Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Drama
Director: Scott Cooper
Writer: Jack Slipter
Based on the 2019 Italian film
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Mackenzie Foy, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kathryn Newton, Levi Miller, Cara Buono, James Ransone, Skeet Ulrich, Frank Dillane, Ellie Kemper, Zeljko Ivanek
Plot:
The film starts one night, a man named Philip Quinn (James Ransone) watching his wife Valery (Vera Farmiga) sleeping in bed with a serious face. The man sketches a caress on her hair and then goes to pick up their sleeping child Samuel from near room. Philip picks him up and runs to the car and they leave at full speed. The camera pans the house, it is a large mansion surrounded by a forest, a lake and on the side it has a large fence with a large gate. As long as the man runs in his car, he receives a phone call from his wife who tells him to go back and that everything would be resolved. Shortly after the man swerves in order not to hit an animal in the middle of the road and there is a bad accident in which the man dies. The camera shows the Samuel's fingers moving.
Ten years later, Samuel (Levi Miller) is on the ground playing with a toy robot until his mother Valery enters, who first scolds him for being on the ground but then hugs him and puts him in a wheelchair. So it is clear that Samuel lost the use of his legs in the accident. Valery rests her son in the bathtub, washes him gently with a sponge and then she prepares him because people would come in the evening to celebrate his birthday. During the celebrations we see the various other inhabitants of the mansion. There are Dr. Emmett Zeck (Mads Mikkelsen), the kind handyman Will Spector (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the two maids mother and daughter Linda (Cara Buono) and Sandra (Kathryn Newton). The guests instead are a priest and two others, three people including Gina (Ellie Kemper). Outside the house instead we see two rather strange men named Butch (Skeet Ulrich) and Gill (Frank Dillane) who are considered guardians and live in a shack near the large gate at the entrance. During the festivities Valery invites Samuel to play a Beethoven song on the piano. From the words of Valery it is understood that he deals with the education of his son in a very rigid way, managing in all respects his life including his school education.
Samuel is very good and everyone looks at him in delight until Gina starts crying and mumbling about a happy night at the theater when she was young. Gina quickly realizes she was wrong in saying that sentence and she quickly covers her mouth with her hands. Valery looks up, approaches the woman and takes her out of her room accompanied by Emmett. As the notes of the song play, Emmett asks the lady what the rules are and she replies stammering "the outside world does not exist, they are a happy family, all that is ours is Samuel's". Emmett congratulates her and then tightens the scarf around her neck until she almost passes out. He then tells her to go to the salon, smile and give Samuel a nice evening. Meanwhile Valery goes to get the cake and brings it to Samuel.
The next day Valery is giving his son a math lesson. At one point the lesson is interrupted by Linda who says that some people have arrived and Valery goes to welcome them. Samuel looks out the window and sees a rather fatigued gentleman getting out of an old car, Vince, (Zeljko Ivanek) helped by Will and a girl (Mackenzie Foy). The group sits in the living room, one senses that Vince is visibly ill, struggles to walk and coughs a lot until he even loses. The man says his life is over now and asks Valery to take care of his niece Denise. Valery is not inclined to accept but she eventually gives in to the entreaties of the patient as she had been helped by him in the past. At that point Valery asks Linda and Sandra to take Denise for a hot bath, even though the crying girl said she didn't want to leave her grandfather but eventually she left the room reluctantly. Samuel intrigued by the situation was trying to eavesdrop outside the door and is forced to hide. Denise is subsequently visited very carefully and slyly by Emmett. Later Linda and Sandra show the girl the rooms of her mansion until Denise meets the eye of Samuel who is watching them. Sandra notices this and advises her not to have contact with him because Valery forbids it.
In the evening, while Valery tells a bedtime story to her son, Denise is in her room constantly turning over in bed because she struggles to fall asleep until she closes her eyes. Suddenly the girl wakes up because she hears noises and she sees something running quickly in the corridor before silence returns. Denise slowly approaches the door and sees a hideous humanoid creature running on all fours, growling. As she is about to be attacked she wakes up and realizes it was a nightmare. At that point, with tears in her eyes, she lies down and crawls under the bed, putting herself in a fetal position.
The next day Denise is crying in front of a grave and we discover that Vince is dead. Samuel is looking at her and would like to approach her to console her but is blocked by Valery who tells him that he will never be able to talk to her except in her presence. Valery says that the pain Denise is feeling will have to overcome it on her own because it will make her stronger than her. Samuel nods and asks who Vince was and Valery replies that he was a doctor who had taken care of her in the past who then had to leave to treat the people they needed. At that point Samuel takes another look at Denise, who had been approached by Linda with a handkerchief and a glass of water, before returning to the house.
