@gold167
Alice killed Karen
Alice stabbed Aunt
Everyone else was done by Mrs Tredoni.
Alice killed noone. Alice is a red herring. Her parents knew she was a disturbed child, but the film also promotes parental love; in more than one scene the parents contradict everyone around them (who represent us, the audience), and point that they know their daughter, and that murder is not something she could ever be blamed for. And they are shown to be very loving parents. The mother, even though scornful towards Alice during her outbreaks, shows genuine love towards her in the key situations. The father seems very loving as well. Can you imagine, for the parents with a difficult child like Alice, how much they would have went through in 12 years? If anyone, they're the ones that know her. The film assrets it, and I believe the film, because it asserts it well.
Alice didn't kill her sister Karen. First, the person who burned Karen - chose to use one significant object: a candle. Didn't light the girl's clothes simply with a match or a lighter, but with a sacramental, liturgical accessory, candle. And, the person lit that candle very matter-of-factly, as if having done it a million times before. It isn't a final proof, I know. But why would Alice bother with candles? She didn't hold church too close to her heart or have plenty of respect for any authority. Alice was a loner, and kind of a social outcast who observed the world from a distance. Third, would she be that unwise to murder her sister right at the moment when all the townspeople are noticing she's being late for the communion? And why choose the communion at all? If she wanted her sister dead, she could have chosen any single day to kill her. It'd be just a little too much of a coincidence that Alice kills Karen right at the same moment in Karen't life as that at which Mrs. Tredoni's daughter was "taken by God". Fourth, the actual actor in the yellow raincoat in front of the camera was not Paula E. Sheppard; it was someone bigger than her. Fifth, would Alice really be so much physically stronger than Karen to choke her to death so easily and quietly? None of these five things are final proofs, but they shouldn't be disregarded.
Alice didn't stab her Aunt Annie. The polygraph scene shows that Alice saw the stabbing, but didn't commit it. All other questions asked by the polygrapher showed Alice wasn't lying during the test.
Anyway, what would be the moral of the story with two killers, of which Alice would be one? What would such a film teach us about the world and about ourselves? On the other hand, the Mrs. Tredoni-the-sole-killer version does teach us something: that we are quick to put blame on those whom we don't keep in high regard. In this particular case, on Alice. And that's the point this film worked hard on getting accross. The part where Dom starts to blame Angela, even though he'd already felt the sting of false blame based on weak suspicion, and gets reproached for it - is not put in the script just to fill up time. Sure, you could argue that this is a thriller and a horror, and not some kind of drama with a point to make. Yeah, but that's treating the screenwriters as shallow, narrow-minded simpletons. Based on the entire film, I don't have an impression that they are that.
All that being said, this part of your post may be a good interpretation:
Alice took the knife at the end she wanted to carry on where she left off
I, however, think the last scene is yet another chance for the filmmakers to test the viewers on the point I talked about above. Insted of to start killing people, Alice very well may have taken Mrs. Tredoni's bloddy knife to do what one poster already wrote: to add to the nasty item collection that she keeps. Alice is simply drawn to such items because she loves that they are - improper. But, just because someone loves creepy dolls, masks, and cockroaches, it doesn't mean he or she is also murderous.
Saying that Alice is a killer is a witch-hunt twice removed.
no i am db
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14 years ago
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AlienTerminator
14 years ago
But why would Tredoni pick the communion as the time to kill Karen? Wouldn't it be too much of a risk of being seen?
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kaysild
11 years ago
Bc that's when god (her words) took her daughter and she thought that the mother was impure ( bc she was pregnant already when she got married, and then she got divorced, both looked upon very badly in and out of the church back then) and it wasnt fair she got to have her beloved daughters so she killed Karen, she chose Karen bc she was the sweet innocent lovely girl and the priest gave her the cross and mrs. T was VERY jealous that he gave Karen that necklace. You guys are very confused maybe you should rewatch it bc you guys missed some very important scenes.
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