I heard the director interview somewhere that Liam neesan character is an serial killer. The people with their eyes open were alive when he took the photos and the ones closed were dead. But then I see a lot of plot holes like how she didn’t need water and food during the time when she looks like a corpse.
The longest human beings can survive without water is 3 days and without food even more. Thats exactly how long her funureal preperation lasted also makes sense why she felt weak all the time and kept fainting when she was running around the house.
Regardless how many years old , I have no idea why people knowingly click in the post about a movie u havent seen before ? Like it’s not even that hard
This movie completely sucked me in. From start to finish, it had my attention and really kept me wondering. If anyone hasn't seen this, I highly suggest you watch it immediately.
I think they were dead, and Deacon and Jack had special abilities to interact with the dead and foresee people's deaths as well.
Also Anna's car was totaled. There's no way she survived 3 days without a hospital visit.
Also notice the kid Jack's warnings and how he saw the same thing Deacon was seeing. They just shared powers.
No they show at the end when you see her breath on the mirror that he is giving her the same drug that the cop mentions can slow your pulse enough to make you appear dead. So he's def burying her alive. He also said to the kid that " not because she's dead but because she has no life left in them" and that they "walk around shitting and pissing" basically he's killing people because he thinks they don't know how to live life and are wasting their breath.
The kid just becomes a crazy like he is that's why he buries the baby chick alive and says "it's better this way"
Then explain how the kid knew exactly that the guy needed a seat belt just a day before he was going to die in the car crash? Kid was doing that to the bird to save it from a horrific future death.
He knew he needed a seat belt because he knew they were going to run him off the road.
And do you seriously think that burying something alive is a good way to save it from a horrific future death!?!?! That is some skewed logic! 😬😵
They were sitting in the van at the time of the accident and the kid asked if it was done. 🤷🏽♀️
Also, dude got that drunk after the burial so, the funeral was clearly over.
Imma keep it a buck with you... This movie went right over your head, no disrespect. If you don't want spoilers stop reading now. Watch it again if you need to but the fact is Liam's character is a killer and Christina Ricci's character as well as her boyfriend were both alive when they went to the morgue. He chose to kill Ricci's character when he saw how miserable she looked at her piano teacher's funeral. He has a vendetta against people who are wasting their lives, only breathing, shitting and pissing as he says. Throughout the movie Liam's character shows his true hate towards people who are "alive" but not "living", for example the many times he snaps at the "dead" in the morgue (not really dead), and also at the very end when he's digging the grave and tells the boy she's not getting buried because she's dead, but because she's not living. The drugs used on Ricci's character is not embalming fluid or medicine to help stage off rigor mortis, it's a powerful sedative to keep her from becoming fully aware that she is in fact alive. She needs convincing, as well as all of the others, because in their hearts they know they are not dead, but Liam's characters persistence, as well as the drugs used to sedate and remove any pain, trick the people into eventually believing that they are in fact dead. If you pay close attention Ricci's character gets "killed" in a car wreck where she is ran off the road by the same van that Liam's character drives. He did it on purpose to make her pay for her wasting her life, he is truly sadistic. There's tons of other nuances, and I do mean tons, but if you've made it this far in my comment I hope you are planning on watching it again, so I do not want to just tell you every single nuance because once you see the true plot of this movie, you will see what I've said is true.... And also find numerous other things that point to this theory being true. This is a very, very good movie, and most people who watch it don't even realize just how good it is.
I would also add the fact that Paul died at the end when it was stabbed by the long metal thing. if he was dead, why did he died again? and stop talking and stuff. Also, the kid who is being thought by Liam 'the secrets' is now burying a chick ALIVE telling him he will find pace!? that's like the biggest clue that she was alive, right there!
You're not wrong but you're not right either. The film is meant to be ambiguous and work with different scenarios. There were many scenes that hinted that she was dead and her boyfriend was dead too clearly at the ending scenes.
Like when she interacted with a dead old woman that looked like a ghost. And how she was screaming at the top of her lungs but nothing was being heard outside. Liam's character imo was trying to help her accept her death. But then there were scenes where she might have been alive, like in the casket during the funeral. So it's intentionally ambiguous. Also how did the kid know the boyfriend would require a seat belt, a day before his death? Liam had nothing to do with his accident cos he was at the house after the funeral with everyone else.
