Bryan Bertino’s horror film, Vicious, starring Dakota Fanning, unfolds on a winter night when an old woman (Kathryn Hunter) knocks on Polly’s door and asks for a glass of water. Polly’s life was a mess, and the condition of the house she lived in reflected her mental state. Her kitchen sink was overflowing with used cups and plates. All the houseplants were dead. She possibly never found the energy to tidy up the spacious house that she’d rented from her sister at a cheap price. She had a job that wasn’t enough to make her feel content. Her boss expected her to work the double shift because everyone else was busy. She’d taken up pottery classes and had already paid for them, but she failed to show up. Her sister, Lainie, left her a voicemail reminding her that she had to pick up her daughter’s birthday cake. The disappointment in her voice suggested that Polly made promises but struggled to live up to them. Her mother reminded her to print the form she needed for the big interview the next day, indicating that maybe she had trouble remembering things and needed constant reminders. Polly planned on going back to school to complete her education; she used to be a promising student, she was a talented artist, but then came a challenging phase in her life and she was still recovering from it. Polly was consumed by a sense of unfulfillment, and a box that a stranger left in her house made her realize the things that truly mattered in her life.
Spoiler Alert
What did the box want?
Polly was petrified when the old woman left a black box and a sand timer at her house and told her that she would die. She was apologetic for passing on the curse, but she didn’t really have a choice. She had to do things she didn’t want to for the sake of her survival, and she believed Polly would also have to make such difficult choices. Polly freaked out, and she plainly asked the old woman to leave with her box. She had considered calling the cops, but the old woman had warned her to never discuss the curse of the box with anyone. Polly called her mother and narrated the incident, though we later discover that the woman on the other end of the call wasn’t Polly’s mother; she was communicating with the evil spirits that had now started to haunt her. They wanted her to play the game, and she wasn’t allowed to part ways with the box. She had to put inside the box something she hated, something she needed, and something she loved. When she dropped a cigarette pack into the box, the box refused to take it. While everyone around her expected her to quit smoking, it wasn’t something that she personally hated, although she wanted to. The evil spirits made it very clear that if Polly chose not to be honest with herself, she would lose out on time, which also meant that her life would come to an abrupt end. Interestingly, the box/evil spirits constantly guided her and helped her make the ‘right’ offerings.
Polly coughed up the key to the drawer where she’d kept pictures of her father and the crucifix he also wore. Polly’s father had lost his fight with cancer, and she remembered how she and her father would constantly pray for a miracle until the day he died. From that day on, she hated God for taking her father away from her, although he’d always been a faithful servant. When she dropped the crucifix into the box, the evil accepted the offering. The box essentially compelled Polly to face her deepest, darkest fears. Perhaps she never truly allowed herself to express the pain and the anger she felt when her father passed away. Gradually, just like the old woman, Polly too had to chop off her toe and her finger to offer the box ‘something she needed’ in the hopes that the sand timer would stop. When it came to offering ‘something she loved,’ Polly sensed that the evil spirits wanted her to offer her niece, Aly, whom she loved dearly. She begged the box to spare the little girl, and in what appeared to be a mix of visual illusion, the evil spirits convinced Polly that Lainie and Aly were dead and it all happened because she’d failed the task.
Quite unexpectedly, Polly woke up at her sister’s place and saw them alive again. She was relieved, but she soon realized that the nightmare was far from over and the evil spirits were still in control of her untrustworthy visions. Polly offered a strand of Aly’s hair, and the box accepted it, but the sand timer didn’t stop. Polly didn’t know what to do; she’d offered blood as well, but the timer didn’t stop. The bloody game urged Polly to reflect on the people who truly mattered in her life. Although she felt like a constant disappointment and perhaps had suicidal thoughts as well, she realized the extent she was willing to go to for the ones she loved. She chose inflicting pain upon herself rather than offering up her loved ones for the sake of her survival.
How did Polly get herself out of the vicious loop?
She realized that maybe the evil spirits wanted the box to be passed on, and just like the old woman, she too knocked on a door of a random house. A young woman named Tara opened the door. She was hesitant about letting a stranger into her house, but Polly was persistent. Although Polly felt guilty for what she was about to do, she believed she didn’t have a choice. She wanted the timer to stop, and she was scared for herself and her loved ones. She knew it was unfair, but she was not the one who’d started the game. When she explained her purpose to Tara, the young woman was left startled. She asked Polly to leave, and she obliged.
