Question: Several times in the movie one character is able to ascertain in which hotel room another character is staying simply by asking the front desk for the room number. Was this realistic at the time the movie was made? Today, a hotel would never divulge a guest's room number to a stranger, since such information could potentially be used by burglars and/or predators to gain access to hotel rooms. Was security really that lax in the 1950s?
Answer: Yes, security was that lax in the 1950s and beyond. People could acquire all kinds of information about individuals from various types of businesses. Not all were so careless, but many were or they naively didn't see a concern. In the late 1980s, I was a student at a university where a non-university person obtained his ex-girlfriend's class schedule simply by requesting it in-person from the registrar's office. Using that information, he was able to locate and fatally shoot her on campus.
Question: During jury selection, Kevin decides to have one of the jury dismissed, I believe, because of the shoes the jury member wore. What exactly do the guy's shoes have to do with anything?
Answer: The shoes showed him this man polishes them every day, also his clothes are custom made. That all means the look he has of a black thug is deceiving, instead he's a cautious, proud person they can't use in the jury. Just to add, Kevin knows all this because the devil (his father, spoiler alert) is giving him the talent to do it, not a logical explanation can be given why he dismisses these people.
Question: Is Callahan holding the binoculars upside down when he is peering down on the apartments looking for Scorpio? He is on the rooftop with the Jesus Saves Sign. They look upside down to me. (00:38:39)
Answer: Yes the binoculars are upside down.
Question: Through most of the film Malcolm is dead. All the other ghosts still have scars from how they died but why doesn't Malcolm have his mark which should be a bullet wound?
Answer: Because as Cole tells us in the middle of the movie, "They only see what they want to see." The movie shows us Malcolm as he perceives himself. He can't actually put on an overcoat, or change clothes. He sees what he expects to see. He goes outside in the cold to visit Cole, so he sees himself wearing an overcoat. He doesn't know he is dead - he doesn't see his wound. To preserve this misdirection throughout the movie, we are shown Malcolm as he sees himself.
Actually, we do see Malcolm and Cole sees him. The entry wound in his abdomen is tiny, and the large, obvious exit wound is on Malcolm's back, which we never see.
Question: Why did Argyle want to kill Michael? I can understand wanting to kill those who harmed him but Michael was an innocent boy.
Answer: She said in the movie, "He must see himself as a child in Michael. He wants to get rid of him to erase his past."
Answer: While Argyle shows a strange affinity for Michael, his primary goal is still revenge on the entire town. Innocent or not, Michael is connected to those who tortured him.
How could Michael have anything to do with those men that he killed? He's just a kid.
How is he connected?
Question: I was wondering why the man and woman in the last trap didn't use the woman from the bathtub to give the pints of blood? They could have carried her into the room because the door stayed open for about forty seconds.
Chosen answer: Assuming the woman in the bathtub was able to be moved safely the amount of blood gained from her, while still being helpful, would probably not be enough to save the final two survivors from self harm. Without the heart pumping blood you would only get the blood that was in her arm at the moment. You would have to lift her or raise her so gravity would get other blood moving to get enough. Which the final two possibly could have done, but stress of the situation clouded their judgement.
Question: When Rosemary gets into the Castavets right at the end, she walks past a man, and then the man says something. She then replies "Be quiet, you're still in [some location]" What was that about...?
Chosen answer: Roman Castavet is trying to get Rosemary's attention, and she says "Be quiet, you're in Dubrovnik, I can't hear you". That was in reference to the fact that Roman and Minnie were supposed to have gone to Majorca or Dubrovnik after she found out that Roman was supposedly dying (which was just a lie Rosemary was told so she wouldn't suspect them when her baby was taken). Roman and Minnie got in a cab and pretended to go to the airport, but never left town.
Question: When going to kill the Killians, how did the Horseman know that Thomas was hiding under the floor? Thomas stayed completely still and didn't make a sound.
Question: What is Lynn's connection to the Nite Owl killings?
Answer: She doesn't really have one - not directly, anyway. The only link is that Susan Lefferts died at the Night Owl, and Bud saw Lynn with Lefferts when he was buying the alcohol for the party. Lefferts had the bandage on her nose at the time, which sparked Bud's curiosity and prompted him to seek out Lynn after Lefferts was murdered.
Question: Why does the weather and road/ground change so much (dry, rain storm, wet, snow) in the beginning of the movie from the kitchen to the train station?
Answer: The opening credit scene (waking up, in the kitchen, the drive, being on the train, and walking through the terminal) is montage where each cut represents another day in Michael's life. It's meant to show the monotony of his life through the whole year (or even years) and how he follows the same routine everyday.
Question: There is a LOT of changes if you compare the film to the book, and most of them I understand, since you always have to make some changes. But why did they change such things as characters names and genders?
Answer: The film makers changed the name of Amelia Sachs because it sounded too much like 'sex'. I have not been able to discover for certain why they made Thom into a woman, but possibly this had to do with Thom's homosexuality. It could be viewed as controversial that Rhyme's nurse is a gay man, and could possibly also bring Rhyme's own sexuality into question. To make the nurse female would avoid all such issues.
