Martyrs

111122

A movie that surpasses most of the contemporaries of its genre, Martyrs not only has the staple elements of a horror flick but also exudes depth and careful thinking from the director and also its intended audience. I delved right into the film not expecting to gain anything from it but a few shivers and 94 minutes of short-lived entertainment  but it has proven to be the kind of film that takes a longer digestion and rumination period. It is a gory and unusual exploration of revenge, torture, cruelty, and exploitation of human suffering.

A young girl, Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï), ends up in an orphanage after escaping an unknown warehouse where she was being held captive and tortured. The only person she would talk to was Anna (Morjana Alaoui) and they develop a friendship. Naturally, Lucie suffers extreme PTSD that manifests in the form of a girl who she perceived as a monster who hurts her. Later, it was revealed that as Lucie was running out of the warehouse, she stumbled upon another girl shackled to the floor begging for help but in an act of self-preservation, Lucie fled. For years, she is still haunted by her past and ultimately seeks revenge on the people responsible for her pain and suffering. Anna then comes to help her bury the bodies. These scenes are truly cringe-worthy as Lucie mercilessly shoots a man, a woman, and their innocent children in their suburban home without letting them say a word.

“A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser,” Edgar Allan Poe wrote in his short story The Cask of Amontillado which can be comparable to Lucie’s situation. What Lucie abruptly realized was that after revenge was exacted, her guilt and her sorrow in the form of the ghost is still with her, still hurting her and so in a vile act she takes a razor and slashes her own throat. Anna investigates a little and finds a dimly lit underground corridor plastered with foul images of individuals being tortured. There, she finds a girl in chains and weird metal contraptions on her head and hips. I was surprised by Anna’s calm demeanor as she tries to help the badly scarred and emaciated girl and found it a nice moment in the bathtub when she held the hands of the girl whose vision was impaired by the metal blindfold. It seemed like an homage to Anna’s friendship with Lucie and as she held hands with the girl, she was remembering what it was like when Lucie was the one suffering and how much she loved and cared for her friend.

The girl tries to cut her wrists and bangs her head against the wall and Anna tries to save her but she was interrupted by a group of people who comes into the house, shoots the girl dead, and takes Anna underground. In this act of the movie, a woman referred to as Mademoiselle sheds light on why the movie was aptly called so. As it turns out, they are a society who takes people and puts them through different stages of torture in hopes that they will undergo transcendence into the afterlife. There are victims and there are martyrs. “People ignore the existence of suffering. That’s how the world sees it. Yet, everyone’s a victim.” Lucie was not able to use her pain to go beyond this world and became a victim like the rest. To them, martyrs “withstand paralyzing pain and can survive total deprivation…” The true sacrifice of martyrdom is this: it is carrying all the sins of the world and transcending themselves completely.

In the final part of the film, Anna becomes the next subject of the society’s macabre beliefs and practices. She is chained, her head is shaved, her body physically abused over and over. She is broken down, slowly, methodically, systematically, coldly. A more visceral facet of the film is shown with the close-up of Anna’s battered face as she imagines a conversation with Lucie. Lucie tells her to let go so she wouldn’t be afraid anymore. Anna turns completely docile to her abusers and shows no fear when the society has decided she is ready to move on to the fourth and final stage of her martyrdom. I think it is a popular opinion when I say that this is the most disturbing and horrifying part of the film when Anna is flayed alive, only the skin on her face remaining. Anna then appears to have reached transcendence and shares with Mademoiselle what she has seen in her vision. What is more horrifying is how far the society is willing to go to exploit human suffering just to get insights on the afterlife.

It is left to the interpretation of the audience whether Anna has truly reached transcendence and become a martyr by the society’s standards. To them, a martyr is a witness. When Mademoiselle shoots herself, I was only left to wonder: did she do so in an act of seeing the afterlife for herself? Or was she not satisfied with Anna’s insights in her brief transcendence?

In the DVD version, Pascal Laugier said of his film: “I’m not sure you have made the right decision.” The word for Martyrs is intense. It is dark and evil and it showcases extreme brutality humans would put themselves and each other through in order to go beyond the norms of society. Although, I very much enjoyed it and regard it as one of the best horror movies of the 21st century and would gladly recommend it, I would not expose myself to such a heavy and sinister translation of what humans are truly capable of. At least not very soon. I am still recovering from it.

