Dara Linthwaite

I wanted to see this because I’ve lived in the lower Hudson Valley of NY but I was disappointed by both the plot and the setting which could have taken place on a farm somewhere in middle America. This may have worked better as a TV series as none of the elements were explored sufficiently and many issues seemed to be superfluous to the plot. Did the wife really have to be bulimic for the story to work? Wouldn’t it have been more realistic for one of the parents to have a prescription for sedatives rather than the daughter? And (Spoiler alert) the ending where the husband easily bribes a caretaker to take out a boat was too ridiculous to be believed. Heavy-handed symbolism ensues. Perhaps if all these elements had been explored more thoroughly, it would have explained the lack of motivation, but that would have made for a long, heavy-handed movie. Instead, I felt like I was watching The Amityville Horror 2 meets What Lies Beneath with elements of The Shining. I hope the book is better as the supernatural aspect was chilling and deserved more exploration to tie the too many plot incidentals together.