She can be any of the above. Its left open to the audience to decide. I think she was resurrected by the woods but turned back into her human self because she stopped eating human flesh and started to heal herself over time in the woods. But thats just my take on it. Something that freaked me out more than this film is the fact that the actress is 24! She looks really young, excellent casting for both her and the boy. I enjoyed this film, even if it was lacking in some areas. I think the pacing was very well done and made this semi short film feel longer than what it actually was. Which is a good thing.

@OddRob said:

She can be any of the above. Its left open to the audience to decide. I think she was resurrected by the woods but turned back into her human self because she stopped eating human flesh and started to heal herself over time in the woods. But thats just my take on it. Something that freaked me out more than this film is the fact that the actress is 24! She looks really young, excellent casting for both her and the boy. I enjoyed this film, even if it was lacking in some areas. I think the pacing was very well done and made this semi short film feel longer than what it actually was. Which is a good thing.

In that case, I have decided :). I see her as a tormented person, surviving lost and alone in the woods. Her awful situation and subsequent reaction to killing her mother and other passing by, make her see herself as a demon. Her demon face is a representation of how she sees herself, which is why it keeps getting better and better and in the end, she finally forgave herself and so her normal human face came back ... ready to move on. The boy was blind, and I choose to see this as a choice from the movie makers side so her appearance would remain an inner-representation of only her mind - why else keep him blind?

The three men in the forest did not seem to be too worried about her looks, and the older lady could reference to the fact she was dirty and looked like the spawn of a serial killer. The police officer though did scream in the radio that it was something not-human... and this one thing goes against my choice. But for the sake of argument, I will say his reaction was so because she jumped him like a Tasmanian devil and in his panic, these were his final words.

... I also noticed the snowglobe was still intact in her room in the abandoned house, and yet in the flashback, it was smashed against her face.... I choose to see this discrepancy as her flashback being part made up and part true... possibly in order for her to rationalize her inner view of her self... Dare I say the grave scene and the rape attempt did not happen - or happen that way?

The movie was unique and surely interesting. Better than the trailer seems to indicate and surely better than the title. I do not like the title, it makes it sound like a classic boxed horror flick... it wasn't.

... I also noticed the snowglobe was still intact in her room in the abandoned house, and yet in the flashback, it was smashed against her face.... I choose to see this discrepancy as her flashback being part made up and part true... possibly in order for her to rationalize her inner view of her self... Dare I say the grave scene and the rape attempt did not happen - or happen that way?

I think he hit her with the bottom of the snowglobe, the hard wooden part, so I would suspect it woudnt really break the glass. I think the rape and grave scenes did happen, but dont know if it happened exactly as she remembers it. I really enjoyed this little film. And you are right, the trailer didnt really do it justice.

One thing I dont get is why would Alex call his mother and than not talk to her? I mean Josef said to call that number in case anything happened to him and his 'friends' would come and get him right? So did Alex lie or did Josef lie about the number? Very confusing for me.

My recolection of the rape scene is that the snow globe broke, and he hit her face with the broken glass first.

Good point about the phone. When I saw it I just figured it was his mothers number he said, and not Josephs number. He did not talk, because he was conflicted.... alternatively, his mother was one of Joseph s people? No, that would not make any sense.....

@HAL 9010' said:

My recolection of the rape scene is that the snow globe broke, and he hit her face with the broken glass first.

Good point about the phone. When I saw it I just figured it was his mothers number he said, and not Josephs number. He did not talk, because he was conflicted.... alternatively, his mother was one of Joseph s people? No, that would not make any sense.....

What made me cringe about this movie was the phone call in today's world. The FBI would've been out in full force after he made that call. The producers could've went with the cliched "No Service", but they let the call go through.

@drjekel_mrhyde said:

@HAL 9010' said:

My recolection of the rape scene is that the snow globe broke, and he hit her face with the broken glass first.

Good point about the phone. When I saw it I just figured it was his mothers number he said, and not Josephs number. He did not talk, because he was conflicted.... alternatively, his mother was one of Joseph s people? No, that would not make any sense.....

What made me cringe about this movie was the phone call in today's world. The FBI would've been out in full force after he made that call. The producers could've went with the cliched "No Service", but they let the call go through.

But wasn't that what happened? I might have dozed off a bit, but she delivered him back to the authorities somewhere in the woods... I just assumed they got there because of the call.