Gingersnaps 2

111122

I wrote about the first movie of the Ginger Snaps series before, and I pointed out that the theme revolved around Ginger’s entrance into adolescence. She was a teen filled with angst, and her lycanthropic transformations were a manifestation of her angst. Throughout the first movie, the people around Ginger struggled to find a way to control and appease this angst – only leading to Ginger’s demise.

Ginger Snaps 2, on the other hand, is a continuation of this analogy – now Brigitte, Ginger’s sister, is trying to find a cure to her lycanthropic situation. She cuts herself and measures her rate of healing, and finds that the stronger her urge is to become a werewolf, the stronger the rate of healing is. Even so, the main objective of Brigitte’s attempts is to find a way to fully cure her from her condition. Throughout the movie, Brigitte sees apparitions of her sister, Ginger, warning her about various things.

First and foremost, I think that the theme of the first movie spilled over to the sequel. It wasn’t just about menstrual cycles now and hormonal roller coasters – it wasn’t just about angst anymore. It was about Brigitte trying to control her sexual cravings and her lust for blood. In fact, she was trying to completely eradicate this urge. The movie is filled with instances of Brigitte being offered with sex (for example, Tyler, a worker from the clinic Brigitte was being held in, offered to give her monkshood in exchange of sexual favors). The pressure on Brigitte to change her ways – effectively denying her primal instincts and natural inclinations – was so strong that she wanted to kill herself out of depression.

At first I thought that it was fortunate of Brigitte to meet someone like Grace – someone who understood her situation, someone who wanted to help. As the movie progressed, Ghost seemed like the kind of girl who really saw the person in Brigitte, and wanted to find ways of helping Brigitte. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too long until Ghost’s intentions were clear. Ghost was messed up in the inside, too, and she was pretending all this time. She wanted to get rid of some people in her life and used Brigitte as the justification to their deaths. Brigitte, up until some point in the movie, was unaware of Ghost’s abusive methods, up until Brigitte found out that Ghost was lying to her. It’s understandable because Brigitte really did trust Ghost – all those times that Ghost brought her monkshood solutions meant a lot to Brigitte. They even escaped together!

In the end, Ghost apparently had an obsession for lycanthropy. The possession of several comic books about lycanthropy was finally justified, but it also revealed her ulterior motives – she wanted to use Brigitte for her own ends, she wanted Brigitte to kill for her, and that Brigitte was her werewolf pet, while she was the powerful warrior.

I think this says a lot about the theme – given that Brigitte was trying to deal with her own problems, some people like Ghost come along and take advantage of the pitiful situation she’s in.

Let The Right One In

111122

More than anything, Let the Right One In is a love story more than a horror story. I enjoyed the theme, and the development of Oskar’s and Eli’s relationship, except for the fact that the movie was Swedish and it was difficult to understand. Nonetheless, even if I was a little confused by the translation, the message of the movie seemed clear to me: it’s basically about doing everything with and for the person you love the most.

Oskar and Eli’s relationship was based on something that they both had in common: they were both experiencing the pains of being the odd man out – Oskar was being bullied and Eli had to hide from the public because she was a vampire. With this in common, they developed a strong bond, relating and sympathizing greatly to one another. In the course of their relationship, they had to kill people for each other, which further strengthened their relationship. They were standing up for each other and were willing to do absolutely anything for each other. I found the development interesting because, since Oskar was a bullied child, he had to deal with the pain of being insulted everyday, but eventually found the strength to stand up to his oppressors. This is taken to an extreme, however, because standing up for himself appealed to him so much that he became a war-freak. He became bloodthirsty, and this aligned with Eli’s desire for human blood. They became, in turn, a murderous power couple.

From being oppressed individually, as soon as they became a power couple they felt that they were being oppressed together. This made them defend one another, and the only lives that mattered to them were their own lives. Since people were frowning at them and disliked them, several people like Lacke and the bullies such as Conny and Jimmy were absurdly murdered by the power couple. Their bond as a couple was held above everyone else – and the root of their love is their thirst for blood.

