An American horror and thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The film is about a couple adopted a nine years old girl, Esther, after the death of their unborn child. The horrifying story was begin after Esther came to this family.
Typical elements of a horror movie:
Setting:
The location is mainly in the house which located in the centre of the woods. This big and open area creates a terrify feeling to audience because they are being isolated. It seems that no one can help this family and it has no space for them to escape as they are surrounded by the woods and far from the town so it is easy to get lost and being trapped. The period of time is in Winter which is snowy and windy, that provide a cold feeling to the audiences.
Characters:
The characters sets as typical family size, parents with daughter and son, that are just the ordinary people and it can be any of us. Due to the fact that there are many this type of family which makes audiences feel so similar to their daily life and create a chilling atmosphere on them. There must be the monster, victims and survival in horror movie. In this case:
Monster: [human] Adopt Child (Esther)
Victims: [Respectable members] Sister (Abigail)
Father (John)
Son (Danial)
Survival: [Ordinary kid and lone woman] Mother (Kate)
Deaf-mute Daughter (Max)
Plot:
1. Beginning
Unlike other horror movie, the atmosphere is warm and full of love as they are trying to make a huge difference to the end. Kate and John were decided to adopt a child so they went to the orphan, where they first met Esther, and decided to take her home.
2. A wave of violence leaves many dead
First Killed : Killed the sister for not letting her find out more of Esther's past.
Second Killed : Killed Danial to hide the secret again
Third Killed : Killed the father John for not loving her
3. Survivors begin to fight back
The mother and daughter have done many things to stop Esther of killing John and Danial:
- In the fireplace, while Esther decided to use the rock to kill Danial, Max had pushed her away to save her brother.
- Kate found out that there are something wrong with Esther's behavior, so she decided to check her past and find out the secret. Trying to stop everything that going to happen.
- In the hospital, Max followed Esther and see was she going to buy a drink or not. When she realized that she was not in the vending machine, it was to late to stop Esther.
- After Kate noticed all the secret of Esther, she called John to get away from Esther.
4. Dissent in the group as a result of tiredness or fear puts the group at greater risk
At first, when sister Abigail told them there were something wrong about Esther, they did not think that was true because they believe that Esther was just a normal little girl. After Kate found out the secret of Esther, she tried to tell John and the psychiatrist about the true but he did not trust Kate and thought that she was misunderstood Esther. In the hospital, Kate had the last advice to John of stay away from her, but still John did not trust her till the end. That creates a conflict between Kate and people who did not trust her.
5. Those who have come into contact with the monster may try to warn the larger community
Sister Abigail was the one who told Kate and John of some horrible secrets of Esther and warn them. That was how the climax was building up because of the secrets.
6. Dramatic showdown: climax with varying results
Kate was driving back home as soon as possible to save her husband and daughter, but it was too late that John was being killed already. So she decided to save her daughter Max and killed Esther.
