A married couple with a rocky past adopt 9-year old, Esther to fill the void created by a recently-stillborn baby. However, Esther is not quite who she seems.
A good portion of the film revolves around a mother recognizing that an adopted child poses a danger for her biological children and attempting to have her removed. She offers to leave her husband and children as long as the adopted child is removed from the family.
Esther, real name Lena, was sexually abused as a child by her father, and after being placed in foster care, started to seek out men who were the same, as that was the only kind of fatherly "love" she knew; especially due to her condition that causes her to look like a prepubescent child well into her 30s, who were ever attracted to her were predators. If the adopted father ever turned her down, she would kill him and the rest of his family.
We see her behavior in detail with the Colemans; she latches onto and forces Max to help her, she threatens to castrate Danny, attempts to burn him alive, and then smothers him, I'd honestly be here all day if I list everything she did to the mom, and she tried to force herself on the dad while he was drunk.
I think that even though it's in the presence of her home, what Esther does is essentially stalk people/watch and follow them without them being fully aware.
Esther attempts to kill Danny, John is stabbed to death, Maxine nearly gets run over, Danny and Maxine are trapped in a moving car, Kate is stabbed in the leg, Esther gets kicked in the head by Kate and drowns after her neck snaps, gun violence, Esther threatens to shoot Kate if Maxine tells on her, Kate grabs Esther’s arm, Kate knocks Esther down in the hospital hallway.
Yes and no? MAJOR SPOILERS
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The main character is presented as a child for the duration of the film, but the twist is that she is actually a 30-something year old woman with a rare form of dwarfism. This twist is already known by the audience (but not the father) at the time she attempts to seduce him.
not jokes, but later in movie esther tries so seduce her foster dad witch results in him being uncomfortable and walking away telling her he doesn’t see them like that
It's attempted, but the person who tries it is tackled out of the way before they can succeed. Someone also gets beaten in the head with a hammer multiple times, however it's not technically "squashing".
Yes. Esther pushes her bully off a slide, which results in the bully breaking her leg. It is shown in graphic detail. Esther also breaks her own arm by using a crushing device.
Not exact but I can't imagine it doesn't count. Earlier in the movie the mother tells Esther that the ashes of her stillborn child were sprinkled in a rose plant so as long as it lived her child would live in it, Esther later cuts the flowers. This is not glossed over or a quick scene, the mother gets very visibly upset.
*SPOILERS* The paintings on Esther's walls (revealed in the final act) heavily imply she suffers from body dysmorphia. In the paintings she depicts herself as looking closer her true age (33)
Esther is shown having an anxiety attack in a bathroom stall after talking with a therapist. The scene itself cuts from the couple talking to the same therapist, and Esther in the bathroom.
Amongst other scenes, the movie starts off with a pretty graphic/upsetting hospital scene - the mom is having a ptsd flashback of losing her baby at the hospital and screams "no"/cries in the flashback
Esther is spying on John and Kate when they first arrive a the orphanage, she spies on them when they start to have sex in the kitchen, it's heavily implied Esther knew Kate was snooping through her stuff, she watches Danny sleep before he wakes up and she threatens him, she listens in on the conversation John and Kate have with the nun and later some other people, and she keeps watching Heather, the bully, at the playground resulting in Heather becoming extremely paranoid until Esther appears and shoves her off the slide
A very very gory scene right in the beginning where the mom screams and lots of blood is shown. She's then presented with her dead child wrapped in cloth and covered in blood.
It is revealed that Esther is a little person pretending to be a child, to seduce the fathers of families that adopt her. It is very bad representation of little people, with the intent to make them scary.
There's an uncomfortable scene towards the end. It's not technically incestuous and nothing actually happens except a failed attempt at seduction but it is uncomfortable to watch. The character who is making their move is also seemingly a minor.
Esther pushes Max onto the road in front of sister Abigail's oncoming car, causing her to swerve violently (just avoiding Max) & skid to a stop. She manages not to hit anything or roll the car though.
When Kate is dropping Daniel to school she momentarily steps out leaving Max on the back-seat, only for Esther to sneak in & release the parking brake (& shift the gear stick to neutral), causing the car to start rolling backwards down the hill. After a couple of near misses (cars swerving out of the way) the car fortunately slams into a snow bank bringing it to a stop without injury.
When Kate is racing home from the hospital during a snow storm, desperately attempting to reach John, she narrowly avoids crashing a number of times until she finally crashes intentionally through the front of the house.
Only a pigeon is killed.