Demonic possessions, cannibalism, evil children and seven rules that makes no sense? Welcome to the world of When Evil Lurks, the Argentinian horror flick that will keep you on the edge of your seat, even after the credits roll! So if you’re still confused about what was going on in this movie, do not fear, because we are about to crack the code of this movie, and it is getting darker.
1 ^ Where and when does the story of When Evil Lurks take place?
The story takes place somewhere in the argentinian Pampas, and appears to occur at some point in the very near future, after an apocalyptic event from which the world is barely recovering, apparently quite successfully, since the police, schools , and the economy seem to be working with some degree of normality. Thing is…
2 ^ What is a Rotten and what did they do in the world?
Rotten is the colloquial term given to the pathology that a human being suffers when he is possessed by a supernatural entity, literally a demon in flesh. Now, the pathology seems to indicate that once a human body is possessed by this supernatural entity, a physical version of the demon begins to manifest within, in the form of a child. Of course, the human body assumes the growth of a foreign entity inside it as an infection and fights it with all it has, for this reason we see how the Rotten swells and becomes almost literally a ball of pus. An Rotten, even from its earliest stages, ceases to exist in its previous human form, and is completely dominated by the demon invading it, until the demon itself is born, taking on a physical form independent of the human body from which it emerged.
Now, when the pandemic of the Rotten began, it started in the big cities, where ignorance about the corresponding treatment, or just fear, only caused more births of these demonic entities. Now the question is…
3 ^ Why didn’t the world end with the Rotten pandemic?
Night Swim struggles to find a good reason to revisit the old conflict between Dreams and Family, with a compelling story about a family attempting to settle after the rise and fall of one of its members, and the consequences they must face if they want that success back into their lives. But if you did not really quite understand what was happening in the 98 minutes of haunting pools, broken baseballs, and holding breaths, here we are to explain Night Swim.
1 ^ What is Roy Waller’s condition?
The whole movie is about Roy Waller’s frustration for stopping a successful career in baseball, as a consequence of a irreversible health condition. But, what was Roy Waller’s condition?
The conversation between Roy and his doctor reveals he has some form of deterioration of the nerve fibers, consistent with multiple sclerosis. According to Mayo Clinic [1], Multiple Sclerosis is a disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system), in which, the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body.
For Roy Waller it is the end of his career because, long story short, he can lose control on his body in any moment, in the so-called crisis his wife often mentions. Also, in the long run, the condition just gets worst, so Roy will not only lose contact with his body episodically but permanently. That is the reason why he is suggested to use a wheelchair.
2 ^ What is exactly in the Haunted Pool?
In the movie, there is no explicit answer to what is exactly haunting the pool, but magic water is not uncommon in myth. Nimue, Thetis, Diana, are nothing but divine representations of the idea of water as a source of power, strength, and health.
So, in the movie, the pool is connected to some underground water, that in the past used to be a spring. Several people along the centuries understood that the water was able to concede the deepest wish of anyone who dared to jump into the heart of the spring, but the consequence was obvious too: someone had to die.
So, the pool is just another version of the old spring where some kind of ancient water spirit just make a fair trade: a wish for a soul.
3 ^ What happened to Rebecca Summer?
In 1992, the Summers used to live in the same house bought 30 years later by the Wallers. Tommy, Rebecca’s brother was very sick, and his mother just accepted the deal with the water: Rebecca’s life in exchange for Tommy’s health and happy life. So, when the woman saw her daughter drowning in the pool, she did nothing to help her.
Now, Rebecca is the only spirit that actually helped Eve to rescue Elliot from the deep and dark waters beyond the pool, but we could see several other spirits trying to stop her. Why did Rebecca helped her? Because Rebecca’s death was relatively recent and she was not totally absorbed by the water spirit like the others.
4 ^ Why did the pool showed some specific people to its victims?
The water spirit, or the haunting pool, could take the shape of anyone who had wished for something, or any of its victims. That is why Rebecca could see his mother, because she was the one who wished, and why Eve, Izzy and Elliot could see Roy, or the cat. Most of the people that the water spirit used to haunt Izzy were actually previous victims.
5 ^ What happened at the end of Night Swim?
Although Eve got to rescue Elliot, and Izzy got to release Roy from the water’s mojo, there was no way back, someone has to die, and when Roy realized that Elliot was not going to make it, if they dared to leave the house, for him it was clear that he had to take his son’s place.
Roy exchanged his life for his son’s and his family, who stayed in the house, decided to fill the pool, so none else could be affected by the water spirit.
