad knew this and he needed to keep an eye on her even in death), and the distancing on both sides began.
Why was Mia acting the way she was? Well, her mother had past trauma and it's alluded to having mental and emotional issues. Mia may have been reacting to what was going on as far as her mom's hallucinatory and abusive actions. Also, she may have been reacting to the fact that no one would clearly explain the family secrets. As she said, "no one tells me anything". She missed people she'd never met, probably because her grandfather shared tantalizing tidbits and she longed for more information on her family. She was a single child, living in a dark house, with no pets and seemingly no friends (none show up for the little birthday party)
When you keep secrets from children, they will create their own truth.