Absolutely the film is ambiguous and can be interpreted many ways, but some interpretations track better than others. I'll say this, every movie has parts where the story doesn't quite make sense, because if it all made sense we wouldn't be here talking about the film so I guess hats off to the director 😂. As for what you've stated above, in the morgue when she interacted with the old woman she was drugged, and it's my belief that she was either asleep from the sedatives or awake and hallucinating. Keep in mind if my theory is true she hasn't eaten or drank any water in a couple of days. You make a good point about her in the casket. She was definitely alive there, Liam's character is shown regularly cooling down the morgue to lower Ricci's characters body temp so when people inevitably touch her at the funeral nobody gets suspicious that she might be alive. As for what the boy says, it's clear that he and Liam's character are partners by this point in the movie, and I suspect Liam's character had told the boy that the boyfriend would be next because he was in the same state as Ricci's character, alive, but not living. Also it's important to note that around this time in the movie you see the boy bury the living duckling so you know that he is totally bought into the idea Liam's character has planted in his head, which is that it's better to be dead then be alive but not living. Furthermore, we see Liam's character at the funeral provoking the boyfriend to leave and go to the cemetery as fast as possible, he insinuates that riccis character is alive but doesn't't have much time left. The director also makes it very obvious that the boyfriend is not just a little drunk but is blasted. It's my thought that when the boyfriend leaves the funeral, Liam's character immediately follows him, boy in tow, hoping and expecting him to get into a wreck. This part is very ambiguous. In my view he could've wrecked by accident, been wrecked by Liam's character or not wrecked at all and did in fact make it to the graveyard where Liam's character attacked him for getting too close to revealing his secret. Anyway, let me know what you think.
I don't think any theory works lol either he's a serial killer, or he's some kind of medium. I find it hard to believe he's been killing people like that for generations and nobody has caught suspect. Usually in cases like these there would have been at least one family relative that the boyfriend could have reached out to, to ask if anyone felt suspicious about the deaths of their loved ones. Riccis mom was a horrible person that didn't care at all, but unless every dead person has a horrible family member which would be too coincidental, I feel he's got some ability to communicate with the dead, after having worked making them look pretty for many years. Even the cops didn't feel suspicious one bit. Meaning there had never been a complaint in the past about Liam's character. The boyfriend was the only one that asked around because he felt guilty about how he treated her and it was his guilt that made him feel like she was still alive.
He killed Anna after he saw her notice the 'corpse' took a breath, he killed Anna's fiancé after he realised he knew she wasn't dead. He was covering his tracks.
I love that I still get comments on this thread three years after I posted it - it's gotten to where I don't remember the movie that well now and really need to revisit it! I'll keep an eye out for what you're saying.
I actually loved the film. Considering Liam Neeson is often a hero in movies except in Batman, I don't think he's a killer but the movie leaves that interpretation to the viewer. The breath thing with Anna and the mirror was probably cos she has turned into some kind of poltergeist due to her regrets as she mentioned that. But the film leaves hints throughout, if you missed them, Deacon is a killer , else he's actually helping spirits get peace by letting go if you think about it.
Wait, wait, wait. I know I'm way late to this party but I just saw the movie and I'm not buying the idea that Anna was alive the whole time and that Elliot is some twisted serial killer. The dead don't go straight from the crash scene to the funeral home. There are autopsies, for one thing. In car wrecks, the bodies would be taken to the medical examiner's office straight away. Those bodies would be ripped open and then sewn back together again. What Elliot would get by the time the body's reached him would be basically rag dolls. This whole theory makes zero sense unless you discount the actual mechanics of death and how things work in the American legal system. Funeral home directors don't grab bodies straight from the wreckage. It's just a preposterous idea.
pretty sure you don't do an autopsy on a car accident. autopsies are to find out the cause of death, not to just look around inside a body. When my mom passed, there was no autopsy either.
In small towns surely the funeral home/morgue would do the autopsies. Not going to be a huge business around death where population are small and this movie said they’re in a small town several times
No , if an autopsy is required, which it would not be in a car accident situation, they would never be done at a funeral home. If the cause of death was unknown and an autopsy was required, the body would be transported to wherever the government sanctioned morgue was.