6 ^ Why did the water spirit chose Elliot?
The water spirits were smart enough to test each member of the family and quickly realized Elliot was the weakest. Elliot not only was bad at making friends, but also his mother pointed he was really struggling with some emotional problems, depression perhaps.
7 ^ What is the big theme in Night Swim?
Big theme in the movie is that what happens with dreams and ambitions when they clash with your desire to love and protect of your family. In a world that only measures you for your goals and success, we usually are in a position where we have to choose if we want our dreams come true, or to spend less and less time with your family. If this movie shows something is that, if you choose wrong, you will end up with nothing. Like Roy.
John Woo’s Silent Night ends with a big question about his main character, Contractor gone Gangslayer Brian Godlock, is he alive or is he dead? But, first question first, how did he end up in such situation? Well, let’s recall a little.
In the fictional Lone Star border city of Las Palomas, a shooting between gangs takes the life of little Taylor Godlock when he was getting ready to celebrate christmas with his father, Brian (Joel Kinnaman) and his mother Caya (Catalina Sandino Moreno). To add more to the revenge pot, when trying to reach his son’s killer, a gangster called Playa (Harold Torres), Brian is shot in his neck, unable to speak afterwards.
For one whole year, Brian prepares himself physically, learning how to use knives in close body struggles, learning how to use different kind of guns, automatic weapons and even how to render his car almost bulletproof. The rest of the movie is Brian facing the gang that killed his son, until he finally is face to face with Playa. With some help of Detective Dennis Vassel, the cop in charge of the case, Brian finally gets to kill Playa, but he is in very bad shape after receiving close range shots, numerous beatings and even some stabs.
Now, to the question if the man is dead or alive, it depends on how much money the movie makes in the first two weekends. If Lionsgate see that the revenue against budget is very lucrative, it won’t be too long before announcing the sequel. But if it doesn’t go that well on the Box Office, we can assume that Brian Godlock is dead. Very Schrodingerish, right?
Los Reyes del Mundo (International Title: The Kings of the World ), is a dense and heartbreaking portray of marginality and exclusion within the Latin American context, which can easily be extrapolated to any place in the world, but what is The Kings of the World about? 5 homeless boys from the streets of Medellin see a brighter future when one of them receives a letter stating that his property rights to a piece of land in a rural sector of Colombia have been restored. However as the film progresses it becomes clear that this dream could well turn into a nightmare, or even not be happening at all.
Now, if you really want to understand the end of the movie, if you want to know if the boys are alive or not, don’t worry, because now and without further ado, we we’ll take a closer look into The Kings of the World – specially the ending. Let’s start now!
1 ^ Who are the main characters in the film The Kings of the World?
The 5 boys who leave Medellín (Colombia) heading to Nechí to claim ownership of a piece of land are: Brayan (Carlos Andrés Castañeda), whom his friends call Rá (yes, like the Egyptian God); Winny (Brahian Estiven Acevedo), the youngest of the group who has great loyalty to Rá; Sere (Davinson Andrés Florez), also very close to Rá, although we rarely hear him speak. Nano (Cristian David Campaña), a young Afro-Colombian who is under the protection of Rá. And finally Culebro (Cristian Camilo David Mora), who is the least attached to the group, and therefore the most likely to betray them. The 5 guys in the lead of the movie are natural actors, not professional actors.
2 ^ What is the historical context of the film?
Since 1995, getting so much worse in 1998, Colombia suffered one of the most serious waves of violence in its entire history. The guerrillas armed and strengthened themselves using the peace processes and guarantees offered by the governments of Ernesto Samper and Andrés Pastrana as an excuse, and in order to cover more territory they expelled hundreds of thousands of peasants from their lands. The owners of extensions of land, and in general a part of the private sector grouped together and armed so-called self-defense groups, in response to the total lack of response from the State to the guerrilla takeover of the country. Of course, a war without norms or rules, where the purpose is to make the other disappear, led to a confrontation that left thousands dead, and civilians in the middle of the war,
Of course, many took advantage of the fact that thousands of acres of land were open to claim ownership. In the context of the film Gilma, Rá’s grandmother, left her land in the Nechí – Colombian Bajo Cauca – fleeing from the war and arrived in Medellín, with her grandson. Like many of those displaced by this conflict, Gilma and her grandson went from being peasants to joining the shantytowns of the large Colombian cities.
