Stoker (2013)

Stoker (2013) Full Recap

The movie is centered around a rich family named Stoker. The family consists of three members, a young woman named India who lives with her parents in an isolated mansion surrounded by greenery. India is someone with peculiar habits, and may seem strange to some people. She loves venturing outdoors and doing activities like hunting with her father, who she considers to be her best friend.

On the day of her 18th birthday, she goes on a hunt through the gardens in search of a gift from her father. Every year, he continues with the tradition of giving her new shoes on her birthday. But to her surprise, this year the box does not contain shoes but a small key instead. Not knowing the purpose of the key, she keeps it strung around her neck in confusion.

On this day that was supposed to be one of the happiest days for India, a terrible tragedy occurs. She gets the news that her father has died in a car accident. Her father was like the glue that held the family together, and he and India were particularly close. In the absence of her father, India feels down and listless, unable to muster the energy to carry on happily as usual.

After the death of her father, she is left with a mentally unstable mother whom she has a strained relationship with. Even on the day of the funeral, India cannot quite get along with her mother. This day turns out to be full of surprises, as India finds out for the first time that she actually has an uncle, her father’s younger brother who is called Charlie. Charlie is young and full of charisma, as he stands out at the funeral in his brown suit, in a sea of black mourning clothes.

He says that he has been traveling around the world all these years, and that’s why no one ever met him before this day. India finds it strange that her mysterious uncle, who not even her mother knew existed before, popped up out of nowhere on the day of her father’s funeral. However, she lets the matter go as she cannot do anything about it. Charlie tries his best to have a conversation with India and get close to her, but she has no interest in talking to him.

She continues on ignoring him throughout the day, but unfortunately for her, he is here to stay. Her mother, Evelyn, happily welcomes him to live in their house, for as long as he likes in order to support them. Although India is not very fond of the idea, she does not argue against the matter either. Early next morning, when India is wandering around in the garden, she comes across the sight of Charlie arguing with the head caretaker of the house.

She hears the old caretaker complaining that she has been his spy in the household, ever since he was a child. They argue some more, but India is unable to hear anything else because of the distance. Evelyn only wakes up on the afternoon of that day. She wanders to the kitchen to find India sitting on a chair while reading a book, but there is no sign of the old caretaker.

She shrugs it off and focuses back to India, urging her to go out with her to get some fresh air. However, India does not want to. She is also quite dissatisfied with her mother, on how soon she is recovering from the loss of her husband. But even with her refusal, Evelyn is adamant to go out.

So, she takes Charlie along instead who is happy to accompany her, and the two of them soon drive out of the mansion. Taking advantage of their absence, India sneaks into Charlie’s room in order to investigate. She finds a small luggage bag that is filled with documents and bank cards. Upon rummaging further, she catches the sight of a gift box wrapped with a yellow ribbon, that is very similar to the gift boxes that her father gives her every birthday.

Just as she is about to open the box, Evelyn and Charlie return back from their trip, and call India downstairs. She puts the box back into its place and goes to the kitchen. where her mother is excitedly gushing about her short trip into the city with Charlie. The two of them also bring back a gift for India, two tubs of ice cream which she is not the least bit happy about. Since their caretaker has been absent all day, India herself goes down to the basement to put the tubs of ice cream in the freezer.

The responsibility for preparing tonight’s dinner falls on Charlie’s shoulders, because the caretaker is still nowhere to be found. He proves to be very skilled in the kitchen, and Evelyn’s good impression of him only grows. During dinner, India can clearly see that Evelyn is attracted to him, when she keeps flirting with him while refusing to talk about her late husband. But Charlie’s interests lie in India instead.

He wants to make friends with her, however, India is clear with her rejection. She denies his offer of friendship by saying that they are already family. Even so, Charlie is persistent in his efforts. The next day, he drives to her high school in order to give her a lift back home, but she completely ignores his existence, and gets on the school bus.

Charlie drives next to the bus but still India refuses to spare him a glance. The next day, he tries to hand her an umbrella to take to school, but India pretends not to see again. She would rather be drenched in the rain than accept Charlie’s help. When she gets back home, completely soaked because of the rain, she sees her mother and Charlie playing the piano together.

Which makes India very uncomfortable as she rushes to her room. The days pass like this and one day, they are visited by her father’s aunt. She joins them for dinner and expresses her concerns about Charlie living together with the mother-daughter pair for such a long time. But Evelyn refuses to hear a single word against Charlie and she is very hostile towards the aunt.

