The Maddening

The Maddening (1996)

Ending / spoiler

(1 vote)

Turns out Roy Scudder suffocated his terminally ill newborn son, Arthur because he didn't want the child to suffer, despite it being intended as a mercy killing the Scudders fear/know that Roy could/will face certain execution. Melenna & Donna...did not run away as Georgina has convinced herself, both were going to tell the cops about what had really happened to Arthur...so Georgina inadvetedly od'ed them on sleeping powder spiked milk. Despite having a broken leg...David manages to scramble out of the well, Roy catches sight of him on the stairwell and chases him into the swamp with a torch and double barrelled shotgun, David tries to stay submerged and has a near fatal encounter with a swimming venomus snake as Roy searches for him with his flashlight until David crawls out of the murky depths and slips away. Chicky Ross manages to track down David's current location and on seeing David's van dismantled in Roy's garage he calls the local law enforcement, while noting that one window of the Scudder's home is all boarded up but before he can do anything else, Roy creeps up from behind and slices open his throat...stealing Chicky's revolver in the process before beating Ross into the ground...leaving him to die on the lawn head slumped over one of Jill's dolls. Roy now armed with both a pistol and shotgun sneaks up the stairs to hide on the landing concealed in the night's darkness only to emerge from the shadows as the Osbournes try to flee showing up right in the doorway barring the couples path and blocking off any escape routes for the pair. As he readies to shotgun decapitate David (by shoving both barrels into his throat), his father's ghost appears to him further mocking him. Enraged he empties the entire chamber of Chicky's gun into the wheelchair...and into his own wife (and her chest)...who was sitting in it. Reality hits him and he breaks down and embraces his now dead wife before dumping her on a bed. David tries to shoot him but can't bring himself to do it...as he argues with his wife, Roy...seeing his chance...flings a oil lantern at them and starts a blaze...before a fight breaks out between all three...climaxing in Cassie snatching up Roy's own shotgun...to blast him straight out of the boarded up window...together with his grandfather's wheelchair...which he lands on as he hits the ground....as he dies his father's ghost sits by the window cackling insanely. Final shot of the film shows Jill dropping her doll down her family well watching it steadily fall into blackness.

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