Now, in 2012, the Land Restitution Unit came into operation, a public entity that assessed the claims of the owners of these lands abandoned by the war exodus and presented the request before the courts of justice to repeal titles obtained fraudulently and deliver the lands to their rightful owners. Mrs. Gilma claimed her land in Nechí, but died before the court decision. Therefore her grandson Brayan (Rá) is the only one who can claim the land. And that’s why he prepares to travel with his 4 friends. That is the journey.
From Medellín to Nechí there are 346 kilometers (215 miles) of narrow road, which even by car can take between 8 and 15 hours, depending on traffic. The path basically consists of going up to the top of the western mountain range, and then going down to the valley of the Cauca river in Nechí. This area is widely known in Colombia for being a territory of permanent social disputes and criminal acts that almost always go unpunished.
The area of Bajo Cauca Antioqueño, where Nechí is located, was a zone of wide control of the self-defense groups, which are known colloquially as paramilitares.
3 ^ Why couldn’t Rá get his land?
Because even land restitution processes can be appealed to a higher court, if any claimant feels that their rights have been violated. In fact, in Colombia is not uncommon that people who have sold their lands within all legal terms, and after a few years, they appear claiming the land that they themselves sold under no pressure. And furthermore, lawyers have been known to build artificial communities, to fabricate a fictitious narrative and thus claim extensive land holdings, under shared testimony. For this reason, even when the Land Restitution Unit has handed over land to a citizen, it may be the case that there are lawsuits over these rulings.
In Rá’s case, her grandmother’s land was returned to her, but the ruling was challenged by another claimant, who appealed to a higher court for a new ruling.
4 ^ Are the boys at the end alive or are they dead?
Short answer : Everyone is dead in the end. And now in the long answer we explain why.
Long answer : 1) Nano was killed by the guys who kidnapped them at one of the stops on the road, and in fact the scene where we see Nano, along with other people walking through the jungle, is a representation of all the people who have been murdered in that area of the country, which is a great many. 2) Culebro, who had already betrayed the boys, stealing their food, tried to steal the land papers from Rá, and in the confrontation suffered a wound with his own knife, which caused his death.
Now as for Rá, Winny and Sera, the three of them stole their belongings and money from some boys who were having a party near a circus, and then they went to spend the money in a bar, where everyone in town found out. There, in that scene, where Sera and Rá appear on the pavement, we hear some sounds, but we don’t see anything. There, at the hands of the villagers, at least Sera and Rá died. From then on all we see seems to be a supernatural vision of the souls of the dead boys (probably only Rá), to reach the peace they did not find in life.
Two facts support this theory: in the first place, the elderly who give him the information on the ground, are in a house where they cannot actually be living since it is abandoned. They are ghosts. And then, on the ground, a series of children appear, the same ones we have seen in other visions, as well as Nano and Culebro. The subject who is throwing them out is another soul in pain, who does not let the children he murdered rest. In addition, there it is clear that the subject defends the lands of his employer, but clearly the mine is a different enterprise. In the end, in the confrontation between the children and the subject, they all manage to get out of the land that binds them by the desire to possess it, which exceeds death, and finally finds the way, just as the old man said.
They say that water is the blood of the world, now it rains and with its tears, it cleans the earth. And with my blood I clean the earth. The flow that has formed floods this valley, taking with it the memory of my grandparents, theirs, theirs, ours, and the anxious sea awaits. The anxious sea awaits me. There is no longer any port.
The final scene where we see the five boys on a kind of island, in the flow of the river, has taken them with their death and with it their memory. There is no longer any port, because nobody will remember them.
5 ^ What does the horse that Rá sees mean?
The horse is simply the supernatural guide of the path that Rá must travel to reach the sea, to finish his stage on earth and finally rest in peace. The film itself is perhaps how Rá sees his time in the world and how his last days led to his death and he was never able to achieve the dream of recovering his land, but at least he was able to do his best to be with his friends. Now, the Horse wants Rá to rest in peace, but his earthly desire binds him to earthly existence, to seek revenge against the people who killed him, and to find his grandmother’s land. But he finally manages to overcome those desires and transcend, although no one on earth remembers it.
6 ^ What is the message of the film?
The film is a strong criticism of the marginalization of certain segments of the population in Colombia, and yet within its criticism it manages to see that the victimization of individuals and their deep self-pity may weigh more heavily on them than the infractions and crimes of the past. Rá is very explicit in saying that he wants to recover the land to «fight for what’s his».
It is very frequent in Colombia, especially in these segments of the population, to look for external culprits to their economic situation, their social situation, or the frustrations they have above them, however, very few take a step forward to overcome their problems and get ahead. In Colombia, minors can seek to remain in the custody of the State, which guarantees their basic education, and even higher education in some cases. However, guys like the ones in the movie are not looking to improve their quality of life, have a job, a place to live, or food, but are simply looking for a way to have more money to reign on the street, which is the only thing they need or even know.