The aunt is clearly uneasy about Charlie, and has something to say about him that the two women do not know. However, Evelyn rudely expresses that the aunt should leave after dinner. India, on the other hand, is very glad for her aunt’s visit and wishes for her to stay. So before leaving, she secretly slips India a piece of paper with her number on it.

The aunt does not go to the hotel that she told Charlie she would be staying in, but instead goes farther to book a room in a shabby hotel. As she rummages around to look for her phone in order to wait for India’s call, she finds that it is missing. So, she goes out of the hotel to visit a telephone booth to give her niece a call. Back at the Stoker mansion, India goes downstairs to the basement for some ice cream.

When she searches through the freezer, she sees a horrifying sight of the house caretaker’s dead body, frozen among the pieces of meat. At the same time, Evelyn is upstairs in her bedroom, putting on makeup and getting ready to meet Charlie. But she finds that he is not in his room. Without her knowing, Charlie is far away at a phone booth, confronting his aunt for lying about the hotel she would be staying in.

The aunt is shocked to see Charlie handing her lost phone. Soon, the shock converts into terror as he slips out his belt and steps inside the booth along with her. The aunt’s screams fall on deaf ears as she is strangled to death by Charlie, just as he had strangled the old caretaker. The scene focuses back on India who, despite knowing that it was her uncle that killed the old caretaker, keeps silent about the matter, and does not reveal it to anyone.

Ever since she found the dead body, India thinks that she knows her uncle a little better, and feels closer to him despite still having complicated feelings regarding him. But at the same time, he is also making moves on Evelyn. One night, India sees Charlie and Evelyn together and she cannot bear the sight. He knows that India saw them and watches silently, as she runs away into the distance.

Agitated by what she just witnessed, India ventures out to find a boy from her school who she is comparatively familiar with. He wants to take her to a bar, but she refuses because she has some other spot in mind. In the middle of the night, India takes the boy to an empty park. She is surprised at herself for being so reckless, but she quite enjoys this new feeling.

Shortly after, India starts having second thoughts. She does not want to stay here anymore and wants to go back home, but the boy is unwilling to let her go. He begins trying to force her to stay despite India’s resistance. But at the nick of time, Charlie comes in to rescue her. He beats the boy to the ground and slips out his belt before proceeding to strangle him.

Strangely, India does nothing to stop him, and silently watches as the boy is slowly choked to his death. The two of them load up the dead body in the trunk of Charlie’s car, and drive back home in silence. They take up a shovel and bury the body in the backyard of the mansion. As Charlie is digging, India takes out her phone and gives her aunt a call.

But to her surprise, she hears a phone ringing below the ground, and she figures out that Charlie has already killed her, and then buried her body at this place. This information should have horrified India but despite herself, she finds that she is getting attracted to Charlie instead. She hates this feeling of attraction, but at the same time, she cannot do anything to stop it. One day, India enters into her father’s study in order to clean out the room.

While she is getting all the paperwork out of the drawers in the desk, she finds that one of the bottom drawers is locked. Suddenly, she remembers the key that she got as her 18th birthday present, and to her surprise, it is able to unlock the drawer. There she finds a couple of boxes, one of them filled with photographs of her father’s childhood. From the pictures, she is able to discover that her father actually had two younger brothers and not just Charlie.

She doesn't know what happened to the youngest one, as she has never heard anyone mention him before. The next box is filled to the brim with letters. These letters span over the course of many years, all written by Charlie for India. Every holiday and every special day, he has always sent a heartfelt letter addressed to her.

But India cannot remember her father ever showing her any one of these letters. It is a mystery why they are locked up inside the study. She gathers up all the letters and brings them upstairs to her room, but one slips out and falls on the staircase. As she goes to pick it up, she notices that it is sent from a mental institute.

One by one, she quickly checks every letter and finds that all of them are sent from the same mental institute. The fact that her uncle Charlie was traveling around the world is a grand lie. She suddenly grows suspicious of him, and believes that he is the one who caused her father’s death. So, she picks up her phone to call the police immediately, but as she sees Charlie strolling outside in the garden, she changes her mind and ends the call.

By the time Charlie enters the house again, India has gone through his luggage and brought it out. He finds her waiting for him at the staircase, rightfully accusing him of her father’s death. But she will not hand him over to the police, instead, she wants him to leave the house immediately. But Charlie brings up the matter of her father’s death, to which India replies that she is more curious about the death of his youngest brother instead.

