If you like supernatural / psychological thrillers with give it a try. Nice Elements of the movie:
>Creepy, nice, dark atmosphere.
>Solid performances.
>Beautiful cinematography.
>Camera optical illusions (set up carefully in order to define "nothing-ness").
Spoilers follow! A complete explanation guide:
Beth dies for 4 minutes when she was 17 and she sees nothing in the other side. That "nothing-ness" (that she experienced) was expecting to get her life.
Think of that "nothing-ness" as the Spirit of Death (SoD from now on) or the Death or something similar (SoD: "I am what you felt when your heart stopped").
But SoD was tricked by Beth since she managed to recover. Now, it wants to reclaim her life back and comes after her (SoD's Main Objective). But since Beth is NOT the believer-type, SoD cannot interact directly with her.
Quite soon Beth marries Owen (Heather: "You were married young!") Owen is a believer-type, so SoD establishes a channel with Owen in order to get Beth's life.
Owen starts to sleepwalk (Beth: "A year or two after building our house...") and having weird dreams in which SoD demands from him to end Beth's life.
Owen tries through occult arts to protect Beth. Reading "Caerdroia" he discovers in chapter "Decoys and Deception" a way to trick SoD ("People have sought remedies to threats posed by evil...")
Such trick can be done via "Voodoo dolls at gravesites near to those afflicted... activated by contact with the intended recipient... mazes and reversed spaces to confuse dark forces".
So Owen starts his plan "... by distorting the identity (i.e. Other women looking like Beth) and location (i.e. Other house like Beth's house) of the subject, pursuing spirits could be tricked by false forms of sacrifice."
His plan is to trick SoD by sacrificing a woman looking like Beth in a reversed place looking like his house, as he read in "Caerdroia".
Owen builts secretly that house like the one he and Beth lives, but in a reversed architecture (blueprints are discovered by Beth).
He makes the voodoo doll, puts the related spell and puts it in the secret house. Then he meets women looking like Beth and he brings them to the secret house. He makes them touch the voodoo doll (i.e. Activates the channel between SoD and the woman) and he chokes them as offering to SoD.
SoD is tricked but when it finds out it did not get Beth's life, it presses again Owen. Owen meets another woman like Beth, and that loop goes on for 6 times (Beth: "... half a dozen"). Thus SoD is tricked for a while (Beth: "He tricked you!", SoD: "For a while... he thought he could protect you").
At the end Owen having guilts does not kill Madelyne, the girl in the bookstore (Madelyne: "he was shaking and crying") who has been left with tender feelings and has not understood anything evil.
Aware that SoD cannot hurt directly Beth, Owen kills himself and leaves behind the known note. "You are right. There is nothing. Nothing is after you. You are safe now."
Note means: There is really that "nothing-ness" that you experienced when you died (i.e. The SoD) and it is after you. But now you are safe because I die, so there will be no channel existing between SoD and you (it's like saying "there is no way for you to be hurt onwards").
But unfortunately that channel is established since Beth discovers and touches the voodoo doll, although she remains a non-believer-type (you can see that during the conversation she has with Madelyne in Beth's house).
SoD now can interact with her physically (touch her) and has all the potential needed to make her kill herself.
Beth tricks SoD once again in the boat and does not kill herself. But SoD is there and we know as the movie ends that SoD will do anything till it gets Beth's life.
_____ Hope that is clear for people who did not understand some points in the movie.
>Creepy, nice, dark atmosphere.
>Solid performances.
>Beautiful cinematography.
>Camera optical illusions (set up carefully in order to define "nothing-ness").
Spoilers follow! A complete explanation guide:
Beth dies for 4 minutes when she was 17 and she sees nothing in the other side. That "nothing-ness" (that she experienced) was expecting to get her life.
Think of that "nothing-ness" as the Spirit of Death (SoD from now on) or the Death or something similar (SoD: "I am what you felt when your heart stopped").
But SoD was tricked by Beth since she managed to recover. Now, it wants to reclaim her life back and comes after her (SoD's Main Objective). But since Beth is NOT the believer-type, SoD cannot interact directly with her.
Quite soon Beth marries Owen (Heather: "You were married young!") Owen is a believer-type, so SoD establishes a channel with Owen in order to get Beth's life.
Owen starts to sleepwalk (Beth: "A year or two after building our house...") and having weird dreams in which SoD demands from him to end Beth's life.
Owen tries through occult arts to protect Beth. Reading "Caerdroia" he discovers in chapter "Decoys and Deception" a way to trick SoD ("People have sought remedies to threats posed by evil...")
Such trick can be done via "Voodoo dolls at gravesites near to those afflicted... activated by contact with the intended recipient... mazes and reversed spaces to confuse dark forces".
So Owen starts his plan "... by distorting the identity (i.e. Other women looking like Beth) and location (i.e. Other house like Beth's house) of the subject, pursuing spirits could be tricked by false forms of sacrifice."
His plan is to trick SoD by sacrificing a woman looking like Beth in a reversed place looking like his house, as he read in "Caerdroia".
Owen builts secretly that house like the one he and Beth lives, but in a reversed architecture (blueprints are discovered by Beth).
He makes the voodoo doll, puts the related spell and puts it in the secret house. Then he meets women looking like Beth and he brings them to the secret house. He makes them touch the voodoo doll (i.e. Activates the channel between SoD and the woman) and he chokes them as offering to SoD.
SoD is tricked but when it finds out it did not get Beth's life, it presses again Owen. Owen meets another woman like Beth, and that loop goes on for 6 times (Beth: "... half a dozen"). Thus SoD is tricked for a while (Beth: "He tricked you!", SoD: "For a while... he thought he could protect you").
At the end Owen having guilts does not kill Madelyne, the girl in the bookstore (Madelyne: "he was shaking and crying") who has been left with tender feelings and has not understood anything evil.
Aware that SoD cannot hurt directly Beth, Owen kills himself and leaves behind the known note. "You are right. There is nothing. Nothing is after you. You are safe now."
Note means: There is really that "nothing-ness" that you experienced when you died (i.e. The SoD) and it is after you. But now you are safe because I die, so there will be no channel existing between SoD and you (it's like saying "there is no way for you to be hurt onwards").
But unfortunately that channel is established since Beth discovers and touches the voodoo doll, although she remains a non-believer-type (you can see that during the conversation she has with Madelyne in Beth's house).
SoD now can interact with her physically (touch her) and has all the potential needed to make her kill herself.
Beth tricks SoD once again in the boat and does not kill herself. But SoD is there and we know as the movie ends that SoD will do anything till it gets Beth's life.
_____ Hope that is clear for people who did not understand some points in the movie.