THE Look away The film on Netflix follows 17-year-old Maria (played by India Eisley), whose meek demeanor causes her to be bullied at school and misunderstood at home. After discovering that the person she sees in the mirror is not a mere reflection, but an autonomous alternative version of herself named Airam, Maria finally has someone to trust. After the pain of their existence becomes unbearable, Maria and Airam decide to switch places. However, this decision only worsens Maria’s situation as Airam begins to show his true colors.
Switching places with Airam quickly proves not to be the improvement Maria thought it would be at the end of Look away. Although Airam initially acts like a bolder version of Maria while living in the real world, she quickly proves to be more sinister than she appears. When Airam starts acting on his own and goes on a murder spree that targets those close to Maria, Maria’s life is turned upside down forever, somehow becoming even more complicated than it was before.
What happens when you look away from the girl in the mirror?
Maria disappears, leaving Airam alone
During the 2018 horror film Look awayMaria and Airam consult the other version of herself trapped in the mirror, but this ability becomes increasingly complicated towards the end of the film. While Airam is in the real world, she often checks her reflection to see Maria’s reactions, but the last time she looks in the mirror, she only sees her own reflection, not Maria. This raises the question of what happened to the other girl in the mirror, how the audience never sees the whereabouts of the girl in the mirror throughout the film Look away.
Unfortunately, there is no happy answer to the disappearance of the girl in the mirror in Look away. Although there is no explicit confirmation, the fact that Maria does not appear in the mirror at the end of the horror film seems to imply that Maria is gone and Airam is trapped in the real world indefinitely. If Maria is gone, it will be impossible for Airam to trade places with her again, which means Airam will have to deal with the consequences of what she did while posing as Maria afterwards. Look away concludes.
Airam’s Connection to Maria Explained
Ariam is actually Maria’s twin sister, who died as a child
Initially it seems strange that Maria’s reflection in the mirror has a mind of its own. Look awayBut Airam’s appearance in the horror film is not random. At the beginning Look awayMaria finds a hidden ultrasound depicting twins, and throughout the film it is explained that Maria had an identical twin who died at birth. Although Airam is originally presented as the reflection of Mary or another version of Mary (represented by her name being “Maria” backwards), Airam is actually Maria’s deceased twin.
Why did Maria switch places with Airam
Maria wanted to escape the pain in the real world
During the beginning of Look awayMaria resists Airam’s offers to change places, but ends up giving in. Airam continually tells Maria that she can “to take [Maria’s] pain though”, which is an attempt to incite the latter to exchange places with her. Maria only accepts Airam’s offer to ease her pain after she is publicly bullied at her ball, which is effectively rock bottom for Maria. However, in the end, switching places with Airam probably caused more pain for Maria, as Airam caused chaos in the real world. In other words, your risky decision backfired horribly.
Airam’s true motives for his actions in the real world explained
Ariam desires Maria’s deepest desires without care or remorse
When Airam switches places with Maria and enters the real world, she does more than just pose as Maria. Airam has a more confident personality than the quiet Maria, and Airam begins to take big risks in Maria’s life, especially when it comes to speaking her mind to her tormentors, such as Maria’s bully or her father, Dan. Maria becomes initially alarmed by Airam’s abrasiveness in the real world, as Airam is shaking up the status quo in a way Maria never would. However, Airam assuages Maria’s concerns by stating that she is just doing things that Maria has always wanted to do.
Airam’s activities become increasingly hedonistic over the course of Look awayturning her into the villain of the horror film.
Although Airam claims that his actions are intended to satisfy Maria’s deepest desires, it eventually becomes clear that Airam has his own motives. Between Airam’s rude interactions with his parents, his indulgence in substances, or his affair with Sean, Airam’s activities become increasingly hedonistic throughout his years. Look awayturning her into the villain of the horror film. Airam began to act on his own whims and live out his personal desires (not Maria’s), which is exemplified by Airam’s rejection of Maria’s protests in the mirror.