Question: Who is Conrad? Harry Conick, Jr.'s character writes him a letter at the end, and there is a Conrad character listed in the credits, but I haven't been able to find him.
Answer: I thought that it was Peter Kurten (Foley) that broke in and left the book. However if it was Conrad, then he does not appear in the flesh in the film.
You are correct. I just rewatched this tonight on Tubi.
Answer: Conrad is the man that breaks into Helen's flat and leaves the book. Happens just over 1 hour into the film.
Answer: I don't think Conrad appears in the film. Earlier in the movie HC Jr says he has other "disciples"; Conrad seems to be the new recruit to replace the just-killed McNamara character.
Question: How exactly does an escaped male mental patient who's posing as a woman a) work as a police officer without having violent mood swings most of the time, b) acquire money for breast implants and c) avoid a single physical examination that would have exposed his penis?
Answer: Just because someone has been institutionalized doesn't mean they have mood swings. If this was a manic episode (which it appears to be) there wouldn't be any swings at all. Just manic all the time. It wouldn't last forever, but its different for everyone. As for the money, plastic surgery can be financed! and we don't know if s/he had money stashed away beforehand. And for the last question, I just don't know. Not very likely, but some people get through lots of physical testing that shouldn't. Possibly documents were forged? Just speculation on my part.
Answer: The money came from her pro football career, She stole an identity to become a police officer.
Question: What did Candyman mean when he told Helen it was always her? Why was he so interested in Helen?
Answer: When Helen goes back and sees the mural of his murder, the camera lingers on a woman in the picture that looks like her. This is the woman Candyman was in love with before he was killed. The implication is either she was reincarnated as Helen, or Helen reminded him of her, hence his interest in her.
Question: Who laced the cookies that were given to the children with arsenic? It's never shown who applies it, only who takes the cookies to them.
Answer: When the children discover the cookies had been poisoned (revealed by the death of their pet mouse which ate part of one of the cookies), they suspect their grandmother. After all, she was the one who had been cruel to them all along. But eventually, they realise that it was in fact, their mother, Corinne, who was lacing the cookies with poison. She was doing so with the hope that the children would eventually die, seemingly from disease. In doing so, she would secure the family inheritance which was contingent upon her never having had children from her first marriage. They eventually confront their mother on the day of her second wedding, and a struggle ensues which ultimately leads to Corinne falling to her death from a balcony.
Question: Could someone please explain the end to me? Why was Julie a different person at the end when she was in her father's office?
Chosen answer: Julie was not the publisher's daughter. Julia, who we see at the end, is the real daughter - given that Sarah doesn't seem very surprised to see Julia at the end (and the reaction of the secretary proves she's known to everyone), the most likely explanation is that the entire sequence in France is in fact the content of Sarah's book, and never really happened.
Question: The children in Teddy's hallucinations were bloody but they died by drowning. Is this just an inference to Andrew's guilt that his children's "blood is on his hands" because he didn't seek treatment for Dolores' mental illness? Or is it Scorsese being overly dramatic and adding a lot of blood where it doesn't belong? Also, how exactly did Andrew kill Dolores? Did he use his service revolver, even though we don't hear the shot?
Chosen answer: I think the recurring blood comes from the blood of his wife when he killed her. there was a lot of blood you see, in his psychosis that means a lot and has taken over a large part of his hallucinations, just like Dachau camp. Yes, he did shoot his wife Dolores, in the belly. You can see it in the end of the movie.
Question: How exactly does the father kill the wife? I noticed when she comes down the stairs she comes out of a bloody bag. So how is she killed?
Answer: Well, in the Japanese original (Ju-On: The Grudge), it shows that Takeo, the father, killed his wife by shoving a knife down her throat or something similar to that. When he was killing her, she tried to scream, except her scream came out all messed up (because the knife hit the vocal chords), which explains the horrible croaking noise. There's no doubt about it that it's the way she was killed in this version.
Answer: Another website states that after pushing her down, Kayako sprained her ankle and crawled down the stairs, only to realise Takeo was slowly following her from behind watching her suffer. He then snapped her neck, but she was still alive and could only make the croaking noise. It is also implied that he stabbed her multiple times afterwards, which could explain the bloody corpse.
Question: My understanding is that Vee orchestrated the plan for Ty to bring a blank filled gun, but how was the dare revealed to her before being told to shoot her opponent, let alone before given the gun?
Answer: Once she saw the gun and knew how crazy the game was, she formed an idea that someone's would get shot and believed that it would be her.
Answer: Not really. You could (and at some hotels are still able to) keep your room number private or you could not - i.e. you could ask the hotel staff to keep your number secret from strangers, or you could ask them to tell anyone who might ask. Not having seen this movie, I don't know how likely it would be in the situations you speak of that the hotel guest would choose the latter option- it might be a mistake.
Blibbetyblip