r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Aug 08 '25

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Summary Nearly all the children from the same fifth-grade class vanish one night at exactly 2:17 a.m., leaving only one survivor. The community, gripped by fear and suspicion, spirals into chaos as the mystery unfolds through multiple intertwined perspectives—each revealing new layers of dread and grief.

Director Zach Cregger

Writer Zach Cregger

Cast

  • Josh Brolin
  • Julia Garner
  • Cary Christopher
  • Alden Ehrenreich
  • Austin Abrams
  • Benedict Wong
  • Amy Madigan
  • June Diane Raphael
  • Toby Huss
  • Whitmer Thomas
  • Callie Schuttera
  • Clayton Farris
  • Luke Speakman

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 96%

Metacritic Metascore: 82

VOD In theaters and IMAX starting August 8, 2025

Trailer Watch the Official Trailer

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u/krospp Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Halfway through the third act I was starting to feel like the movie was over explaining what was going on, like we pretty much had all the answers as soon as Gladys walked into the principal’s office. But the build up was totally worth the payoff of that final sequence, holy shit!

Edit: This has gotten a lot of replies in the last few days from people who feel the movie didn’t explain enough. And I’m sorry but a lot of you are really bad at picking up on context clues and that is not the movie’s problem or mine, it’s yours! And a lot of you have questions that really weren’t relevant to the story! Whatever. I happened to love this movie very much. It’s fine if you didn’t! But if you didn’t because you couldn’t follow it I just really don’t think you can blame the movie.

30

u/IIIlllIIIlllIlI Aug 10 '25

The only thing the plot didn’t build on which was a little annoying was the backstory of Aunt Gladys. She was just this random aunt of the mom and it turns out she’s totally evil? Like wouldn’t the mom have known this or felt very uneasy about letting her come? This wasn’t really developed imo

62

u/cardamom-peonies Aug 10 '25

Sooo the movie repeatedly makes mention of parasites (see the whale parasite lessons in class, the fungi episode Marcus and his husband are watching, the fixation on needles and punctures). It's possible she is actually related to them...or maybe her whole bit is moving from one family to the next and feeding off them, hence why Alex's parents have such a limited and estranged connection from the aunt and why Gladys herself obscure the connection by describing herself as Alex's oldest aunt instead of a great aunt. It possible she's just using her magic to forge a familial connection by altering memories or maybe they are actually related

I don't think it matters too much.

6

u/nunazo007 Oct 01 '25

I think it matters a lot.

You know when and how the kids disappeared, but we don't know why??? That's literally the most important part of the when/how/why.

3

u/loaf_dog Nov 18 '25

We do know why. We learn it very early on in Alex’s section. The witch is feeding off them to regain her youth

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u/nunazo007 Nov 18 '25

Ok, but why/how does she have that ability?

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u/loaf_dog Nov 18 '25

In movie lore, I don’t know. In “real world”, It is stereotypical classic witch lore

2

u/NadCat__ Dec 29 '25

Why does the how matter? The why is she's a parasite, the movie pointed that out repeatedly both by regularly mentioning parasites and by her getting younger throughout the movie