To Polly’s surprise, the box was back at her house; it was not yet done with Polly. As it turned out, even after passing the box, the old woman too wasn’t spared. The box had tricked them into believing that the curse could be stopped if it was passed on, but that wasn’t really true. The sand continued to flow, and both the old woman and Polly were running out of time. The old woman had lost one of her eyes; she too had been through a brutal phase, trying to come to a bargain with the devil, but nothing really was enough to stop the game. So, she assumed that maybe the box wanted Polly, and she decided to kill her. Polly managed to overpower her, and before taking her final breath, the old woman stated that the box chose its victims. She didn’t just stumble upon Polly; the box guided her there, just like Polly was directed to Tara’s house. The box targeted broken individuals; the spirits knew their weaknesses, and they were constantly reminded of their failures. The old woman died at Polly’s house; she regretted the extreme steps she’d taken for self-preservation, and in the end she thanked Polly, possibly because she didn’t have the conviction to kill herself, although she knew this very moment would arrive the minute she’d entered Polly’s house. In the end, she realized that dying was better than being forever stuck in the vicious loop. The sand timer didn’t stop, but Polly chose not to dance to the tune of the devil. To Polly’s surprise, she was alive even though she’d technically run out of time. The only way out of the vicious loop was to take control of the narrative and not give in to the evil. The box tested how far one was willing to go and how much evil one could do to stay alive.
Were Lainie And Her Daughter Dead?
Vicious’ ending revealed that Lainie and Aly were alive. As long as Polly participated in the devil’s game, she was made to believe that her loved ones were already dead and she was responsible for it. But when she refused to harm herself and those around her, the game stopped and she was released. Lainie’s house was a little messy, suggesting that not everything Polly had experienced was a lie; some of it was real to a certain degree. Polly was overjoyed to see Lainie and Aly alive. She was also relieved to see her neighbor take out the trash; she’d assumed she’d stabbed herself to death the previous night, but clearly their interaction the previous night wasn’t real. It seemed as if she was stuck in an alternate world that was impossible to escape from. The mark on Polly’s face and the missing finger and toe suggested that the sacrifices she’d made were very real, and it wasn’t just a scarring vivid dream that she’d woken up from. The experience, as harrowing as it was, allowed Polly to appreciate her imperfect life and those around her.
Why did Tara refuse to trust Polly?
Polly had cracked the code, and she felt the need to discuss it with Tara. She’d ruined her life, and she believed she owed it to her. She asked her to hand over the box, but Tara seemed to have no recollection of her meeting with Polly. She believed Polly had made a mistake, and seeing Tara’s confused reaction, Polly assumed it indeed was a mistake; after all, she couldn’t really trust anything she remembered from the previous night. As she lit a cigarette during the ending of Vicious, her phone started to vibrate; she wondered if the call was from the devil, but this time she refused to answer. She wasn’t ready to give in, and she wasn’t afraid anymore. She was more attuned with who she was and what she wanted from life than ever before.
Vicious’ ending reveals that Tara had the box, and she’d been instructed by the evil spirits to not trust anyone around her, especially Polly. Tara assumed that Polly would trick her, like she did before. So she chose to deal with the situation herself, and she was clearly suffering. She had sacrificed her parents, she had chopped off her fingers, and yet she was struggling to offer the box ‘something she wanted.’ We don’t get to clearly see what she’d dropped into the box, but by now we know that no matter what she did, there was no escape from it. Unless she killed herself, or was murdered, or chose not to do anything and just wait for the worst to be over. The conditions for Tara seemed to be different than those of Polly’s (according to the three things she was expected to offer the box, something she wanted wasn’t on the list), so maybe the game wasn’t the same for everyone; it was possibly modified according to individual weaknesses, but the outcome was always the same. Vicious doesn’t really offer a conclusive ending; you get the idea that more and more people will be targeted by the devil, especially those mentally broken. The game would test their limits, and most would fail. Since the box was impossible to destroy, there appears to be no end to it. While Polly refused to bow down to the rules of the game, that doesn’t mean she will not be haunted by unexpected calls to remind her that they are still watching. The film, in a way, can be interpreted as a commentary on the challenges of grappling with mental health conditions. Even if one learns to live with it (giving their all to make things work), surrendering always seems an easier alternative. One tends to also resort to isolation and slowly lose themselves, often giving way to the voices in their heads. The ending of Vicious suggest that the only way to reach the light at the end of the tunnel is through.
