Reviews

Know it's marked as a spoiler but I want to re-iterate that this contains spoilers.

I actually quite enjoyed this movie, I went simply because it was a Saturday afternoon and I needed something to do since I finished my book. However I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. There were aspects of the movie that I found myself enjoying, small instances such as the glitching of the video (as you would see in a real Skype call) or the buffering of a youtube video. I did think that the glitching was overdone though, and considering the laptop this all took place on was Blaire's there shouldn't have been any video interference coming from the video feed on her cam.

Now to talk about the ending, I shouldn't have been surprised with the "twist," really it's a typical thing, the person you least expect is the one who does it, but it did catch me off guard... I loved it. But there was one part of the ending I would have loved to see changed. When they cut to her face after the facebook comments started up with "kill urself," "unfriended," "ur horrible," etc, I would have liked that to be where it ended. Instead of Laura killing her as well, I would have liked for Laura to leave her to live with it. To feel so bullied and frightened that she ends up commuting suicide herself (instead of having Laura make her kill herself).

I want to write here first and foremost that I did check that this contains spoilers, so please please please don't read this if you haven't seen this amazing Polish masterpiece yet.

As an agoraphobic and very suicidal young adult I could very much relate to this movie, it had me shaking and in tears within the first ten minutes. The way this story is written, following Domonik as he struggles with his sexuality and bullying, is just beautiful from every aspect. It opens your mind and isn't afraid to dig down deep into your emotions and pull them to the surface. The SADDEST part I found to this movie by far was the ending, not because of his suicide (yes, it was very sad) but the terms OF his suicide. I'll admit that I've done almost the exact same thing he did, I sat on my bed one night while my mom was gone at her BFs, drank a beer, and swallowed eight pill bottles worth of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and other miscellaneous prescriptions of mine. And I'll tell you that the last memory I have of that is literally chugging away the pills, I have no memory of anything from that night. So after Domonik had swallowed those pills sitting on the toilet, he would not have remembered those "funny drunk" moments he had, he wouldn't remember crying and begging for someone to call his parents. Hell, he wouldn't have even had that vision of going out and dancing with the pink haired girl. He would have died, with his last memory sitting on a dirty toilet, alone.

(Let me first make a little side note that I am agoraphobic myself.)

The beginning of the movie, opening credits, some people may say that the puzzle pieces are symbolic of you having to put all the pieces together throughout the movie, some people would say it's just what the film makers decided to do. Personally, I think it's more of an Abigail bit; when you're agoraphobic and don't leave the house, as you can imagine there's not many choices of what to do with your time. I, along with some agoraphobic friends I've met on patientslikeme, spend a lot of our time working on puzzles. Something that keeps both your mind and your hands busy, something that you can watch progress, especially the 200+ piece puzzles.

When detective Jerry Eeans of the NYPD went to first visit Abigail her timid reaction and keeping her distance is very understandable for someone with agoraphobia or social phobia. I found the arachnophobia comment rather funny, it's a natural reaction for people to try to understand each other and being told phobias others have is actually another very common thing for agoraphobics to receive, as someone's way of trying to get them to let down their guard since they can relate. I watched this movie with my mother, who doesn't truly understand my diagnoses yet, and she made the comment of how gross it was for Abigail to sniff the china cup he used, and then take a sip from the same place that he drank from. Just like with any other phobia, agoraphobics don't LIKE their fear of the outdoors, they don't CHOOSE to stay indoors all day with the blinds shut and the door locked. Every creature craves interaction, and for those with disabilities it's harder to get that interaction. But even if someone won't leave their room, or their house, they still want people to interact with. They still want to feel loved and love someone else, they want to feel the warmth of another's touch. She felt an interaction with that cup, not only had someone come into her house, but they touched and drank from something she owned.

Many people have a hard time with change, they like their same routine and change will cause any range of emotions from fear, to anger. Abigail wants to purchase the apartment across from her, not so she can have more space, but so there is no change in her life. There's no new neighbors to get used to, and no chance of them being any different from Katherine, her deceased neighbor. Since she can't leave her apartment I would doubt she'd ever step foot into the apartment if purchased, or put any of her stuff in there unless she got her long time family friend, and believed psychiatrist, Dr. Ray Fontaine, or her concierge to do it for her. And from the movies actions, I would say her purchase of the apartment would have been just what she needed.

