Okay so it's a decent edge-of-the-seat mystery thriller with an ending that doesn't really give as big a payoff. There's a simple explanation to the ending that the treatment of Dr. Mallick failed and all the sane personalities got killed in Malcolm Rivers' head leaving him with the one evil identity of Timmy that eventually takes over Malcolm and makes him a pure cold-blooded killer.
But this is NOT the main twist is what I feel. My explanation of the ending goes one layer above this. I say Malcolm Rivers didn't just make up those personalities due to his Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), he MADE UP the MPD too in order to save himself from the execution and get a chance to run away once he's out of police custody via an insanity plea. Why do I think so? Hear me out!
Let's play by the movie's rules for a while. Let's assume his MPD was real. If it was, the Motel story in his mind, despite being fictional to the rest of the world, is very real to Malcolm. Now Malcolm is probably insane in the real world, but he's fully sane in the Motel world. Therefore, everything that he thinks happened at the Motel has to be plausible, something that could really happen in a real world. No sane person would believe that it's plausible for a 9 year old kid to be able to kill people in that motel in those ways. He knifed a few of them, none of whom could tackle a 9 year old? A 9 year old was able to shove half a baseball bat down the throat of a conscious convict? A 9 year old was smart and resourceful enough to plant a bomb in a car, wait for someone to give an idea for him to run away with someone to that car and then fake his own death in the bomb blast in order to kill the rest? Really?!
Now why I believe Malcolm made up his insanity? Look at all the scenes where Pruitt Taylor Vince is narrating the motel story and look at this rapidly moving eyes. Kinda like eye movement during REM sleep of dreaming. Vince, being the brilliant actor that he is, gives incredible eye motion scenes. Now compare those scenes with the last scene where he strangles Dr. Mallick. Even though the strangling of Dr. Mallick and the killing of Paris is supposed to be happening simultaneously, Malcolm's eyes while strangling the doctor are stable and focused. He looks sharply at the doctor and he SMIRKS. His plan worked!
The movie is about a killer who weaves a story of insanity, builds 10 personalities, convinces a psychiatrist of his insanity and eventually uses that to escape.
But this is NOT the main twist is what I feel. My explanation of the ending goes one layer above this. I say Malcolm Rivers didn't just make up those personalities due to his Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), he MADE UP the MPD too in order to save himself from the execution and get a chance to run away once he's out of police custody via an insanity plea. Why do I think so? Hear me out!
Let's play by the movie's rules for a while. Let's assume his MPD was real. If it was, the Motel story in his mind, despite being fictional to the rest of the world, is very real to Malcolm. Now Malcolm is probably insane in the real world, but he's fully sane in the Motel world. Therefore, everything that he thinks happened at the Motel has to be plausible, something that could really happen in a real world. No sane person would believe that it's plausible for a 9 year old kid to be able to kill people in that motel in those ways. He knifed a few of them, none of whom could tackle a 9 year old? A 9 year old was able to shove half a baseball bat down the throat of a conscious convict? A 9 year old was smart and resourceful enough to plant a bomb in a car, wait for someone to give an idea for him to run away with someone to that car and then fake his own death in the bomb blast in order to kill the rest? Really?!
Now why I believe Malcolm made up his insanity? Look at all the scenes where Pruitt Taylor Vince is narrating the motel story and look at this rapidly moving eyes. Kinda like eye movement during REM sleep of dreaming. Vince, being the brilliant actor that he is, gives incredible eye motion scenes. Now compare those scenes with the last scene where he strangles Dr. Mallick. Even though the strangling of Dr. Mallick and the killing of Paris is supposed to be happening simultaneously, Malcolm's eyes while strangling the doctor are stable and focused. He looks sharply at the doctor and he SMIRKS. His plan worked!
The movie is about a killer who weaves a story of insanity, builds 10 personalities, convinces a psychiatrist of his insanity and eventually uses that to escape.