In the afternoon during another class, Samuel is distracted as he watches Denise out the window who is giving flowers to drink and smells them. The mother notices this and slaps him saying that he must commit himself because their mansion is a privilege and that he must follow the program and the rules because in the future he will have to govern that place and the new society that she was creating with so many sacrifices. At that point she closes the window and the curtains and orders her son to repeat what she had explained up
Meanwhile Denise was settling in working not only as a gardener but also as a waitress with the kind help of Sandra and Linda. After taking care of the flowers Denise enters the house to go to the bathroom and sees drops of blood. She quickly enters and sees a bloody knife on the ground and Sandra who is sitting holding her wrist crying. Denise spurs the girl and tampons the wound which fortunately does not seem deep. At that point she notices that Sandra's arms are full of scars. While Denise wraps the wound, Sandra says that sometimes she feels tired of that life and she would like to disappear forever. A moment later, however, she smiles saying that they are only moments and that soon it would be better. At that point they hear Linda's voice calling them and they end the conversation.
Meanwhile, like every month, Emmett is carefully examining Samuel under Valery's watchful eye and injects him with half a vial of something. Valery notices that Emmett has only injected half a vial and calls the doctor in a corner. He says that the vials are running out now and he is rationing and tells the woman to calm down because Samuel's legs are now useless. At the end of the visit, Samuel sneaks out into the garden to put a flower on Vince's grave. But Denise sees him, smiles at him and greets him causing a great embarrassment in the boy, who goes away quickly with the wheelchair. Meanwhile, Will witnesses the fact, giggling at the boy's nice reaction.
Later, Linda hands Denise some clean clothes and tells her to take them to Samuel's room, who is listening to classical music on an old record player. Denise knocks and walks in and smiles at the boy that she must stop listening to classical music only. Samuel, confused by the girl's statement, asks if there are other types of music. Denise doesn't answer and leaves the room giggling. Samuel finds among the clothes an object, an old Mp3, with a note written by Denise on how to use it. He puts on his headphones and is ecstatic when he listens to the first song "Knockin 'on Heaven's Door".
At night, as Valery and the other inhabitants of the estate go out and head towards the forest, Denise and Samuel meet in secret and start talking for a while. He asks where Denise is from. She replies that she lived far away, near the mountains, that her parents died in an accident and that then Vince took care of her by often moving from one place to another. Denise is surprised to find that Samuel never got out of that place. Samuel says he is sorry and the girl, with a smile, asks if she liked the music she brought him. She says she can keep him for a while as long as he can get some cigarettes back because Valery got them back when she got there. The two shake hands laughing. At that point she asks Samuel why he was in a wheelchair and he replies that from what his mother told him, he was in the car with his father but during the attack some people who wanted to rob them had a bad accident. . Meanwhile in the forest it seems that people are looking for Gina, who appears disappeared.
The next morning Samuel sees that Will is secretly giving Linda a pack of cigarettes and he goes to Will and convinces him to buy him some cigarettes. Will realizes that they are a gift for Denise and gives them to her saying not to be discovered by her mother. The friendship between the two boys grows and Valery, realizing what is happening, begins to not be happy with the situation. During lunch Samuel and his mother have an argument and the boy begins to have small signs of rebellion against the rigid lifestyle imposed by Valery. Valery, with Will's help, takes Samuel to the woods where there is a cage with a young boar inside. The woman gives him the gun and teaches him how to use it, saying that he is no longer a child and will have to deal with more serious things. She says that she will have to kill the boar with a shot in the head and despite the resistance of her son the mother forces him to shoot while Samuel cries. Sandra watches the scene in the distance and goes inside the mansion with a dark face.
After that Valery runs home and locks himself in the bathroom, takes off his suit, enters the tub and starts getting superficial wounds on his wrists with a piece of glass (here we can see how Valery's body had many other old scars). Meanwhile, Samuel begins to sense that something is wrong, especially when he discovers that the reason why one of the guardians of the mansion,Gill, is almost mute, is a consequence of his mother's decision to subject him to extreme therapy by the doctor, since he does not she liked what he had to say to her. After leaving the bathroom she apologizes to her son and tells him that she has arranged for him a trip to the other side of the lake with Will and if she wants she can bring Denise too. He, very happy, hugs her mother. While they are at the lake the three are having a lot of fun and at one point the two young people exchange a quick kiss on the mouth while Will looks at them amused.