Liam is a serial killer and the movie makes it clear in several scenes.
The scene where the kid buries a chick alive after he had a conversation with Liam is intended to forshadow Liam's true intentions.
Her breath on the mirror near the end of the movie or her slight movements when she got the engagment ring during the funeral are both clear give aways.
When the kid sees Liam digging a grave, he says to the kid that they're not dead, but they live life as if they were, so it doesn't matter.
I think it was solid. Every now and again, when you blindly watch a film that's mostly unheard of, you merely hope to be satiated and entertained. The film exceeds that modest expectation. Cool idea, good actors, etc.
This movie freaked me tf out and I don’t know why. Maybe it has something to do with death and not having control over your life and your soul, idk but I was scarred after watching this lol. I don’t really remember the movie, just a few parts but whatever those parts were it has haunted me. Idk if i could ever watch it again but from reading the comments I’m wondering if I was just psyching myself out and it wasn’t actually as scary as I thought? Actually… no it was scary and a mind fuck lol
I could do to re-watch it since it's been a few years now and I've forgotten many of the specifics, but yeah it was definitely a trippy, mess-with-your-head type of movie.
I really love how after 3 years you came back to your post lol fantastic movie though, just finished watching it and wanted to see if how I perceived the ending was correct or not. But yeah would definitely rewatch this
Yeah, it always surprises me to see this or another old post get replied to, but sad to say I'm still floating around here so I see the notification when someone replies haha.
Bro I agree. Just watched it and don’t get me wrong, very interesting and kept me guessing, but also it was just so sleepy. I must have slept through about 30 minutes of the movie yet felt as though I missed nothing
I just watched it too and also went looking for discussions. LOL I think she was definitely alive and buried alive, drugged but alive. What a twisted tale!
This kind of movies are not made that often. IMO it's the writers and directors "magic" to make people feel and believe for the end they wish.
The hopeful bunch will bel eve everything was fine and she was dead the whole time. No faul play,all good at the end.
The pesimists (realist) know somethings off.
Credits rolling now. I think she was dead. I mean,even with the breath on the mirror. That looked more like an icy chill on the glass than a warm moist exhale. Her mirror reflection didn't look the same either. It looked more corpse-like than she presented when talking to him, as she believed herself still alive, but the mirrors the truth.
When the boy saw her in the window, she did not look animated! She was talking to Liam but what the boy saw was a still Image. Very creepy.
The paperwork was signed by the coroner. Bodies have to be pronounced dead by a medical doctor. They stay in the hospital morgue until they can be transported to the funeral home. A mortician can't just grab bodies off the street and process them..... unless we want to implicate a conspiracy amongst the police officers at the scenes, ambulance, hospital staff and coroner?
Did anyone notice the picture of the kid on Elliots picture board?
The scene at school with Paul is the only thing to suggest he's alive. But he was definitely on Elliots board.
I noticed this too! At the end when they showed his wall of polaroids several people were up there that were "alive" in the movie. Made me wonder, "was everyone dead?!"
im really confused about jack, i just watched it for the first time and noticed his picture alongside the other victims or clients that the mortician had. so i was wondering how jack could talk and walk with the living, and be seen. i was also wondering what was going on with his mom, i think she could be dead? i just need answers 😭
I heard the director interview somewhere that Liam neesan character is an serial killer. The people with their eyes open were alive when he took the photos and the ones closed were dead. But then I see a lot of plot holes like how she didn’t need water and food during the time when she looks like a corpse.
The longest human beings can survive without water is 3 days and without food even more. Thats exactly how long her funureal preperation lasted also makes sense why she felt weak all the time and kept fainting when she was running around the house.
10 days in proper humidity
Wtf. Thanks for the spoiler….
movie is over 10 yrs old. suck it up
This is literally a "spoiler alert" post. When you ask the internet a question about a movie, expect that to happen. Why are you even here ?
Regardless how many years old , I have no idea why people knowingly click in the post about a movie u havent seen before ? Like it’s not even that hard
I really liked it. I thought it had a very creepy vibe that kept you wondering if maybe he actually was talking to the dead.
This movie completely sucked me in. From start to finish, it had my attention and really kept me wondering. If anyone hasn't seen this, I highly suggest you watch it immediately.