The sequence with the mountain prostitutes confirms this. Winny, who is the youngest, tells them that they could stay there, perhaps working and have food and shelter, however, they cannot conceive that they have to work to get their things. Rá and her friends see the land as a lottery prize to which they are entitled, but if indeed Rá had obtained the land, he had not the remotest idea of how to make it productive, he would end up selling it and return to Medellín to continue taking drugs, fighting and when the money finally ran out, he would go back to where he started. That is the sad story of hundreds of people who have had their land reintegrated and end up selling it at any price, to buy a motorcycle and hallucinogenic drugs, without worrying about anything else.
If there is any message in this film, it is that magical solutions do not exist, a piece of paper, whether it is from a lottery, or from a land, is not going to solve your life, if you have not first structured your mind, to stop feeling self-pity and keep going strong. That is the only way that your life is not simply a flow towards the sea of oblivion, where no one ever thinks of you again.
Questions? Annotations? More doubts? The comments section is open just below so feel free write. See you in the next installment of Ending Explained here at El Sabanero X.
One of the cadets of the most prestigious military academy in the early years of the United States is found hanged and his heart has been removed from his body. A renown detective is asked to investigate the case and searching for clues, he finds a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe who has his own theories about the murder. Who is the killer? Are more murders on the way? What would Edgar Allan Poe would find at the end? Who are the victims and who are the victimizers?
Netflix new original movie The Pale Blue Eye is a slow-burning thriller mixing drama, family secrets, macabre murders and of course, Christian Bale. But, without further ado, we we’ll take a closer look into The Pale Blue Eye – specially the ending. Let’s start now!
1 ^ Is the Academy Crimes based on a true story?
Although the story takes place in a real place, such as the West Point Military Academy, in New York, and includes the presence of cadet Edgar Allan Poe in 1830, which was also a checked fact, The Pale Blue Eye is not based on a true story. In fact, detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) is a totally fictional character invented by writer Louis Bayard.
Of course, the film is based on the homonymous book by Louis Bayard that makes a fictitious recapitulation of the permanence of the famous American writer Edgar Allan Poe in the military academy, incorporating an invented explanation of some of his poems and stories. Including the writer’s thematic relationship with death.
2 ^ Who is killed in The Pale Blue Eye?
During the film, two cadets are assassinated: the first, cadet Leroy Fry, who appears hanged, and heartless. And later, cadet Randolph Ballinger appears, under the same circumstances. The mystery of the first part of the film revolves around the death of Leroy Fry, and why he was killed. And in the second part the mystery is further developed, when a second cadet appears dead.
3 ^ Why was Augustus Landor hired to investigate the murders? What does Edgar Allan Poe have to do with these murders?
Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) was a renowned detective, famed for solving several high-profile murders in the East Coast area of the United States. Now, when a cadet from the United States’ most prestigious military academy is found dead, the heads of the Academy turned to Landor in hopes that he could quickly solve the mystery and restore the institution’s pristine prestige.
Now, when Landor began to investigate the academy, he found that Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling), one of his cadets, had a privileged position: 1) he had known the victim, 2) he knew the main suspects, his classmates in the academy, and 3) he was an intelligent and insightful subject, but at the same time innocent and impressionable. So Landor decided to bring him in as an assistant in his research.
4 ^ Who is the killer in The Pale Blue Eye? Who killed Leroy Fry and Randolph Ballinger?
The killer in The Academy Murders is Augustus Landor himself. The point is that Mattie – Landor’s teenage daughter – had committed suicide months before, unable to live with the shame and stain of having been raped by three guys, one night on the way back to her house. Although Mattie could see that there were three men, she could not identify them, except for a medal that she managed to wrest from one of the rapists.
To avoid embarrassment over the memory of his deceased daughter, Landor went for the first rapist he had identified: Leroy Fry. Landor faked a scene of an alleged suicide, to avoid suspicion, and attacked Fry, unable to extract the names of the other two rapists. For Landor it would have been the end of his plan, except for the fact that someone later ripped out the heart of Fry’s corpse and sought him out to investigate the murder he himself committed.
From there, Landor not only revealed the details that verified that Fry had been murdered, but also sought to identify the people who stole the heart, to blame them for the fact. With the investigation ongoing, Landor obtained Fry’s journal, which helped him identify the second rapist: Randolph Ballinger. To associate the deaths with a satanic cult, Landor slaughtered several animals and removed their hearts; later doing the same job with Ballinger, from whom he extracted the name of the third rapist: Cadet Stoddard.
