by Samantha Shuma
Home invasion is a fear that lingers in the back of our minds. We make sure our doors are locked and alarms set before leaving our homes unattended for the day. What if leaving your home unattended was in the hopes of someone breaking in, and being there when you got back? We see this from the robbers’ perspective in The Owners (Julius Berg 2020). The film starts out as robbery gone wrong, but there is a bigger plan behind the heist. The ulterior motives change the film's story, connecting the characters in a way we wouldn’t think possible. However, this inner story is mostly left to our imagination. There are clues sprinkled throughout the film, and it is our job as the audience to put it together. These clues reveal the deeper story that makes the film’s events more than just a one night of fright, but a long lived tragedy spanning decades.
The rest of this analysis contains spoilers for The Owners and may be disturbing to some readers, discretion is advised.
The rest of this analysis contains spoilers for The Owners and may be disturbing to some readers, discretion is advised.
The Owners introduces itself as a robbery gone wrong. A group consisting of a criminal (Gaz), a young couple (Nathan and Mary) and Terry, known as a loser by the group, goes inside the manor while the owners, a rich couple (the Huggins), are away. This plan originates from Terry, who suggests they find the house safe for quick loads of cash. Finding that the safe is uncrackable, they decide to stay until the couple comes back to terrorize the combination out of them. Knowing the owners as an elderly couple, how could this go wrong? The elderly couple, Mrs. and Dr. Huggins, find their home trashed (mainly by Gaz) and submit to the group's will, kind of. Dr. Huggins maintains a lot of power in the situation, ordering Mary to care for his wife, and ultimately convinces Nathan to turn on Gaz. Gaz is the main instigator in the situation, willing to do anything to get the safe open, even trying to saw Mrs. Huggins in half with a saw. Nathan gets stabbed by Gaz by trying to stop him. Dr. Huggins, although tied up, convinces Mary to turn against Gaz as well. She initially runs to call the police, which fails. After seeing Nathan stabbed and Gaz going in for the kill, Mary strikes him dead with a sledge hammer. By this point, we are laid into a false sense of security. We believe that the threat and instigator, Gaz, has been eliminated, the safe was not opened, Dr. Huggins can fix up Nathan in his home office, and the ambulance will come to make everything right. A bad situation has happened, but things are going to be okay.
This is the end of the expected plot, the ‘break-in gone bad’ situation. The film morphs into a different story, revealing the true character of the Huggins, their home, and their relationship with Terry. Dr. Huggins fakes calling the ambulance and doesn’t save Nathan. Mary and Terry are left to be taken care of by the Huggins, who have by now locked all the doors leading out of the house. Through this section we find that Mary has a twin sister, Jane, who left home after breaking up with Terry. Also, the Huggins had a disabled daughter, Kate, who died some time ago. Although Dr. Huggins considered caring for Kate a blessing, it is proven that Kate didn’t have a blessed childhood. Although she could hardly walk, Kate was beaten and left in the spandrel for hours at a time. We know this because Mrs. Huggins does the same thing to Mary. Mrs. Huggins slaps Mary across the face for wearing shoes inside the house, saying that shes ‘told her a thousand times’ not to do so. When locking Mary in the spandrel, she says ‘some time in the closet always calms you down.’ Mrs. Huggins is shown to be senile, acting as if her daughter is still alive. We are then shown, by Dr. Huggins, a photo album containing newspaper clippings of missing girls. At the end of the film, Mary tries to leave with Terry through a van in the basement, where Mary gets shot in the chest and Terry is left with the Huggins, both saying “we knew we could trust you.” The film ends with the safe opening to reveal Jane, tied to a bed, Terry being reunited with her.
This is the end of the expected plot, the ‘break-in gone bad’ situation. The film morphs into a different story, revealing the true character of the Huggins, their home, and their relationship with Terry. Dr. Huggins fakes calling the ambulance and doesn’t save Nathan. Mary and Terry are left to be taken care of by the Huggins, who have by now locked all the doors leading out of the house. Through this section we find that Mary has a twin sister, Jane, who left home after breaking up with Terry. Also, the Huggins had a disabled daughter, Kate, who died some time ago. Although Dr. Huggins considered caring for Kate a blessing, it is proven that Kate didn’t have a blessed childhood. Although she could hardly walk, Kate was beaten and left in the spandrel for hours at a time. We know this because Mrs. Huggins does the same thing to Mary. Mrs. Huggins slaps Mary across the face for wearing shoes inside the house, saying that shes ‘told her a thousand times’ not to do so. When locking Mary in the spandrel, she says ‘some time in the closet always calms you down.’ Mrs. Huggins is shown to be senile, acting as if her daughter is still alive. We are then shown, by Dr. Huggins, a photo album containing newspaper clippings of missing girls. At the end of the film, Mary tries to leave with Terry through a van in the basement, where Mary gets shot in the chest and Terry is left with the Huggins, both saying “we knew we could trust you.” The film ends with the safe opening to reveal Jane, tied to a bed, Terry being reunited with her.
Putting the pieces together, we find that this whole robbery plot was set up by the Huggins to kidnap Mary to be one of their ‘children.’ Mrs. Huggins could not bear the death of her child, so she and her husband have to be crafting a false reality for themselves. Ever since their daughter died, they’ve been trying to replace her with other similar looking girls. They tried and tried, killing candidates they didn’t like. Then they found Jane, as she was leaving home, and saw her as the perfect replacement. According to the film, Jane has been down there for six months. After some consideration, the Huggins try for a second daughter, Mary. To lure her there, they instructed Terry, Jane’s ex-boyfriend, to plan a robbery at the home consisting of a load of money and Mary’s boyfriend, Nathan. Terry does this to be reunited with Jane, since the Huggins promise this to him in return for his hard work. Their plans fail, however, when Mary does not succumb to their will. She fights for her life, questioning everyone’s behavior and doing whatever she can to escape. Mary disobeys the Huggins and Terry’s orders, which is the reason for her death. Terry and Jane are left together in the safe room, left to be the Huggins’ ‘children.’
Looking at the film on Amazon Video, you wouldn’t think much of it. For the sake of the mystery, it is advertised as a horror based around a robbery. Although this is true, it does very little to reveal the real story of the film. The robbery is only a piece of the puzzle, a means to an end. It is a plot device, a way to get Mary into the manor. It is after that point everything goes wrong, and we learn the real motives to Terry proposing the robbery in the first place. Not as a means to make a quick buck for him and his friends, but as a selfish, merciless way to get back together with Jane. Although we learn Terry and the Huggins’ reasons for doing this, the details and clues in the film reveal a sinister backstory. By tying all of these loose threads together, we get a clear picture of this disturbing situation and reveals how long of an endeavor that led up to the film’s events.
Looking at the film on Amazon Video, you wouldn’t think much of it. For the sake of the mystery, it is advertised as a horror based around a robbery. Although this is true, it does very little to reveal the real story of the film. The robbery is only a piece of the puzzle, a means to an end. It is a plot device, a way to get Mary into the manor. It is after that point everything goes wrong, and we learn the real motives to Terry proposing the robbery in the first place. Not as a means to make a quick buck for him and his friends, but as a selfish, merciless way to get back together with Jane. Although we learn Terry and the Huggins’ reasons for doing this, the details and clues in the film reveal a sinister backstory. By tying all of these loose threads together, we get a clear picture of this disturbing situation and reveals how long of an endeavor that led up to the film’s events.
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