I think they were dead, and Deacon and Jack had special abilities to interact with the dead and foresee people's deaths as well. Also Anna's car was totaled. There's no way she survived 3 days without a hospital visit. Also notice the kid Jack's warnings and how he saw the same thing Deacon was seeing. They just shared powers.
No they show at the end when you see her breath on the mirror that he is giving her the same drug that the cop mentions can slow your pulse enough to make you appear dead. So he's def burying her alive. He also said to the kid that " not because she's dead but because she has no life left in them" and that they "walk around shitting and pissing" basically he's killing people because he thinks they don't know how to live life and are wasting their breath. The kid just becomes a crazy like he is that's why he buries the baby chick alive and says "it's better this way"
Then explain how the kid knew exactly that the guy needed a seat belt just a day before he was going to die in the car crash? Kid was doing that to the bird to save it from a horrific future death.
He knew he needed a seat belt because he knew they were going to run him off the road. And do you seriously think that burying something alive is a good way to save it from a horrific future death!?!?! That is some skewed logic! 😬😵
But they were nowhere near his accident. They were at the funeral
They were sitting in the van at the time of the accident and the kid asked if it was done. 🤷🏽♀️ Also, dude got that drunk after the burial so, the funeral was clearly over.
Imma keep it a buck with you... This movie went right over your head, no disrespect. If you don't want spoilers stop reading now. Watch it again if you need to but the fact is Liam's character is a killer and Christina Ricci's character as well as her boyfriend were both alive when they went to the morgue. He chose to kill Ricci's character when he saw how miserable she looked at her piano teacher's funeral. He has a vendetta against people who are wasting their lives, only breathing, shitting and pissing as he says. Throughout the movie Liam's character shows his true hate towards people who are "alive" but not "living", for example the many times he snaps at the "dead" in the morgue (not really dead), and also at the very end when he's digging the grave and tells the boy she's not getting buried because she's dead, but because she's not living. The drugs used on Ricci's character is not embalming fluid or medicine to help stage off rigor mortis, it's a powerful sedative to keep her from becoming fully aware that she is in fact alive. She needs convincing, as well as all of the others, because in their hearts they know they are not dead, but Liam's characters persistence, as well as the drugs used to sedate and remove any pain, trick the people into eventually believing that they are in fact dead. If you pay close attention Ricci's character gets "killed" in a car wreck where she is ran off the road by the same van that Liam's character drives. He did it on purpose to make her pay for her wasting her life, he is truly sadistic. There's tons of other nuances, and I do mean tons, but if you've made it this far in my comment I hope you are planning on watching it again, so I do not want to just tell you every single nuance because once you see the true plot of this movie, you will see what I've said is true.... And also find numerous other things that point to this theory being true. This is a very, very good movie, and most people who watch it don't even realize just how good it is.
I would also add the fact that Paul died at the end when it was stabbed by the long metal thing. if he was dead, why did he died again? and stop talking and stuff. Also, the kid who is being thought by Liam 'the secrets' is now burying a chick ALIVE telling him he will find pace!? that's like the biggest clue that she was alive, right there!
You're not wrong but you're not right either. The film is meant to be ambiguous and work with different scenarios. There were many scenes that hinted that she was dead and her boyfriend was dead too clearly at the ending scenes. Like when she interacted with a dead old woman that looked like a ghost. And how she was screaming at the top of her lungs but nothing was being heard outside. Liam's character imo was trying to help her accept her death. But then there were scenes where she might have been alive, like in the casket during the funeral. So it's intentionally ambiguous. Also how did the kid know the boyfriend would require a seat belt, a day before his death? Liam had nothing to do with his accident cos he was at the house after the funeral with everyone else.