5 ^ Did Landor kill Stoddard?
Although Landor told Edgar that he had not killed Stoddard, and that he only expected him to run for the rest of his life, it is most likely that he did indeed kill him. The person who claimed that Stoddard had fled, since he did not find his clothes in his room, was Landor himself, and we already know that he has the ample capacity to lie without any problem, specially related to the rapists of his daughter. Landor simply lied to Edgar because he wanted to prevent the young man from accusing him and ending up in jail.
6 ^ What’s the meaning of the final scene of the movie? Did Landor commit suicide?
The strongest evidence that Landor did murder Stoddard is that at the end, on the precipice where his daughter committed suicide, he let go of the lace on her dress, ending his revenge. And the fact that he didn’t confess to Edgar, and that he had occasional relationships with Patsy, indicates that although he was hurt, he wasn’t affected to the level of wanting to end his life. He wanted justice and he got it, now it was time to move on. It would be interesting to see a sequel to this movie, with Landor investigating new murders.
7 ^ And what did the Marquis Family – Lea, Artemus, Daniel and Julia – have to do with these murders?
Oddly enough, the Marquis did not murder anyone during the course of the movie. If they are guilty of anything, it is desecration of corpses and the attempted murder of Edgar Allan Poe.
Lea (Lucy Boynton) was pursued by several of her brother’s friends, including Fry and Ballinger. In fact, it was Fry’s interest in Lea that Landor took advantage of to lure him to the place where he murdered him, forging a note on her part. Upon seeing Fry’s hanged corpse, Artemus (Harry Lawtey) and Lea, with the help of Julia (Gillian Anderson), removed the cadet’s heart and saved it for a specific ritual, in order to cure Lea’s epilepsy.
In fact, Doctor Marquis (Toby Jones), had diagnosed his daughter, and had tried every possible treatment to cure her, without any success. So when Lea claimed to have contacted Henri Leclerc, her great-great-grandfather, and pointed out the existence of the Discours du Diable, a treatise on demonic rites, and actually began to feel better by sacrificing animals, he decided to just turn a blind eye. and let his wife and kids do whatever to help her.
With Fry’s heart, the only thing missing was a human sacrifice, someone who sincerely loved Lea, and the one was Edgar Allan Poe. Had it not been for Landor’s intervention, the Marquis would have murdered Edgar.
8 ^ What happened to the Marquis Family?
Lea and Artemus died in the fire that Lea accidentally started when the ritual was interrupted by Landor. Justice determined that Julia and Daniel had enough punishment with the death of their two children and that public ridicule would be enough for them. In the end, the murders of Fry and Ballinger ended up being charged to Lea and Artemus, who, being dead, could not refute any of the above. And finally Julia was unaware of everything that her two children had done in their entirety to achieve her purpose, so she couldn’t refute either.
9 ^ What does the original title of the film mean? What is the message of The Pale Blue Eye?
Down, Down, Down
Came the hot threshing flurry
Ill at heart, I beseeched to hurry
«Lenore» She forebore the reply
Endless night caught her then in its slurry
Shrouding all, but her pale blue eye
Darkest night, black with hell
Charneled fury
Leaving only that deathly blue eye
The title of the film refers to this poem, which is completely fictional, and which appears in the book as well. The pale blue eye, in the poem, refers to the moon, the only flimsy hope in the midst of a fierce storm. Edgar assumed that Lea needed help, and that he could be that pale blue eye. And Lea took it literally, choosing Edgar as her final sacrifice.
In the book, Landor is depicted as a man with cold, piercing blue eyes, but in the movie that is not the case, as Christian Bale has hazel brown eyes. Now, if there is any message that this film has, it is that having the willingness to go to the last consequences to achieve a goal has precisely that: consequences. Landor risked his career, and his reputation, on the will of Edgar Allan Poe, to get revenge on the rapists of his daughter. The Marquis Family lost everything, wanting to pact with the devil for Lea’s health. And Edgar was about to lose his life, for trying to get Lea’s love.
Although having an objective and a goal in life is important, obsession, not leaving the past behind, and wanting to go against what logic indicates, always brings disastrous consequences, which even lead to losing control of your own destiny.
Questions? Annotations? More doubts? The comments section is open just below so feel free write. See you in the next installment of Ending Explained here at El Sabanero X.
El Sabanero X 