As a power couple, Oskar now needed to harvest blood to help Eli, and Eli, in turn, defended Oskar from his oppressors. Ironically, during the development of Oskar and Eli’s relationship, Oskar offered a blood bond to Eli. Eli refused, of course, because she was attracted to blood. What I think is interesting is that, despite being a vampire, she was able to refrain from feeding on Oskar’s blood. To me, I think this means that Eli, even at that point, already valued Oskar’s life and loved him to a certain extent. On the other hand, Oskar was accepting of Eli’s condition – but I think this is because he already reached the point of accepting Eli’s flaws, no matter who she was. Their love for each other transcended their strong thirst for blood.

Perhaps, as a power couple they knew that they needed a certain dynamic – if they loved each other, why not both become vampires and live the same kind of lifestyle? I realized this at the end of the movie when they were travelling in the train. Eli was in a box, and Oskar was beside her. It was necessary for their survival that one could stand sunlight.

May

111122

May’s actions are a consequence of her upbringing – being a lonely child she barely had anyone to talk to, let alone the fact that she was being bullied for having a lazy eye. In order to keep her company, her mother gave her a glass-encased doll that she named Suzie – and this brings out the point of the movie, based on the adage for her birthday: “If you can’t find a friend, make one.”

May works in a veterinary hospital, assisting with surgeries. Her optometrist eventually fixed her eye, and from then on she became more attractive, and finally she tried to create a decent social life. She started with becoming friends with a local mechanic named Adam, and they started dating. May was interested in Adam’s hands – some sort of fetish that she had. The theme of the movie then revolves around that fact; May had various interests in various body parts of the people now in her social life. However, May was still kind of weird, and she was struggling greatly with her social life. First there was Adam, her first ever date who rejected her – then Polly, a lesbian lover who wanted to get it on with May (Polly even gave May a cat named Lupe.) Obviously, May was suffering from some kind of mental disorder paired with an obsession for dolls. She eventually kills many of the people in her life, taking the body parts that she adored from them the most, and creates her own doll – “if you can’t find a friend, make one.”

The reason why she made her own doll named Amy, is because, one day, when she was introducing her old doll, Suzie, to the blind kids at the school for disabled children that she was volunteering at, one of the kids accidentally drops the glass case while trying to take out the doll from the case. The glass shatters and wounds the children, as well as May. May, however, wasn’t only physically hurt – she was emotionally devastated. Coming from a recent frustrating break-up with Adam – May evolves into a delusional sociopath. She tries dating the next day, but eventually kills this “punk” she tried to date. And on Halloween night, May went on a murdering spree, killing Polly and her new lover – Ambrosia, as well as Adam and his new lover, and the punk. She walked around dressed like the doll her mother gave her and went on a murdering spree, eventually dissecting them and creating her own doll with their parts – a new friend – Amy.

The movie is driven with May’s burning desire to make friends, and it is finally achieved at the final scene of the movie. She finishes stitching up Amy, but gets frustrated about its eyes. May, in turn, gouges out her lazy eye and puts it on Amy, and bleeds and cries while embracing Amy, who, in turn, caresses her as she bleeds to death.

Pontypool

111122

The movie concept in itself was what I enjoyed the most. Grant Mazzy, a radio announcer, on the way to work, experienced something weird – he encountered an almost naked woman in the middle of a blizzard, perhaps foreshadowing something… She was mumbling random words, and I was piqued then and there.

When Grant arrived at the radio station, where he works with Laurel-Ann Drummond, a technical assistant who used to work in Afghanistan, and the station manager Sydney Briar, who doesn’t really like Mazzy’s attitude. As the day went on, they received a report from Ken Loney, a reporter, about a riot at Dr. Mendez’s office. Chaos ensues, and then Ken reports that an “infected” kid was nearby, mumbling to himself. The transmission stops and is cut off, but then some random French words come out.

This is where the awesome concept of the movie is established – according to the instructions, they should remain indoors, not use terms of endearment, phrases that conflict, or the English language. Pontypool is then declared to be under quarantine. Everybody is now in a state of panic, and finally Ken was able to resume the transmission – apparently the infected child was mumbling “mommy,” over and over again. Grant tried to escape the station, but once a bunch of people started attacking the station he locked himself in alongside Laurel-Ann and Sydney. However, Laurel-Ann starts to act abnormally, and mumbles the word “missing,” over and over again, and then starts to imitate the sound of a boiling kettle. Dr. Mendez arrives at the station and they stay in the soundproof booth, where he explains his theory. Somehow, a virus is in the human language, and certain words are infectious – and when these words are understood, the virus takes hold of the host. During this explanation, Laurel-Ann was outside the booth, banging her head on the windowpane, chewing her lower lip off and bleeding – then she pukes and dies. Ken, on the other hand, calls in but apparently succumbs to the virus as well – repeating the word “simple” again and again, then gets cut off.