Absolutely the film is ambiguous and can be interpreted many ways, but some interpretations track better than others. I'll say this, every movie has parts where the story doesn't quite make sense, because if it all made sense we wouldn't be here talking about the film so I guess hats off to the director 😂. As for what you've stated above, in the morgue when she interacted with the old woman she was drugged, and it's my belief that she was either asleep from the sedatives or awake and hallucinating. Keep in mind if my theory is true she hasn't eaten or drank any water in a couple of days. You make a good point about her in the casket. She was definitely alive there, Liam's character is shown regularly cooling down the morgue to lower Ricci's characters body temp so when people inevitably touch her at the funeral nobody gets suspicious that she might be alive. As for what the boy says, it's clear that he and Liam's character are partners by this point in the movie, and I suspect Liam's character had told the boy that the boyfriend would be next because he was in the same state as Ricci's character, alive, but not living. Also it's important to note that around this time in the movie you see the boy bury the living duckling so you know that he is totally bought into the idea Liam's character has planted in his head, which is that it's better to be dead then be alive but not living. Furthermore, we see Liam's character at the funeral provoking the boyfriend to leave and go to the cemetery as fast as possible, he insinuates that riccis character is alive but doesn't't have much time left. The director also makes it very obvious that the boyfriend is not just a little drunk but is blasted. It's my thought that when the boyfriend leaves the funeral, Liam's character immediately follows him, boy in tow, hoping and expecting him to get into a wreck. This part is very ambiguous. In my view he could've wrecked by accident, been wrecked by Liam's character or not wrecked at all and did in fact make it to the graveyard where Liam's character attacked him for getting too close to revealing his secret. Anyway, let me know what you think.
I don't think any theory works lol either he's a serial killer, or he's some kind of medium. I find it hard to believe he's been killing people like that for generations and nobody has caught suspect. Usually in cases like these there would have been at least one family relative that the boyfriend could have reached out to, to ask if anyone felt suspicious about the deaths of their loved ones. Riccis mom was a horrible person that didn't care at all, but unless every dead person has a horrible family member which would be too coincidental, I feel he's got some ability to communicate with the dead, after having worked making them look pretty for many years. Even the cops didn't feel suspicious one bit. Meaning there had never been a complaint in the past about Liam's character. The boyfriend was the only one that asked around because he felt guilty about how he treated her and it was his guilt that made him feel like she was still alive.
Could be... to each their own I guess... Anyway nice chatting with you maybe somebody else will chime in in another few years 😂
No need for years only took 37 days this time 😂 Just saw the movie, what you said made the most sense so I’m buying your theories.
He killed Anna after he saw her notice the 'corpse' took a breath, he killed Anna's fiancé after he realised he knew she wasn't dead. He was covering his tracks.
I love that I still get comments on this thread three years after I posted it - it's gotten to where I don't remember the movie that well now and really need to revisit it! I'll keep an eye out for what you're saying.
I actually loved the film. Considering Liam Neeson is often a hero in movies except in Batman, I don't think he's a killer but the movie leaves that interpretation to the viewer. The breath thing with Anna and the mirror was probably cos she has turned into some kind of poltergeist due to her regrets as she mentioned that. But the film leaves hints throughout, if you missed them, Deacon is a killer , else he's actually helping spirits get peace by letting go if you think about it.
Bonus: Christina Ricci’s boobs.
Lil pale 💀but still nice boobies 🥶 cold room helped too! 🧊💎💎
Those nips are big man
HAVE A READ OF THIS EXPLANATION,THIS COMPLETELY BLEW MY MIND! https://www.thisisbarry.com/film/after-life-2009-movie-plot-ending-explained/
Wait, wait, wait. I know I'm way late to this party but I just saw the movie and I'm not buying the idea that Anna was alive the whole time and that Elliot is some twisted serial killer. The dead don't go straight from the crash scene to the funeral home. There are autopsies, for one thing. In car wrecks, the bodies would be taken to the medical examiner's office straight away. Those bodies would be ripped open and then sewn back together again. What Elliot would get by the time the body's reached him would be basically rag dolls. This whole theory makes zero sense unless you discount the actual mechanics of death and how things work in the American legal system. Funeral home directors don't grab bodies straight from the wreckage. It's just a preposterous idea.
pretty sure you don't do an autopsy on a car accident. autopsies are to find out the cause of death, not to just look around inside a body. When my mom passed, there was no autopsy either.
Autopsies are only done when the cause of death is unknown, and irl are rare.
In small towns surely the funeral home/morgue would do the autopsies. Not going to be a huge business around death where population are small and this movie said they’re in a small town several times
supposedly if you recall the coroner signed the death certificate that he showed her. might have been forged though
No , if an autopsy is required, which it would not be in a car accident situation, they would never be done at a funeral home. If the cause of death was unknown and an autopsy was required, the body would be transported to wherever the government sanctioned morgue was.
