I really enjoyed this movie and found it very engrossing and well acted. I love when things are not quite right and we are left to discern what the heck is going on. Lots of creepy and unsettling things that become a little more clear as the movie progresses. I found it had a satisfying ending after staying with it for so long. But I love to share interpretations, so what follows is a bit of mine:
Major Spoilers Ahead!!!! ***************************** I may be way off, especially because of the language barrier, but in a nutshell, sleep is where all the "action" takes place. I think this represents our inner thoughts and the nature of things that are in us that people don't get to see. Who we are when the world isn't watching. The mother starts out by having nightmares that are related to her past. That is another theme, and she was orphaned in a tragic way, which seems to be haunting her thoughts and dreams. She is insecure about her being orphaned. Yet through her own actions, she is seeming to "orphan" her own daughter as well. Their relationship is strained and she is alienating her through her own inner thoughts of insecurity and unresolve through her past. The daughter takes center stage and begins to have these dreams as well. Is she just repeating her mother's craziness now too? Doomed to repeat the sins of the past? The weird owner of the hotel has some major screwed up inner thoughts and opinions. So much so that he has to be strapped down at night or he will repeat the sins of his past all over the place. In the lullaby that is heard on the tape recorder, it mentions the incubus at her door. An incubus is a demon that has sex with sleeping women. The hotel owner is a slimy guy who did that with Mona's grandmother. He also carves wooden boars and gave one to the little girl who was the offspring of that relationship. It had her name on it. The boar is his symbol for all the boarish nastiness that he is in his inner self. Which includes even Nazi hate and bigotry. A nasty boar. The channeling of the woman he killed (Mona's grandmother) is a supernatural way of representing the overcoming of this nasty dude by the women he victimized and the ultimate wrestling of the sins of the past to finally put to death those tendencies in them. The spirit tells Mona it can all end with her or her mother. That is true of any generation. But is it easy? Well it was a fight in the film. And at the end, when they are reunited and all is well and the sins of the past have been destroyed, literally symbolized by the boar-ish man... well there is a coda. I didn't get all the language stuff but it appeared that Mona was at a party and there was some discussion about the dude being a "she" or at least some identity issues, and she was talking to the gal next to her about how she thought it was weird and stuff. Then she sees a boar at the end of hall. Could it be that those same sins of her grandfather are struggling to reappear in Mona. Are they ever really put to death? Or do they need to be continually killed? That is my take. Overall a really good flick.
Major Spoilers Ahead!!!! ***************************** I may be way off, especially because of the language barrier, but in a nutshell, sleep is where all the "action" takes place. I think this represents our inner thoughts and the nature of things that are in us that people don't get to see. Who we are when the world isn't watching. The mother starts out by having nightmares that are related to her past. That is another theme, and she was orphaned in a tragic way, which seems to be haunting her thoughts and dreams. She is insecure about her being orphaned. Yet through her own actions, she is seeming to "orphan" her own daughter as well. Their relationship is strained and she is alienating her through her own inner thoughts of insecurity and unresolve through her past. The daughter takes center stage and begins to have these dreams as well. Is she just repeating her mother's craziness now too? Doomed to repeat the sins of the past? The weird owner of the hotel has some major screwed up inner thoughts and opinions. So much so that he has to be strapped down at night or he will repeat the sins of his past all over the place. In the lullaby that is heard on the tape recorder, it mentions the incubus at her door. An incubus is a demon that has sex with sleeping women. The hotel owner is a slimy guy who did that with Mona's grandmother. He also carves wooden boars and gave one to the little girl who was the offspring of that relationship. It had her name on it. The boar is his symbol for all the boarish nastiness that he is in his inner self. Which includes even Nazi hate and bigotry. A nasty boar. The channeling of the woman he killed (Mona's grandmother) is a supernatural way of representing the overcoming of this nasty dude by the women he victimized and the ultimate wrestling of the sins of the past to finally put to death those tendencies in them. The spirit tells Mona it can all end with her or her mother. That is true of any generation. But is it easy? Well it was a fight in the film. And at the end, when they are reunited and all is well and the sins of the past have been destroyed, literally symbolized by the boar-ish man... well there is a coda. I didn't get all the language stuff but it appeared that Mona was at a party and there was some discussion about the dude being a "she" or at least some identity issues, and she was talking to the gal next to her about how she thought it was weird and stuff. Then she sees a boar at the end of hall. Could it be that those same sins of her grandfather are struggling to reappear in Mona. Are they ever really put to death? Or do they need to be continually killed? That is my take. Overall a really good flick.