10 Hidden Meanings Behind Confusing Horror Movies
1. Braid
Writer/director Mitzi Peirone’s Braid is richly aspiring, original, and contemplative, especially for a first-time feature film.
Centred around two wanted drug dealers/artists (Petula and Tilda) who attempt to deceive and rob their childhood friend (Daphne), the movie consistently keeps the two protagonists - or antagonists or antiheroes - as well as audiences on their toes as Daphne proves to be more cunning, violent, and psychotic than anyone could’ve imagined.
Seriously, Braid gets downright bonkers as soon as the duo arrive at Daphne’s labyrinthine mansion and are forced to indulge in Daphne’s role-playing fantasy (in which Tilda is a sick child, Petula is a traveling doctor, and Dalphne is Tilda’s concerned mother).
From there, the psychosexual horror-thriller is a nonstop onslaught of peculiar games, sadomasochistic punishments, flashbacks, and revelations delivered through time jumps, alternating color palettes, and shifting identities. Throw in a suspicious detective who’s on Petula and Tilda’s trail and it’s truly a twisted tale.
But, it’s also one that has a lot to say about mental illness, childhood trauma, co-dependency, and how the mistakes we make as kids can haunt us forever. Honestly, entire studies could (and should) be written about everything Braid explores by the time its mind-boggling ending unfolds.