The rest of the movie shows the struggle of finding a cure – apparently it’s by changing the meaning of the word that the “infected” is mumbling to something else. Like in Sydney and Grant’s case, Grant repeatedly told Sydney that “Kill is kiss, kill is kiss,” in order to change her understanding – apparently this made Sydney’s symptoms subside, and they kiss. Grant and Sydney, knowing the cure, start to go on-air and they catch the attention of the infected by saying contradictory phrases and whatnot, and when they got their attention, the authorities wanted to stop them as well. The movie ends with a countdown and a final kiss.

The post-credits scene thus gave me something profound to think about – suddenly what was being shown was a radical change of theme and movie direction – perhaps analogous to convincing me, the “infected,” to change my understanding of the movie.

Evil Dead

111122

I’m a fan of gore, and I’ll have to say that Evil Dead, gore-wise, was very much enjoyable. It made me cringe, but it made me smile, too. It’s the kind of movie that makes me cheer for the protagonists – and instead of feeling bad for them I wanted them to succeed.

Aside from all the gore, I liked the way the plot unfolded, given the complex dynamics of the characters. I like how Mia’s claims were invalidated because of her drug addiction – her claims were nullified because her friends were thinking that she was merely hallucinating and experiencing withdrawal. Although it seems as if most of the deaths were deserved because of ignorance and close-mindedness, I can’t help but feel that it was merely an unfortunate case. I can’t imagine believing seemingly hallucinatory claims from a recovering drug addict – it made sense that they didn’t believe her.

Mixed with suspense and the mere idea of a demon in their midst, plus the unregulated gut-churning gore, I believe the movie did a good job in its conveyance of horror. In fact, the foundation of the fear that I felt was established quite well given some details in the movie; mysterious and deceptive details that made me jump to conclusions; the movie was dark and eerie in general. Starting from the beginning, a solitary cabin in the woods and what appeared to be the demonic possession of a young girl, as well as her demise, a horrific death by immolation – this gave the movie for me a very chilling prelude. After that, several other details from the movie excited me. The mere idea of something terrible about to happen, but the characters unwitting, excites me. Several clues were leading to what was about to happen: the odor coming from the floor, that apparently came from a hidden room that had rotting animal corpses, a weapon and a book called Naturom Demonto inside… Plus Mia’s post-possession actions, killing Grandpa, showering with boiling water – I can’t even begin to imagine what it would feel like if I were there.

The series of events made it clear that whatever was happening was being caused by a supernatural entity. In this way, I think the movie remained faithful to its theme by not confusing its audience of what kind of horror they’ll be up against. It was made obvious when Mia was attacked by demonically possessed trees and when David tried to drive a burnt Mia to the hospital but couldn’t because of flood waters. Aside from all these, the characters were forced by the demonic spirit to hurt themselves, and I found their actions to be extremely disturbing – from Olivia cutting up her own cheek with broken glass (which made me close my eyes, by the way) to Natalie’s body getting chopped up with a chainsaw. The ending filled with Necronomicon prophesies, exorcisms, and blood rain was a brilliant cherry-on-top for the plot and theme in general. Evil-Dead, for me, is a great horror film overall.

Grace

111122

Although I was barely affected by the gory and saddening nature of the movie, what struck me most was the extent of the mother’s love for the child. Madeline, Grace’s mother, reached great heights – I could no longer distinguish if her efforts were noble or despicable. Madeline’s love for Grace was perhaps borne out of desperation to have something valuable in her life; add the fact that she’s a widow; perhaps living life alone was unacceptable for her. The price she paid, however willing she was, to me was extremely disturbing and nerve-wracking – and there was really nothing I could say considering that, despite the atrociousness of her actions, she was only being human.

I like how the plot properly established this desperation that I’m talking about. Given the dynamic between the characters; a loving couple who were desperate to conceive a child and have failed twice, the typical annoying mother-in-law who thinks she knows everything and imposes her views, and the conflict between the diagnoses of two doctors practicing in the same field but in very different manners, the plot, although it became a bit predictable, still was interesting because the extent of the intentions and motivations of the characters were amplified in such a humane way.

