This film was innovative, thought provoking, and brilliantly constructed. If you enjoy movies that require thought and don't spoon feed you everything you won't be disappointed. If I had to liken it to another film it would be 12 Monkeys, which was also packed with symbolism. Definitely heavily psychological and the horror element is not to be taken at all literally.
After reading multiple reviews, It seems as though disappointingly few have attempted to analyse this film as symbolic. Obviously a great deal here is not happening in the literal sense of the word, but what exactly is going on? I suspect the time in the psychiatric hospital was meant to be an actual event, as was the murder committed by his brother that he recounts midway through the movie. Whether or not he is actually residing in the house, or whether it is meant to represent a feeling of confinement I am unsure, but I would argue that the real events end with these few sub plots.
Here we have an individual battling mental illness who seems to be systematically reliving painful events from his past that he has yet to come to terms with. The shopkeeper is likely a parallel for the crush who was murdered (which would explain the absurd scene of the two talking over juice boxes). The protagonist references his belief that his father hates him, which is resolved by a scene in which he discovers a (likely imagined) video of his father stating how much he loves him. The mother "abandoning" him upon admission to the psych hospital is explained in his mind by her confinement in the basement. He states she never spoke to him again, which he seems to imagine is explained by her cut out tongue.
These delusions allow him to move past the pain the experiences caused. Even the final scene is almost a 1:1 for the murder he witnessed, but failed to stop. Except this time he intervenes and saves the girl, who then saves him from drowning at the hands of his brother, a direct reversal of the original traumatic event.
The final scene in the movie entails the police showing up and simply asking "Is this your house". He smiles and replies, "It is now." The house has represented his mind and the demons he is battling the whole time. Only after coming to terms with the events of his childhood and reimagining the traumatic event of the murder, this time as something he prevented, is he finally free. This is also indicated by him pulling the calendar with his countdown to freedom off the door, as he no longer needs it. The psychological battle has been won and the house (his own mind) is finally his.
This movie makes no sense if viewed superficially as something that is happening exactly as we see it depicted. But the trademark of many mental illnesses is belief in unbelievable things. Delusion is by definition illogial, irrational, and often terrifying. In terms of a depiction of the struggle of a haunted and unreliable mind, everything in this film fits like a glove.
After reading multiple reviews, It seems as though disappointingly few have attempted to analyse this film as symbolic. Obviously a great deal here is not happening in the literal sense of the word, but what exactly is going on? I suspect the time in the psychiatric hospital was meant to be an actual event, as was the murder committed by his brother that he recounts midway through the movie. Whether or not he is actually residing in the house, or whether it is meant to represent a feeling of confinement I am unsure, but I would argue that the real events end with these few sub plots.
Here we have an individual battling mental illness who seems to be systematically reliving painful events from his past that he has yet to come to terms with. The shopkeeper is likely a parallel for the crush who was murdered (which would explain the absurd scene of the two talking over juice boxes). The protagonist references his belief that his father hates him, which is resolved by a scene in which he discovers a (likely imagined) video of his father stating how much he loves him. The mother "abandoning" him upon admission to the psych hospital is explained in his mind by her confinement in the basement. He states she never spoke to him again, which he seems to imagine is explained by her cut out tongue.
These delusions allow him to move past the pain the experiences caused. Even the final scene is almost a 1:1 for the murder he witnessed, but failed to stop. Except this time he intervenes and saves the girl, who then saves him from drowning at the hands of his brother, a direct reversal of the original traumatic event.
The final scene in the movie entails the police showing up and simply asking "Is this your house". He smiles and replies, "It is now." The house has represented his mind and the demons he is battling the whole time. Only after coming to terms with the events of his childhood and reimagining the traumatic event of the murder, this time as something he prevented, is he finally free. This is also indicated by him pulling the calendar with his countdown to freedom off the door, as he no longer needs it. The psychological battle has been won and the house (his own mind) is finally his.
This movie makes no sense if viewed superficially as something that is happening exactly as we see it depicted. But the trademark of many mental illnesses is belief in unbelievable things. Delusion is by definition illogial, irrational, and often terrifying. In terms of a depiction of the struggle of a haunted and unreliable mind, everything in this film fits like a glove.