Chronologically we see the dog run off and the immediate aftermath of that. Then Travis finds the little boy asleep in the grandfathers room and returns him, followed by his discovery of the red door being left open and the mangled dog the other side of it. The dog is killed and the crisis meeting results in the two families isolating from each other in separate rooms. We then see a ‘dream’ in which Travis is in the woods looking for the dog and appears to stare in shock as the dog is attacked/eaten by something off-screen. Then he awakes and overhears the other family stressing about their boy, and we descend into the final ‘showdown’. We end with another ‘dream’ where Travis walks down the hall to open the red door.

Travis’s dreams here need not be in order, and perhaps they aren’t even dreams at all. Travis may not have been imagining going looking for Stanley – he very probably did it immediately after the dog went missing and just before he finds the little boy in his grandfathers room. Sneaking into the woods, he rescues his dog from being savaged by our mystery foe, drags it back to the house then discovers the boy, then the door and raises the alarm. I’m not sure if Travis even knows he is the door culprit (and therefore responsible for (a) himself getting sick and (b) getting the little boy sick). He’s probably traumatised and doesn’t know what’s real, what’s dream, what’s memory. But for me his very last dream is less a “walking into the light” moment before passing away, it’s a memory of him opening the red door, further reinforcing that it was indeed his fault.

In which case, it would seem the film is not necessarily pointing the finger at the first family’s paranoia or reaction. Travis is the film’s protagonist who clearly doesn’t agree with his father’s strict rules for survival – whether that’s the ruthless disposal of grandpa, the resistance to helping or sharing with others, not wanting to look for the dog until the next day, the euthanasia of the dog, the quarantining of the families etc etc. It appears we are on Travis’s side and viewing his father as well-intentioned, but overly protective and paranoid.

That is until we realise that Travis ignoring his father’s caution essentially leads to the downfall of everyone, including himself. Is this then less a story about the pitfalls of paranoia and more an Icarus tale that confirms it?

Oh, forgive me…I’m a bit obsessed with this sort of thing, but I just have to point out that you sort of mixed up the words “since” and “sense”.

Thanks for the fun and informative post!

I never really thought of it as Travis being sick from the beginning, but that is starting to make a lot of sense. I am still trying to figure out why they told the boy to cover his eyes as they were leaving (also, if I remember correctly, he was crying and whimpering a lot as the parents were telling him to calm down and to not be loud) I just feel like if he wasn’t sick, then they would’ve showed him to Paul to prove their point. (Then again, this is also all speculation based on the fact that Travis told Paul that he thinks Andrew is sick)

I also find it tough to believe that is boy isn’t sick because Will got caught in a lie talking to Paul when they were drinking the alcohol in the Gpa’s room. He said he was an only child, but when he was caputured in the beginning of the film, he said he has a brother who died. (Which doesn’t help Will’s case at all when he says his son isn’t sick.)

Even towards the end after the boy is shot and killed, wouldn’t the mother have said something along the lines of “He wasn’t even sick” or “you people are murderers. We tried to leave because your son is the real sick one.” Or something like that? And then of course I believe both Paul and Sarah are infected at the end since Paul had to take off his mask in the room with the boy/he fought Will in the woods (who was probably infected if his son was) and Sarah was comforting Travis w/o a mask as he was showing signs of infection/dying.

Wow…I just love how this film makes you think and how you will never really know what the ending is since it is al based on your own thoughts and imagination. Haha

Thanks for sharing!

Alright, I’ll go looking for it. Might I ask what your profession is? Thanks for commenting…