MovieChat Forums > After.Life (2009) Discussion > Anna WAS alive and Deacon WAS a serial k...

Anna WAS alive and Deacon WAS a serial killer according to director

posted 9 years ago by goddabkiddin
8 replies | jump to latest

According to an interview with the director as shown on the film's DVD, Anna was alive, and there are many clues throughout that point to this. Just before Anna's accident, she is being tailgated by a white van that we later learn belongs to Deacon. About 60 minutes into the movie, Anna is in a room with Deacon with a mirror. She admits that she looks like a corpse, closes her eyes, and exhales. Her breath fogs up the mirror, which Deacon wipes away before she reopens her eyes. When Paul is at the police station, one of the cops mentions that a drug exists that could slow heartbeat to almost nothing and cause paralysis. When we see Deacon giving Anna an injection shortly after, the vial has the same name on it. Note that it is pointless to inject a corpse with anything because there is no blood flow and therefore no way to circulate a drug through the body. There is also the scene between Anna and Deacon where she sees her breath condensation on the handheld mirror and panics, screaming "You lied to me!" Deacon is in fact a psychopath, who takes it upon himself to decide who gets to live. The final clue is when Deacon puts Anna's picture on his wall, and we pan out to see all of the pictures. Some of the people have eyes open, other eyes closed. Wojtowicz-Vosloo says that those whose eyes were open were, like Anna, ones who were not really dead.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] h1tm4n_ 9 years ago

Thanks for posting the director's summary.

For me there was always one thing that didn't make sense, if she would have been dead: Why is her corpse walking around? I mean that when you are dead, it would make sense that the corpse is lying on the table and your spirit is walking around and can see the corpse. But not the corpse wandering around and move objects and breath on mirrors.

(Grissom): -Are you a terrorist?
(suspect): -Depends, are you terrified?

[–] appealing_talent 8 years ago

I believe Anna's hallucinations were probably caused by drugs Deacon injected her with, too. I, also, believe Deacon saw himself as a sort of angel of death ridding unhappy souls of their encumbrances while making the world a better place for those who didn't screw up and/or waste their lives. He gave Anna a chance to go on with her life, but she proved to him that his decision to end it was correct, when she was afraid to leave. He was playing God, so yes I see him as psychopathic, but he was convinced that his motives were essentially benevolent for all concerned.

[–] lenkabalasova-86172 8 years ago

Anna was DEFINITELY alive - remember her dirty hands, fingers, fingernails at the ending, when her friend embraced her - how she tried to get out of the grave

[–] hannakurtto 8 years ago

Some more clues are that he asked the ones who were still alive what type of flowers they like. That is how he knew what kind of flowers to use in the funeral, but only for those who were alive. Also when Anna was in her piano teacher´s funeral, she sees him moving in the coffin just moving his eyes and Anna flinches. This is one of the clues that some of the people were actually still alive. The killer sees Anna seeing the teacher move. This is probably one of the reasons he focuses on Anna, and also seeing her so nervous and looking for her pills/keys in the drive way.
Anna was clearly alive when she was buried. So was her old piano teacher, and many others. I have a hard time understanding how people can think otherwise about this, but I guess there are always many interpretations and that is one great thing about movies.
I found it so annoying, her just giving up like that and not trying to escape... useless and frustrating.
The part that was creepy was him starting to teach the little boy to follow in his footsteps.

[–] scottstvshop 8 years ago

I really wanted some kind of rescue for her and an end to to the funeral directors predatory ways, but I guess it wasn't to be. If I had been her he would have gotten a knife or scissors in the chest and she should have called 911 instead of her boyfriend. That kid was who I thought would rescue her maybe from the grave ended up being a fiend of sorts too.

[–] maarck6 8 years ago

God, I truly hated the ending. It made all of the emotional investment in this movie null and void. Some kind of conclusion other than the one it had would have been better. And yeah, that kid was creepy too.

[–] sneezer (166) 6 years ago

it is apparent that she was alive all the while, and the mortician was a serial killer who buries the living, causing their deaths from suffocation, stuck inside a casket six feet underground, with no air to breathe. That is why this movie is a horror movie. It wasn't a mortician with a gift to talk to the dead. He was a wicked serial killer. There were so many clues. If she were dead, how could she trash the examination room? How could she fog up the mirror with her breath? She has NO way of doing that if she is dead. The ending, where Paul tells him that she was alive, and he killed her. The mortician then sticks the trocar into his body, into a vital organ, and that is it for him. He's dead. The sad thing is, the little boy was probably told to put the chick into the box and bury it, killing it the same way. He taught the boy how to bury animals alive, and after he gets older, he will graduate to doing the same to humans.