Meanwhile Valery is arguing with Emmett. She says that Denise will take them all to hell and that she will do what is right to do. When the three return from the trip, the girl starts talking to Sandra but she is taken by Valery and brutally taken to a room. The woman takes a pack of cigarettes and the mp3 out of her pocket and she bans the girl from the mansion forever and she decides not to tell Samuel.
When Samuel notices Denise's absence, his mother tells him that she is tired of living there and that she is gone. At this point, unseen by Valery, the boy leaves in his wheelchair with the intention of leaving the mansion to look for the girl and arrives at the gate where Butch and Gill are located. Gill points the gun in his face while the visibly drunk Butch stops him joking that Gill is not smart due to a head injury and before the situation escalates, Will arrives and takes Samuel home. Meanwhile we see Sandra goes into the woods whispering repeatedly that she can't take it anymore and she kills herself by hanging herself in a tree. When the body is found Valery tells her son that Sandra tried to get out of the estate and was hit by a car driven by drunk men. After a small funeral arranged for Sandra, Linda greets Valery and says it's time to move on by deciding to take some personal effects and leave. Valery tries to get her to make her stay unsuccessful. The woman realizes Samuel's upset due to Denise's disappearance and Sandra's death and decides to send Will to find Denise, who manages to find her and back to mansion.
Arriving at the house, Valery seems to open up to the relationship between the young girl and her son and readmitted her to the mansion. Immediately after, however, the girl is drugged by the doctor, taken to the basement and subjected to electroshock with the aim of her, after several sessions, to make her more docile and to make her become a kind of perfect wife for Samuel. Will discovers the cruel practice to which the girl has been subjected, and opposes this choice by confronting the doctor, but he is satisfied in following Valery's orders. While Samuel is in the living room playing the piano, Valery tells him she brought Denise to him. Samuel turns around very happy but sees the girl in very bad condition almost completely unable to express herself and speak. At that point he screams and walks away bumping into his mother who tries to stop him. Will catches up with him, reassures him and tells him that during the night he will make him and Denise flee.
It's night, Denise has quite recovered from the effects of the doctor's first treatment. As she prepares she also takes a gun that she was had in her room and puts it in her backpack. Will narcotizes Valery and carries Samuel down in his arms, gives Denise the car keys, and goes back inside the house as the two leave. He has a reprimand with Emmett and kills him and then commits suicide by shooting himself in the head as Valery begins to regain consciousness. Valery goes down and finds the two corpses and understands the escape plan and starts screaming in despair. Meanwhile, Samuel and Denise arrive at the gate and are approached by Butch and Gill as Samuel hides. The girl says she needs to go refuel while Butch tells him if he can join her on the journey and make her propose sexual things because he is abstinent. Valery approaches the phone and tries to call the two guardians but there are only two corpses on the ground as the car driven by the girl drives away.
Dawn begins to rise and we see Valery lying in the garden crying in despair and thinking back to an old dialogue between her and her husband Philipp. He says the place is safe, has a lot of protection and together they would fix it even more as Philipp pulls out a map and says he heard that a new city has been built and it's best to move there and show it to his wife. Meanwhile, the car driven by Denise proceeds along the road. He is for the first time in the outside world, he also sees a fawn and some people in the distance walking slowly in the fields. Samuel raises his hand in greeting. While Samuel is happy, Denise's face is visibly worried. At one point Samuel says that the world is beautiful and that when he returns to his mother he will tell her what he saw and tell her that people are not bad and that he will find friends and play the piano in front of many people. The girl is silent until at one point she stops with the car and starts honking as she almost cries. Samuel asks the girl what she is doing and she tearfully explains that these are no longer people and they only kill themselves with a blow to the head, revealing that the world was hit by a virus that had turned humans into zombie-like creatures. . For that reason, Valery had decided to preserve himself and his loved ones from the ongoing zombie apocalypse by locking himself inside the mansion, creating a completely closed and dictatorial society. At that point the camera moves into the fields and we see various rotten, blood-filled zombies growling as they march towards the car. Samuel looks terrified and Denise turns the car back on and they continue on their way.
The final scene shows Valery lying on the grass saying "I'll wait for you Samuel" and a panoramic view from above showing the zombies near the large gate left open.
No comments:
Post a Comment