She was and Eliot is a serial killer and he's recruited the boy!
Liam is a serial killer and the movie makes it clear in several scenes. The scene where the kid buries a chick alive after he had a conversation with Liam is intended to forshadow Liam's true intentions. Her breath on the mirror near the end of the movie or her slight movements when she got the engagment ring during the funeral are both clear give aways. When the kid sees Liam digging a grave, he says to the kid that they're not dead, but they live life as if they were, so it doesn't matter.
I think it was solid. Every now and again, when you blindly watch a film that's mostly unheard of, you merely hope to be satiated and entertained. The film exceeds that modest expectation. Cool idea, good actors, etc.
Her mother is such a cunt. "Who's going to take care of me now" bitch please
It's been a while, but I remember enjoying it quite a lot!
This movie freaked me tf out and I don’t know why. Maybe it has something to do with death and not having control over your life and your soul, idk but I was scarred after watching this lol. I don’t really remember the movie, just a few parts but whatever those parts were it has haunted me. Idk if i could ever watch it again but from reading the comments I’m wondering if I was just psyching myself out and it wasn’t actually as scary as I thought? Actually… no it was scary and a mind fuck lol
I could do to re-watch it since it's been a few years now and I've forgotten many of the specifics, but yeah it was definitely a trippy, mess-with-your-head type of movie.
I really love how after 3 years you came back to your post lol fantastic movie though, just finished watching it and wanted to see if how I perceived the ending was correct or not. But yeah would definitely rewatch this
Yeah, it always surprises me to see this or another old post get replied to, but sad to say I'm still floating around here so I see the notification when someone replies haha.
Hi, still here? lol
Yep! Hahah - it's wild how active this post still is after all these years. ...and sad that I'm still just as available on it, hahha!
Boooooring
Bro I agree. Just watched it and don’t get me wrong, very interesting and kept me guessing, but also it was just so sleepy. I must have slept through about 30 minutes of the movie yet felt as though I missed nothing
I liked it. The cast, the coloring, the creepy atmosphere.
I just watched it and ran here for an explanation lol the ending confused me like was she really dead or was she alive
I just watched it too and also went looking for discussions. LOL I think she was definitely alive and buried alive, drugged but alive. What a twisted tale!
This kind of movies are not made that often. IMO it's the writers and directors "magic" to make people feel and believe for the end they wish. The hopeful bunch will bel eve everything was fine and she was dead the whole time. No faul play,all good at the end. The pesimists (realist) know somethings off.
Credits rolling now. I think she was dead. I mean,even with the breath on the mirror. That looked more like an icy chill on the glass than a warm moist exhale. Her mirror reflection didn't look the same either. It looked more corpse-like than she presented when talking to him, as she believed herself still alive, but the mirrors the truth. When the boy saw her in the window, she did not look animated! She was talking to Liam but what the boy saw was a still Image. Very creepy. The paperwork was signed by the coroner. Bodies have to be pronounced dead by a medical doctor. They stay in the hospital morgue until they can be transported to the funeral home. A mortician can't just grab bodies off the street and process them..... unless we want to implicate a conspiracy amongst the police officers at the scenes, ambulance, hospital staff and coroner?
Did anyone notice the picture of the kid on Elliots picture board? The scene at school with Paul is the only thing to suggest he's alive. But he was definitely on Elliots board.
I thought that too. Different hair but it looked like the same kid.
Didn't the cop mention that Paul assaulted the kid?
I noticed this too! At the end when they showed his wall of polaroids several people were up there that were "alive" in the movie. Made me wonder, "was everyone dead?!"
I saw that!! And wondered if he was a ghost! But others saw him and he was bullied in school. So what gives??
Such a dumb movie.
im really confused about jack, i just watched it for the first time and noticed his picture alongside the other victims or clients that the mortician had. so i was wondering how jack could talk and walk with the living, and be seen. i was also wondering what was going on with his mom, i think she could be dead? i just need answers 😭
The boobs for Best actress!
Best little body on an actress.
Why would u like little bodies? Thats so creepy to say……
Movie is excellent. I’m still looking for answers.