Haunted is the directorial debut of Carl Robe. Almost a chamber picture with a light mystical flair and an oppressive atmosphere. There are no mythical monsters here – only those that can be seen in the mirror. The usual story, somewhere even ordinary: about secrecy, distrust and help not provided in time. And therefore, probably, very scary – realistic horrors scare not with monsters, but with the possibility that this will happen to you.
What is the movie Haunted about?
Katrin is a successful young woman who has everything for a happy life: a good job, a cozy apartment and a beloved man, Markus. But her inner tension and premonition of impending troubles do not let go, and Marcus does not improve the situation, hints that he wants a child, although he sees Katrin’s unpreparedness for such an important step. Reticences, tense silence – a lump of problems grows rapidly when Katrin finds out about the death of her father and her pregnancy.
She decides to have an abortion and sell the house she inherited, so she signs up for a clinic and returns to her hometown, planning to finish things in a couple of days. Residents strangely look at her, whisper behind her back and with pleasure twist tales about ghosts and the terrible aura of her family nest into conversations. At first, Catherine brushes it off, but soon she hears inexplicable creaks in the house, the sounds of steps and echoes of screams, and in the courtyard of the house she meets a strange girl.
Catherine is tormented by nightmares about the basement. The entrance is locked, but a simple inconspicuous door without a suitable key turns into a material embodiment of her fears. A girl – Daisy – appears out of nowhere, disappears into nowhere and behaves eccentrically, and an old friend of her mother, Catherine, sneaks into the house and, caught at the crime scene, tells the story of old years about Catherine’s aunt, Maria. About the disappearance of a little girl on one cold night.
Maria is gone. No one has seen her since Christmas Eve 1955, and the incident has not yet been forgotten by the city. Everyone is tormented by the question: who killed Mary?
The meaning of the film Haunted
The film Haunted is a multi-layered story that touches on various aspects of human psychology. What is its meaning? The meaning of the film Haunted: crime & madness. Who killed Mary?
Silence is the main cause of family discord
First, lovers face misunderstanding within their couple, each has secrets. They hide thoughts, plans and their true views of the world from each other and cannot explain when a loved one turned into a suspicious alien. This is how alienation begins.
Mystery piles on mystery, the mountain of innuendo grows exponentially, love turns into bitterness and distrust. The lovers refuse to sit down at the negotiating table, convincing themselves that they will not be understood or heard, and this turns out to be true. Two strangers already live under the same roof.
In the movie Haunted the main idea is that silence is the source of family problems. Emotions strangled at the root and hidden grievances, at best, bring discord into relationships, and at worst, lead to tragedy.
Monsters that live inside of us
The film Haunted raises the important issue of the demonization of mental illness. The genetic predisposition to mental disorders is often called a family curse, not wanting to understand. Treatment could save a person and his children from what will later be called a fatal combination of circumstances or the machinations of the devil.
People who are prone to mythological views of the world often see the source of nightmares not in a person suffering from a mental illness, but in some terrible predestination, which harms both themselves and the patient.
You can’t run away from unresolved problems
Unresolved problems, forgotten and powdered with time, are a beautiful picture on the wall, covering a huge hole. Out of sight, out of mind. A person, of course, can get rid of thoughts about difficulties at work or a quarrel with a loved one, but will this change the situation? No. Suppressed feelings and very real consequences will not disappear into thin air if you pretend that they do not exist.
The film Haunted demonstrates clearly: the problem, which they did not want to deal with and which was swept under the carpet, goes in cycles and haunts a person for many years, punishing for carelessness. And it’s good if it doesn’t turn into a system and doesn’t pass to the next generations.
How does the movie Haunted ending? Who killed Mary?
Throughout the film, the director pumps up the atmosphere, thickens the clouds over the heads of the main characters and confuses the viewer, but in the finale he draws the main intrigue clearly: the women of the Katrin family suffered from mental disorders. During the attacks, they saw in their children dangerous enemies – evil spirits that drive them crazy.
Maria was killed by her own mother – grandmother Catherine. She hid the body of the girl in the walls of the house to hide the crime, and never confessed to her deed even to her husband, who hoped to see Mary alive until her last breath. After a while, grandmother Catherine went to the doctor with complaints of mental seizures. It is not known whether her conscience tormented her or she understood that the tragedy could happen again.
Katrin must face family secrets and scary memories from her childhood to cut the Gordian knot and free herself from the shackles of the past.
