Why !?!?
It was obviously personnal. He knew her and all. Was willing to kill anyone in his path so he could toy with her until the perfect moment for him to climax and kill her.
I thought the movie was not very good but I was telling myself "it'll probably get better when the intrigue and story unfold". Right?
Or I missed something and I just didn't get it?
It wasn't personal in the sense that he didn't know her before that night. He wanted to kill and she was available, due to his overconfidence he showed his face to her to freak her out. This then meant that when it became a lot harder than he thought, he didn't have the option of backing out as there was a much higher risk of being caught.
shareThe killing is not personal (though the joy he takes in tormenting her maybe makes it feel that way).
The fact that he doesn't know she is deaf (and that he has to ask her if she can read lips) shows that he is not familiar with her. The notches on his crossbow imply that he has done this many times before.
I think it is personal in the sense that he is this wanna-be alpha male who has a beef against anyone who has made him feel lesser in his life. His attack on the male neighbor is efficient and clean (cut throat and chokes him out), while the attack on the female neighbor is sexualized (with the stabbing) and angry (he continues stabbing her long after she is mortally wounded and even after she has apparently died). His attacks on Maddie are similarly more angry--including the scene where he breaks her hand and the enjoyment he takes in making her feel powerless and terrorized.
I think that the scariest part of that plot point is that he targets her only because she is a woman alone. It's horrifying to think that some guy might randomly choose you as a punching bag to vent his rage against women (or maybe against one particular woman from his past).
I agree with you except for the suggestion that his killing of the man was efficient because it was a male. He went straight for the jugular (pun intended) because he knew he couldn't fight such a large man directly (he says so himself). If it had been a more frail man, he might have toyed with him as well.
shareActually--I completely agree with you.
He only vents his rage (in the form of tormenting) on people he knows (or thinks) he can dominate. I think it speaks volumes that he's not at all interested in a fair fight--he just wants to get off on being dominant.
I think the killing of the neighbor was efficient because it had to be.
On the other hand, he seems more emotional during his attack on the female neighbor--more frantic and "into it" for lack of a better way to say it. With only three victims, it's harder to draw firm conclusions about whether he hates women more than men--but I got a vibe from him that he was more interested in tormenting the female characters. He either attacked the female neighbor while she was home alone OR while she was walking home from Maddie's place. Either way, the only two victims he chooses (that we know of) are women alone.
The notches on his crossbow imply that he has done this many times before.
Those could have been notches for something less sinister, like # of deer hunted, but the way the movie portrays it makes it look like he is a serial killer who has killed 20 or so people.
Given that, its pretty much guaranteed that he doesnt personally know her. If he did know her, he must have known the other 20 or so people that hes killed, and there is no way that someone could get away with killing 20 acquaintances around them without the cops figuring out the connection.
Nothing I saw indicated that he knew her. He was just depraved and wanted to toy with her.
What are words for when no one listens anymore