First - don't expect horror, a better mindset would be suspense/drama. The disorienting effect of achronological storytelling requires attention, my take was a great job obfuscating whether there were supernatural or psychological forces & bringing me into the mind of the main character, because we look back on memories in our minds out of order too.
To me the demons of the prairie were normal demons humans face, temptations/thoughts - we see jealousy, perversion of the marriage bed, vengeance - almost everything in that pamphlet (I paused to read). Combined not only with natural isolation but enforced through absenteeism/abandonment/betrayal. Some viewers thought hubby was good for the time - I can't view a cheating husband as good for any century, he was absent helping the neighbors & helping himself to the neighbors womb, off in "town" - maybe at a saloon/brothel, and even when present unsympathetic to his wife being driven crazy by the pressure of environment and his actions.
Then he would gaslight her by saying the equivalent of that century's 'baby it's in your head, I'd never cheat on you, it's just the two of us' - the last part he actually does say. Further the only friend she could have he takes away through cheating, isolating her even when around neighbors. Perhaps he behaved this way in the city and when she states it isn't like the city where neighbors remain strangers & its a luxury they don't have, she is saying 'I'll have to know the other woman this time'.
I'm not convinced it's mental illness any more than any of us would feel in that situation, which is just not good for mental health no matter who you are. When reading from books Emma reassures Lizzy that it's not a spirit it's just a character in the book - which to me pointed to the writer saying explicitly to us viewers - not a literal demon just characters in the movie - Emma & Isaac betraying their spouses & neighbor, Lizzy eaten by betrayal/wrath/desires for destruction, Gideon pretending ignorance/weakness (I mean c'mon he knew!).
The line from Frankenstein about not necessarily being happy with a mate but at least being less miserable in loneliness totally exemplified Lizzy's feelings that even though it might not have been a happy marriage at least when it really was the two of them it was less miserable and that's been taken away.
In that light I thought it was a great movie, slowly paced and on purpose agonizingly so, forcing confusion, that feeling of dread, of something coming that is awful - and you have to wonder if you're giving in to demons or forced to react to circumstances set up by others, maybe our actions are a bit of both. But on the subject of what happened I totally disagree that is was open ended, I felt a definitive conclusion, we know what Lizzy did, we know what Emma + Isaac did, Isaac even says 'how long have you known?' and something like I know what you did - maybe they all knew the whole time she killed Emma since it was her gun and only Lizzy was struggling with facing it.
The Reverend & lamb seem to confirm this is confusion for her, did she kill them, did something else, she struggles to decide, which is a replacement for killing Emma - her mind isn't there yet. And the final shot of her alone in the prairie, even in her bed and then not in her "marriage bed". The ambiguity is not about what occurred but about her struggle to accept reality, but we the viewer aren't left to decide what really happened, we have the clues & statements. She did take that advice and shoot the demons she saw.
Personally I spent a long time thinking it was supernatural and then I had to recount what was said and what we saw. Problems with access to glass windows and wood aside, this was a good movie but you have to sit and pay attention, which to me is what a good movie does. This made me pay attention and then think afterwards about what I saw. I'm reminded of Lizzy saying to Emma not to be unpleasant in front of the men and this sense of confinement of women expressing themselves and their needs (which also reminds me of that Mormon sentiment to 'stay sweet') and in this case the violent counter reactions to this restrictive enforced mental + physical isolation.
To me the demons of the prairie were normal demons humans face, temptations/thoughts - we see jealousy, perversion of the marriage bed, vengeance - almost everything in that pamphlet (I paused to read). Combined not only with natural isolation but enforced through absenteeism/abandonment/betrayal. Some viewers thought hubby was good for the time - I can't view a cheating husband as good for any century, he was absent helping the neighbors & helping himself to the neighbors womb, off in "town" - maybe at a saloon/brothel, and even when present unsympathetic to his wife being driven crazy by the pressure of environment and his actions.
Then he would gaslight her by saying the equivalent of that century's 'baby it's in your head, I'd never cheat on you, it's just the two of us' - the last part he actually does say. Further the only friend she could have he takes away through cheating, isolating her even when around neighbors. Perhaps he behaved this way in the city and when she states it isn't like the city where neighbors remain strangers & its a luxury they don't have, she is saying 'I'll have to know the other woman this time'.
I'm not convinced it's mental illness any more than any of us would feel in that situation, which is just not good for mental health no matter who you are. When reading from books Emma reassures Lizzy that it's not a spirit it's just a character in the book - which to me pointed to the writer saying explicitly to us viewers - not a literal demon just characters in the movie - Emma & Isaac betraying their spouses & neighbor, Lizzy eaten by betrayal/wrath/desires for destruction, Gideon pretending ignorance/weakness (I mean c'mon he knew!).
The line from Frankenstein about not necessarily being happy with a mate but at least being less miserable in loneliness totally exemplified Lizzy's feelings that even though it might not have been a happy marriage at least when it really was the two of them it was less miserable and that's been taken away.
In that light I thought it was a great movie, slowly paced and on purpose agonizingly so, forcing confusion, that feeling of dread, of something coming that is awful - and you have to wonder if you're giving in to demons or forced to react to circumstances set up by others, maybe our actions are a bit of both. But on the subject of what happened I totally disagree that is was open ended, I felt a definitive conclusion, we know what Lizzy did, we know what Emma + Isaac did, Isaac even says 'how long have you known?' and something like I know what you did - maybe they all knew the whole time she killed Emma since it was her gun and only Lizzy was struggling with facing it.
The Reverend & lamb seem to confirm this is confusion for her, did she kill them, did something else, she struggles to decide, which is a replacement for killing Emma - her mind isn't there yet. And the final shot of her alone in the prairie, even in her bed and then not in her "marriage bed". The ambiguity is not about what occurred but about her struggle to accept reality, but we the viewer aren't left to decide what really happened, we have the clues & statements. She did take that advice and shoot the demons she saw.
Personally I spent a long time thinking it was supernatural and then I had to recount what was said and what we saw. Problems with access to glass windows and wood aside, this was a good movie but you have to sit and pay attention, which to me is what a good movie does. This made me pay attention and then think afterwards about what I saw. I'm reminded of Lizzy saying to Emma not to be unpleasant in front of the men and this sense of confinement of women expressing themselves and their needs (which also reminds me of that Mormon sentiment to 'stay sweet') and in this case the violent counter reactions to this restrictive enforced mental + physical isolation.