Aside from the praiseworthy dynamic and plot, I enjoyed the irony of Madeline’s love for Grace – an undead child who wasn’t necessarily possessed, but given the conditions of her birth, her healthiness depended on something else aside from milk – it was human blood. I think this says a lot about a mother’s love. A mother’s love can be so strong that the sacrifices that she makes for her child could lead to her own demise, offering her own blood, her own life, her whole humanity. Although the execution of this idea wasn’t too evident, beneath all that horror was a heartwarming reassurance of humanity. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not being able to realize what I have, though. The gore and absurdity in the movie hid the genuine humanity behind the scenes. On the surface it may seem like the mother was crazed; murdering Dr. Sohn in order to feed her own child, nursing the child with her own blood (until her breasts were literally raw), all these things can easily be seen as inhumane. But even so, given Madeline’s motivation that was established early in the film, the underlying motivation for all of her actions was no doubt the love for a child.

Finally, naming the child Grace already said so much. Usually, the word grace pertains to something that is given beyond what is required: a free-gift, a blessing. In turn, however, the “grace” that Madeline received was on the contrary similar to a curse. Instead of her life being filled with joy, her life became sad and filled with pain. But the idea here, I believe, is that humanity isn’t only realized while rejoicing — it’s also realized during suffering. After all those years of waiting relentlessly for a child to give meaning in her life, Madeline finally received the grace she needed – just not in the way she thought she would.

[Rec]

111122

The title suggests nothing about the plot of the movie, except for the fact that it means “record.” Even so, the idea of the movie being “recorded,” has no significant relevance in the story – but it has relevance in the technique that was used to strike fear to its audience. Apparently Being a “found footage” movie about what happened in Barcelona that night, the whole movie gave the impression that what was happening behind the camera was real, fully immersing viewers into the story, allowing them to experience fear – the same fear that the Angela and Pablo felt during the whole fiasco. This technique didn’t seem so effective, however, and any horror that I felt was due to panic and suspense that the “found footage” was conveying. This “shaky camera” technique unfortunately ruined the movie for me – it became hard to follow and I’m quite sure I felt nauseous after watching the movie. Nonetheless, it was a necessary technique to immerse the audience into the story.

Towards the end, the story was mixed with a hint of conspiracy, but I feel like it’s such a cheap attempt to add conspiracy to a movie by relating it to the mysterious institution we call the Vatican. I found it corny – but even so it gave a decent spin to the transpiration of events. The sickness, apparently, was due to demonic possession and not merely a disease. But despite clarifying the source of the disease, it didn’t add any excitement for me. Again, I found it corny and forced.

The only thing that I would dare commend about the movie would be the immersing experience of the shaky camera method. Running around the building, dark spaces and the sounds of infected people echoing in the halls – these aspects of the movie, I would have to admit, allowed me to empathize with the emotions of the people behind the camera. It actually reminded me of the excitement I feel when playing Left 4 Dead – a first person shooting game that involves fighting through hordes of zombies to reach a certain destination. In a similar way, Angela and Pablo had to retrieve several items in different parts of the building. The only horror I felt was due to the fact that they had to traverse five floors in order to retrieve a key, and then eventually come back down to exit via a sewage system. I reiterate that the movie in itself didn’t make me feel the horror that I’m talking about, but since I was somehow able to relate to the idea I was stricken somewhat with a little suspense. This fear that I’m talking about is derived from the most typical question for situations such as being trapped in a building: will I be able to make it out alive?

I’m no professional film critic, and the only basis of my words is my experience. In terms of experience, I would have to say that the movie did a great job, but the plot in itself was corny.

Deadgirl

111122

Perhaps one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever encountered, Deadgirl‘s characters are driven with the most primal sense of lust — to the point of raping a dead girl they discovered in an abandoned asylum. The horror in this film is derived not from the display of gore or screamers – it is derived from the sickening absurdity of the motivation of the characters. It’s a movie that made me seriously question whether or not people like those in the movie existed – it exaggerated the sex drive found in young boys. Rickie’s affection, however, counter-balanced the absurd motivations with genuineness.

