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This question is about the movie "Marrowbone" (2017) (orig.: "El secreto de Marrowbone") by Sergio Sánchez.

Almost at the end of the movie, the lawyer Tom is at the attic and searches for money. He is removing a blanket and finds the mummies of the three younger Marrowbone siblings arranged side by side.

My question is: who arranged them and put the blanket there?

I see two options, but I find neither of them completely satisfying for the following reasons:

Option 1:

This was done by the father - he had the opportunity.

Contra

He is portrayed as merciless, cruel and monstrous. However, the arrangement of the bodies and covering them appears to me like a very simple "funeral" - something that would be done by a caring and emphatic person. This is nothing I would expect from him - while eating/cannibalising (parts of) them them would fit to his character and his situation (why catching doves when you have human bodies around?!).

Option 2:

Jack arranged and "buried" them under the blanket - he would care enough to do something like that.

Contra

  1. He would have had to deal (fight) with his father again to do so and survive this without killing him.
  2. He would have had to deal with reality and the dead of his siblings. However, the point of the story is that he completely denies their death.

What am I missing?

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  • I did read the help page about spoliers. However, my question is about a crucial plot twist, so I wasn't sure whether to hide them or not and wanted to stay on the "save side" (hiding it). It's may first question here - please be indulgent :) - any hints are appreciated.
    – Arsak
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 18:55
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    Don't worry, to this extent they're an absolute hindrance to readability and understandability, so I removed them. Staying on the "save side" means avoiding spoilers in the question title, which you did. People reading your question (and even more so the answers) know what they're getting themselves into.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 20:35
  • @NapoleonWilson Thank you for the feedback and the edit. I just noticed that the "All Questions"-page shows not only the question title, but also the first lines. Is there a policy here how to deal with potential spoilers in that preview? Only found this answer but it wasn't upvoted a lot.
    – Arsak
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 20:45
  • Not really. I guess people stop reading at "...end of the movie "Marrowbone"" anyway. We can't really protect people from their own curiosity and maneuvering around these things can get tedious and detrimental to information and readbility. You can beat around the bush in the first sentence if you're really concerned about that preview, but you don't have to.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 20:48

1 Answer 1

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Here's how I see it, and why:

Jack arranges the bodies and covers them.

When his father dares him to open the door, he eventually does open it. At this point his father does not intend to kill him, rather he wants to destroy him first, and lead him to commit suicide; being a monster he is, he takes pleasure in seeing Jack overwhelmed with grief and guilt.

Jack is fully aware that his siblings are dead when he attempts suicide. Then he sees them, and note the way he finds them sleeping: they mirror the arrangement of their bodies in the attic. Father is still up there. The door is open (there's no screaming - he's not locked up,) but he is in no hurry to leave the scene of his crime and feeling safe and content, waits to hear the shot that would end his family. Instead, Jack walks upstairs and locks, and then bricks up the door...

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  • Oh wow, I wasn't expecting anyone to answer this at all any more. Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer! To be honest, it's been too long for me to remember every detail you've mentioned - but it sounds plausible! Welcome in this community and thank you very much!
    – Arsak
    Commented Jun 5, 2022 at 18:31
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    You are very welcome! I watched this movie for the first time about a week ago, and have been thinking about it, and reading about it as well, that's how I ended up here. The question you asked, did not occur to me when I was watching, and it was very interesting for me to figure out the answer. I certainly don't claim it to be the only one possible, but it feels right to me. The same goes for the ending; I think there's more than one way of seeing it, and it doesn't mean that only one of them is right.
    – user95980
    Commented Jun 5, 2022 at 22:14

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