Charlie is suddenly plunged deep into memory lane, as he calmly starts narrating what happened during his childhood. Charlie and his older brother were always close, but ever since the youngest brother came into the picture, India’s father focused all his attention on him. Feeling jealous and neglected, Charlie made up his mind to do something drastic, that changed the course of his life forever. He pretended to play with his younger brother, and tricked the small child to lie inside a pit in the sandbox.

Remorselessly, Charlie then buried the child deep into the ground. By the time India’s father found out that Charlie had buried his youngest brother alive, it was already too late, and the child was already dead. Because of Charlie’s psychopathic behavior, he was immediately driven out to be admitted into a mental institute, where he continued to live for the next 20 years of his life, despite being set free early on. He chose to leave the institution on the day of India’s 18th birthday, and his older brother was the one to pick him up.

But because of Charlie’s unstable mental state and his strange obsession with his daughter, India’s father is against the idea of bringing him back to his own home. He feels that Charlie is a dangerous person and must not get close to his family. So, in order to drive Charlie out of his life, he gave him a car, an apartment in New York city and enough money to live out the rest of his life in luxury. But Charlie wants none of those, and only wants to stay together with his family.

Feeling hurt and betrayed by his brother, Charlie hit his head repeatedly with a large rock, killing him on the spot. After this, he cleverly staged a car accident to cover up his murder, and went back to live with India and Evelyn while pretending to be a kind uncle. Hearing the story of her father’s murder, India is enraged and angrily slaps Charlie on the face. But he acts as if nothing happened, and calmly gets closer to her before opening up his luggage bag.

From it, he pulls out a box, the same box that she gets every birthday. But unlike other boxes, this one does not have shoes but a pair of heels, signifying the start of India’s journey as a woman beginning at the age of 18. He carefully unlaces her shoes and puts her feet inside the heels. Before India can show any reaction, the town sheriff knocks on the front door, and the ambiguous environment is broken.

The sheriff is there to question India on the matter of her school mate’s disappearance, as she is the one who was last seen with him. Despite having a hand in his murder, India smoothly lies about getting home after parting with him. Charlie also steps in claiming that the two of them were watching TV all night, providing a false alibi for her. After getting their statements, the sheriff prepares to leave but not before bringing up the matter about their house caretaker’s sudden disappearance.

Charlie and India instantly understand that the sheriff is suspicious of them. So, Charlie offers to take her away to New York city early tomorrow morning. Feeling somewhat moved by his thoughtfulness, India readily agrees to his plan and the two of them grow closer together. However, Evelyn ends up witnessing that in frustration.

She coldly expresses her desire to see her daughter suffer, because she believes that India is pulling Charlie away from her. At this time, Evelyn is madly infatuated with Charlie, and is ready to do anything for his love. She beckons him to her room and walks upstairs. He also moves to follow her after instructing India to pack a small bag, because he says that the two of them will be leaving for New York shortly.

Stoker (2013) Ending Explained

As Evelyn and Charlie enter the room together, she reveals that she knows what he has been up to all this time. She hints that she knows about him staying in a mental institute, and being responsible for the murder of his aunt and the caretaker of the house. She is afraid of Charlie, however, she begs him to take her to New York instead of her daughter. Calmly, as if stalking a prey, Charlie gets closer to her.

With his smooth words and actions, he pretends that he loves her. But before Evelyn could express her happiness, Charlie suddenly pulls out his belt and starts to strangle her with it. He shouts out loud for India, wishing to show her the sight of her mother’s death. When India enters the room, she is armed with a hunting rifle.

Charlie is overjoyed to see her aim the gun at Evelyn as he feels that he now finally has a partner in his madness. But to everyone’s shock, she pulls the trigger and shoots at Charlie instead, and he falls dead on the spot. Charlie sees the deep love that India has for her father. So, it is impossible for her to collude with her father’s murderer.

Early next morning, India happily leaves the mansion after burying Charlie’s body in the garden, along with the people that he murdered. While speeding along the empty road, she is pulled over by the sheriff for going too fast. She says to him that she just wanted to grab his attention. Her words catch him off guard, and she suddenly stabs his neck with a pair of shears.

Shortly after, India calmly observes the sheriff as he stumbles through the fields while clutching his bloody neck. However, he cannot escape too far, because she pulls out her hunting rifle, and shoots him dead, with a smile on her face.