Why did Airam kill Dan
Ariam believes Dan killed her as a child
In one of the most shocking moments Look awayAt the end of, Airam confronts her and Maria’s father, Dan (played by Jason Isaacs), leading to his death. After pretending to be drunk, Airam stands naked in front of Dan and demands to know if he would still love her if she were “deformed.” Eventually, Dan overcomes his discomfort and responds yes, prompting Airam to slit Dan’s throat with a scalpel, killing him. Although Airam’s decision to kill Dan may seem like it came out of nowhere Look awayshe has a clear motive for her crime.
Airam’s murder of Dan is revenge for the fact that he killed her when she was a baby.
Previously on Look awayIt is revealed in one of her mother’s dreams that the reason Airam died in childhood is that Dan killed her because of her.deformity.” So when Dan says he would love Airam/Maria even if she were “deformed,”Airam knows he’s lying, and that’s why she yells at him,”Why couldn’t you love me?” Airam’s murder of Dan is revenge for the fact that he killed her as a baby, which she achieves by not only killing him but doing so in a way that would harm his outward appearance.
The true meaning of the final image of Look Away
Symbolizes that Maria and Airam became one
At the end of Look away, Airam lies in bed and is comforted by her and Maria’s mother, Amy (played by Mira Sorvino). The camera then pans to the reflection in the mirror above the bed, and the mirror image shows Amy holding her daughter in her other arm. Look away flashes between the two images, the one in the mirror and the one in real life, and they eventually merge into one, making it appear as if Amy is holding a daughter in each arm.
Given the fact that Look away ends right after this image, the film never reveals what the true meaning of the image is. Although Look awayThe ending is left open, it is still possible to speculate about what it symbolizes. One interpretation of the image is that it represents Amy seeing the two daughters she should have had if Dan had not killed Airam.
Airam and Maria have merged into one person, which means they will both have to deal with real-world consequences.
However, the fact that the final image was created by flicking between two other photos before merging also has significance. This could suggest that the final scene means that Airam and Maria have merged into one person, meaning that they will both have to deal with real-world consequences. Look awayevents.
How the Look Away ending was received
The film received poor reviews and complaints about a confusing ending
Look awayAs a film, it received terrible reviews. It has just 15% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and just 50% on Popcornmeter. It seems that most fans and critics were not impressed with the film as a whole. Many of the complaints, at least on Rotten Tomatoes from fans, were about the “confused” revenge themes. An audience member wrote: “The film has an unfortunately anticlimactic ending. The subplot about a twin sister was confusing.“
Some Reddit threads created to show the confusion at the end of the film
Some Reddit threads were created to show the confusion at the end of the film, with many not understanding Amy lying in bed with her two twins. In a brief explanation, IlhaTime4L he wrote, “When she looked in the mirror at the end, only to see that Maria wasn’t there, it was because she was never there, so to speak. I think the photo she found of the twins was real, but her twin in the mirror was just in her imagination the whole time.” This takes away from the supernatural in the film, but what about the bed scene?
Editor Delemeko believed they understood the meaning, writing: “My conclusion at the end, when they are both crying in the mirror, was that she realized that Airam didn’t exist, and that it was her all along… She basically found an excuse to reveal herself. And then, the last scene, showing the two of them in bed, said, they are both present.“Despite this, many viewers commented that they still didn’t like how Look away never revealed whether Airam was ever real, explaining his low scores.
Look Away is a horror drama film by writer and director Assaf Bernstein, released in 2018. The film follows Maria Brennan, an introverted high school student who is bullied. However, Maria’s life changes completely when she discovers a mirror image of herself with a more sinister personality – and switches places with her.
- Director
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Assaf Bernstein
- Release date
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October 12, 2018
- Distributor(s)
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Vertical Entertainment
- Cast
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India Eisley, Mira Sorvino, Jason Isaacs, Penelope Mitchell, Harrison Gilbertson
- Execution time
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103 minutes