Feeling sympathy for those in trouble, especially if you're A- a woman (I am too, just stating a fact, not generalizing) or B- been through the same situation, often times puts a lot of people in trouble. Abigail should have just called the police, but hearing the beatings of Lillian in the hallway triggered her PTSD and gave her flash-backs of her very own beatings. She felt the strong urge to help this woman, not just hide away from it. Bringing her in and caressing her while her believed husband beat on the door was her own way of caressing the beaten child of her past.

Then begins the part of the movie that my title refers to. I only came to watch this movie for my agoraphobia, but the only thing that got me through the movie was my OCD not letting me quit out on it 47 minutes in when Lillian was walking Abigail out of her apartment and down the hall. For someone who hasn't gone into the hall for more than 11 years, that is absolutely AMAZING work! I was actually in tears watching her do something so brave, and having - who was thought to be - a good friend help her through that.

I'm not really going to nitt-pick the rest of this movie, in fact, I'm going to skip a huge chunk and go to the last scene, the scene that so many people are discussing in FAQs and on yahoo answers and on goodreads, and I'm sure many more websites.

Abigail and Lillian meet-up in the bank. How someone with such severe agoraphobia could go from barely making it down to the table closest to the elevator, could make it downtown Manhattan to one of the busiest banks in the state. Betrayal made her do one of the bravest things any agoraphobic could do, and not only did she take it on with such strength, but she did so without a single hyperventilation, or puking session - HUGE. Many people say that this has "cured" her agoraphobia. That she's starting her new life in someplace safe and warm and will live on a normal life. WRONG. Getting up the courage to leave the apartment once to save her name and save herself from the public's eye does not in anyway mean she's cured of her agoraphobia. My guess is if they kept the camera's rolling, she'd get on the plane, have a mini panic attack, get a new place, find a new home-visit psychiatrist, and never leave the house again for years.

Okay I checked the spoiler button, and I truly truly mean I'm going to be writing spoilers, like the entire ending out because I am having such horrible issues with the way they ended it.

I watched this movie the way I watch every other movie, camped out in the middle of the night in my dark living room, sitting in my rocking chair just a few feet away from the flat screen TV so I can hear it but not disturb my sleeping housemates. As a horror fanatic I critique horror movies very close-knit, much more strictly then I would any other genre. The movie was very easy to follow along with, and despite the initial aggravation I had with the psychiatric hospital (I've spent well over my share of time in psych hospitals, and they are NOT as "crazy", "misguided", and "dark" as this one) I thought that the set up of the movie was pretty good. It was an obvious call that when Clark started talking to the mysterious prisoner in the bottom of the psych ward that there wasn't really a prisoner there. And if the mystery of him not coming out into the light didn't give you enough hints then the voice echoing in a paranormal way should have. The little boy running around the psych ward that he kept seeing was dressed in rather old fashioned clothing, which had me suspecting that it was either Clark as a child or the run-away psych patient as a child - I guess either way I was right(?). But I guess I should stop rambling and get on to the ending, the letter that said Clark had died and the file that said that he was suffering with MPD. First of all, Multiple Personality Disorder was re-diagnosed as Dissociative Identity Disorder in 1994, however it's not clear just how old Ben is, but my guess would be that at the time of his diagnosis they would have filed it as DID instead of MPD. Ben's inability to recognize Clark as a person, or even as a personality, is very common with DID patients, however he had said things throughout the movie - especially at the end of the movie while with Sara in the bottom of the hospital - that would suggest he HAD in fact recognized Clark as a real person. And it's obvious that Clark knew who Ben was, which is usually a mutual thing with DID patients, either all personalities know about each other or none of them do. This small detail really made the ending of the movie hard for me to find believable and probably ruined the entire movie for me. However I rated the movie 6/10 for the beginning of the movie, their way to pull you into the film.

Finally a good movie that's true to parents and the life of a regular family, not some abundantly rich parents that are all too perfect for their own good. I fell in love with this movie since the minute I sat down in the theaters with my large drink and popcorn, and it kept me guessing and confused throughout the entirety of the movie. The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat from the moment they walk into the orphanage until she falls in the lake. Though I have to say the only thing I didn't like about the movie was the very last line, the "kicker" (no pun intended) was stolen directly from another great horror - The Ring.