MovieChat Forums > Hard Candy (2006) Discussion > Was Aunt Denise way out of line?

Was Aunt Denise way out of line?

posted 9 years ago by coolbrett
4 replies | jump to latest

He was 9 at the time and he said that his cousin who was like 5, jumped on him naked. He stated that he didn't want to do anything cos he didn't want to hurt her and that it was weird, and it sounds like she did it out of her own free will. Let's not forget, he was also a far underage child himself. And yet the aunt came in like a psycho and threatened to violently abuse a defenseless child, and never saw him again. In my opinion she totally overreacted. They were both just kids, and there couldn't have possibly been anything sexual going on at both their ages. He didn't do anything wrong then, but maybe the traumatic experience remained in his brain and he felt a weird connection with children from that point, even if the memories were bad ones. Who knows how psychology like that works.

[–] scyza 9 years ago

I'm not sure that whole Aunt Denise story ever happened... I thought he only made it up in an attempt to manipulate Hayley.

But to answer your question, yes, of course it was way out of line. If you ask me, even downright psycho. No sane person would ever think of what she did as an appropriate punishment for a 9 year old, especially since there wasn't actually anything to punish him for. Children see nudity in a completely different way and an adult, a mother especially, should have known that. She may still have talked about it to both the boy and the girl, but a punishment of any kind was completely uncalled for.

[–] coolbrett 9 years ago

I'm pretty sure he was telling the truth. The story didn't sound like one that was intended to get him out of trouble. I don't know exactly why he decided to tell the story though, but perhaps it was cos he was under a lot of stress and panic and when that happens you usually don't think straight and just say whatever comes to your mind. He was releasing some pent up memories from his troubled childhood. Even after he thought he had his balls cut off, he told her that he told the little girl what her mother did and she didn't believe him.

[–] joycbeyda 8 years ago

I am pretty sure that story was true. He followed up a little later and I think he stated that he went to Aunt Denise's funeral and saw his cousin there.

It seemed that he brought it up because it was a painful memory for him. Something that he as a child looked at innocently, turned into him being labeled negatively and punished by an adult.

[–] Dragon000 8 years ago

Yes, she was way out of line!