HAL, you're right about the call. They wouldn't instantly appear just because of the call. It'd take them a while, and mobile phone locations aren't precise, depending on the area and towers.

Just saw this, and the snow globe definitely did not break. There isn't a discrepancy with this. Snow globs actually aren't very fragile (despite what some movies might show). The glass is very thick.

My take is that she was truly undead, i.e. a zombie. It's right there in the movie description even. She became undead, then reverted to human, having not aged in 10 or more years (we don't know the exact time she's been out there, but one of the guys said she disappeared when he was a kid, so probably about 10, maybe 15 years ago, perhaps as many as 20).

We can only speculate, but there are two options for how she became undead and then reverted back to human (even though it'd been a decade or more with her not aging). 1.) Either the woods is responsible for her becoming undead and her leaving the woods reverted her back to human, or 2.) her emotional "deadness" turned her undead and the relationship and the emotions she felt for the boy reverted her back to human.

Remember when she first finds the lighter she burns herself but doesn't feel it. Later after having developed an emotional connection with the boy she does it again but it hurts her hands this time. This is a subtle indicator that she's changing, becoming more human again. It instantly occurred to me as soon as I watched that scene with the lighter flame hurting her hand.

I think this is a physical representation of her emotional state as well. She was emotionally dead, therefore physically dead. Then she was brought back by her feelings for the boy, ready to join the world of emotional living again. In light of that I don't think it was the woods. I think it was her. Her emotional and physical states were linked. Her re-woken emotions reverted her back. But we can only truly speculate on that.

@warrior-poet said:

HAL, you're right about the call. They wouldn't instantly appear just because of the call. It'd take them a while, and mobile phone locations aren't precise, depending on the area and towers.

Just saw this, and the snow globe definitely did not break. There isn't a discrepancy with this. Snow globs actually aren't very fragile (despite what some movies might show). The glass is very thick.

My take is that she was truly undead, i.e. a zombie. It's right there in the movie description even. She became undead, then reverted to human, having not aged in 10 or more years (we don't know the exact time she's been out there, but one of the guys said she disappeared when he was a kid, so probably about 10, maybe 15 years ago, perhaps as many as 20).

We can only speculate, but there are two options for how she became undead and then reverted back to human (even though it'd been a decade or more with her not aging). 1.) Either the woods is responsible for her becoming undead and her leaving the woods reverted her back to human, or 2.) her emotional "deadness" turned her undead and the relationship and the emotions she felt for the boy reverted her back to human.

Remember when she first finds the lighter she burns herself but doesn't feel it. Later after having developed an emotional connection with the boy she does it again but it hurts her hands this time. This is a subtle indicator that she's changing, becoming more human again. It instantly occurred to me as soon as I watched that scene with the lighter flame hurting her hand.

I think this is a physical representation of her emotional state as well. She was emotionally dead, therefore physically dead. Then she was brought back by her feelings for the boy, ready to join the world of emotional living again. In light of that I don't think it was the woods. I think it was her. Her emotional and physical states were linked. Her re-woken emotions reverted her back. But we can only truly speculate on that.

warrior-poet, as always you have a keen eye for detail. If indeed she did disappear 10 or more years ago, I think there can be no doubt. And the lighter thing is a clear demonstration that her feelings are coming back, and no mental-depression can discard the pain of fire like that. So with these two facts, I agree with you. A bit of a shame, as I liked my socia-realistic version more, I think...

Thanks! Always enjoy your musings as well, especially on the time travel stuff we both seem to like.

For about half the film I was wondering how long she'd been out there influencing the mythology the town had developed about a monster in the woods. It wasn't very clear until the one guy of the three that tried to attack her (failing miserably and dying in horrible ways) said that Mina was the name of the girl who disappeared when "I was a kid", which provided at least a rough timeline (he was in his 20's or 30's).

With those details I noted it became apparent that her recovery back to a normal living human was tied to her emotional connection to blind-boy Alex, and that she'd been in an undead state for a decade or longer, never aging. Whether it was all her, some random metaphysical occurrence, or something about the woods, is hard to say and may be a matter of personal interpretation.

In a way though your thoughts have merit. The main difference is that within the universe of the film her emotional state manifested into a physical reality instead of her condition being just all in her mind.