Sarah Uddin

ALTERNATE ENDING below! Overall, Paradise Hills had a good premise, awesome costume design, and the set was beautiful. However, the characters were static and the ending was SO disappointing, both in symbolism and story arc. It was so bad that I wrote a more satisfying alternate ending: Before I alter the ending, I have to alter the opening scene. Uma sings Amara's song and joins Son at the base of the stairs. They begin to walk up together toward the bedroom (but we do not see Uma waiting in bed). Then, the movie proceeds as filmed until the escape scene. They find out theyre being cloned and killed. Yu dies. They have the conversation with the Lowers as screened. Now, Chloe and Uma are running through the rose garden. Chloe gets snatched forcefully by thorny branches. Uma loses grasp of Chloes hands and we see Chloe lifted into the air and into the tall rose bushes. We see her body breaking. Uma is unable to save her. Chloe dies while urging Uma to run and save herself. (We do not see the dutchess killing the girls.) Uma goes to the boat. There, she finds her double and together they leave the island, as screened. It's the opening scene again, but just as Uma and Son are walking up the stairs. Her double walks in. There is muttering and gasps of confusion. Uma and her double stand side by side. Together they expose the truth about Paradise Hills, that if all had gone to plan, only the double would be standing there and Uma would be dead. There are other girls who were sent to Paradise Hills in the crowd. A mother grasps her 'daughter's' shoulder and screams, "who are you? What have you done to my daughter?" Family members and spouses back away from the doubles. Some look horrified and some confused. Next scene: law enforcement breaks down the doors to Paradise Hills. They expose the labs and operating tables. Uma leads them to the rose garden where they find the bodies of Amara, Yu, and Chloe (and all the others). They imprison everyone involved, including the Lowers (because Lowers always get the shaft). But they can't find the dutchess. Uma asks a police officer what killed all the girls, and he says, it looks like they were bled out by some animal, but is confused about the thorny branches holding the girls in place. Next scene: Uma is packing as the TV is on the in background. The news reports mass funerals being held by some victims of Paradise Hills. But oddly, many people are choosing to keep the doubles. They interview a man who says "she is my wife in all the ways that matter." Uma turns off the TV. Grabs her luggage. She opens the front door. Standing outside, she looks down on the map that Amara gave her. She looks into the distance and walks down the street and away from view. Final scene: the camera pans through the now empty Paradise Hills: the lonely horse simulator, the empty tables with broken tea cups, the empty beds, the lab with broken computer screens, the Lowers bath with no water. Then into the rose Garden. We see a figure from the back, feasting on a deer, thorny branches alive and flailing over the carcass. We zoom closer and closer. The figure looks suddenly looks over her shoulder and we see the dutchess, her teeth bared and face bloody. She makes an unearthly scream. End.