The absurdity of motivation reached new heights when the four supporting characters actually teamed up to continue exploiting the undead woman in the asylum basement. The story became more sickening and unbelievable when they did, all to satisfy lustful desires. The consequences were poetically just, however – I enjoyed Johnny’s exploding intestines; it served him right. Needless to say, I enjoyed Johnny’s demise, because his surrender to his primal lust led to a death that he seemed to deserve. The same goes for the other lustful teens he was with, Wheeler and J.T., suffering the wrath of the dead girl.

I wonder, however, what the dead girl symbolizes. Could it be that the lust of man reduces a woman so much to an object, that she is deemed good as dead? And could this mean that Rickie’s noble act of freeing the dead girl meant freeing her from the oppressive dynamic of rape culture and objectification? Perhaps such a statement could be made about the movie’s plot: that man’s primal lust can reduce a woman to a tool of pleasure. The exact response of the dead girl could symbolize the hate towards douchebags (excuse the word use) like Wheeler, J.T. and Johnny, the violent resistance to rape culture.

Following this train of thought, what then could be made of Joann’s response at the end? She surrendered to the idea of being undead in order to continue living. It’s quite sad, actually, that she would rather continue living lifelessly instead of accepting death. Could it mean that some girls find comfort in rape culture — some kind of glorification of their bodies? What did she really mean when she told Rickie to “F**king grow up?” Perhaps such response is borne out of a distorted understanding of life, a twisted sense of maturity? So distorted, in fact, that surrendering to the idea of becoming undead (or basically, a sexual object) was considered as a form of help.

And on a subtly striking note, the movie ends with Rickie living normally, walking to Joann, the new Deadgirl. The horror, in my opinion, is not made fully obvious until the end. After all the sickening transpiration of events, the plot ends with a suggestion of normalcy for this kind of behavior; that essentially means that the concept of a Deadgirl, or rape culture, is tolerated in today’s society, and is borne out of distorted thinking coming from both men and women.

Innkeepers

111122

I liked the plot of the movie more than anything.  Driven with the enthusiasm for the unknown, the development of the story was filled with suspense and eeriness. I wasn’t necessarily on the edge of my seat, but nonetheless the movie kept me curious and wanting to know more about the history of the hotel.

The movie is about two ghost hunting enthusiasts working in an old grand hotel with a haunted history. Claire, a college dropout, and Luke, who runs a website about the hauntings in the hotel, are fascinated with the hotel’s history – the legend of Madeline O’Malley.

Madeline O’Malley apparently hanged herself in her room during the 1800s when her husband left her on her honeymoon, and rumors are the hotel owners hid her body is hidden in the basement.

The plot unfolds as Leanne Rease-Jones, a former actress, checks in the hotel. Throughout the movie her reason for staying is was unknown, until it was revealed in the latter part that she actually abandoned her acting career to become a spirit medium. One night, Claire hears noises coming from the garage while taking out the trash. She padlocks the door, but then uses Luke’s ghost hunting equipment to confirm the presence of spirits. During her experiment, she sees the grand piano in the lobby play by itself and hears faint voices. This was when she ran into Leanne, and Leanne told her the reason she was staying, and warned Claire not to go to the basement.

An old man was checking in to the hotel that day, and asked for a room on the third floor (the third floor no longer had any sheets and furniture because the hotel’s about to close) but Claire nonetheless provided him with bed sheets.

Out of curiosity, Luke and Claire decide to check out the basement, and they experienced paranormal activity. They panicked, and Luke left the hotel. Claire runs to Leanne for help, but Leanne says that they need to evacuate the hotel immediately. Claire goes to the third floor, and finds that the old man had slashed his wrists, with Madeline’s apparition hanging from a rope. She gets startled and runs away, but falls down the stairs and dies of asthma when she confronts Madeline’s apparition in the garage. Luke told the police that he wasn’t able to save Claire, despite hearing her screaming from the cellar.

The movie ends with Claire’s apparition looking out of the hotel window, and the door shutting behind her.

The significance of the plot, as I see it, is this: the repeated appearance of Madeline’s apparition suggests that her soul was trapped in the hotel, and that her presence affects the people within the hotel, an example of which is the old man killing himself (where Madeline’s apparition was shown as well). The hotel was driven with a spirit of death, and Claire’s curiosity led to her demise. In the end, her soul was stuck in the hotel as well, and she was literally kept in the inn.