Reviewed By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I rented Barricade not knowing it was a World Wrestling Entertainment production. Had I known, I probably would not have rented it. Thankfully, the fact was unbeknownst to me and the film ended up being quite a treat.
Eric McCormack stars as Terrance Shade, a psychiatrist who takes his two children to a cabin that his wife had suggested before her untimely and accidental death. Soon, all three develop a cold and with it strange occurrences begin to happen. A never-ending snow storm insures they remain in the house. Shade barricades the doors shut as he is convinced something is trying to enter.
The movie has fantastic pace, a great fear element, and terrific acting. The ending is ambiguous and leaves a lot for fans to question which they do frequently across message boards.
The basic question one is left with asks whether Shade was having hallucinations because of his fever and due to the drugs he was taking for depression or whether the cabin was truly haunted. The ending reveals that he was most certainly having a breakdown and hallucinating. He and his children are rescued by the police and are taken away by an ambulance. The curiosity is stirred by the last scene which shows an unseen presence peering out the window of the cabin.
At first, I believed this to be a weak conclusion without an answer, but after thinking about it – I think the ending is clear. I believe the lead character is still hallucinating. During his flashbacks with his wife he mentions a patient who lost his wife that he prescribes Lorazepam to. It just so happens he is taking the same medication making me think that even within the flashback of his wife, he was confused and disoriented.
When things begin to come together it shows him going from a red sweater to a blue sweater to make it simpler to see when he was hallucinating and when he was coherent. At the end, he is in the blue sweater which he was predominantly in during the hallucinations.
It is my belief that at the end, it is he that is looking out the window. That in fact, he is still hallucinating and that he is stuck in the cabin with his children who he has murdered.
I encourage those who have watched it to watch it again with this perspective and for those who haven’t to view it to see if they agree or disagree.
Scared Stiff Reviews 8/10
It is a really good review. U do observe the storyline closely. I like your review.
Thanks!! 🙂 I appreciate you reading it. Most Obliged.
Good reviewing…I always want these movies to end on an upbeat and am a little let down when they don’t. I tell you, after reading your review I am feeling it’s time I grew up and discover the insight of a movie. Thanks, Sharon.
Thanks for reading Sharon!! There are times I’m like that too. For example, I always tell everyone it was Apollo’s evil twin brother who died in Rocky IV. With horror movies, I’m not as sentimental – but with certain movies I get extremely upset. The worst is one of my favorite kids movies called Savannah Smiles. I love that film. I wont’ tell you anything but the basic plot. Two lovable criminals accidentally kidnap a little rich girl and hold her for ransom but slowly she changes them and they help her. It’s a sad ending and I cry all the time, but it’s bittersweet. It’s funny – sometimes I’ll put it on and my hubby will be like, “WHY are you doing this to yourself?” I just love the movie and always want it to end differently.
I was so confused till i read your review! Thanks, I think I will watch it again to understand what you said more. It was a great movie!
Thanks Suzette!! Let me know when you watch it again!
I agree that he was hallucinating probably
everything after the snowball fight until the
kids wake up. I think what was in the house
after the rescue is the ” dark force” that was
a recurring element in the film. Starting when
he hit the wolf with the car then the girl sees
something in the attic door and the boy sees
something in the trees everyone seemed to be
sick. They end some scenes with the camera
staring into a dark void. All in all an OK film.
I give it a 3 out of 5 just because it is a little
hard to follow.
Thanks for the comment! 🙂 I like your analysis. The “dark void” is definitely a theme within the film and used in a way to both foretell events and create atmosphere!
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Thanks for the comment!! I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
All the best –
Missy Garza
So, imagine this: a nice old man shows up at a remote cabin in the woods to bring supplies to a family stuck in a winter storm. For his trouble, some lunatic beats shiz-nit out of him for no real reason,binds him with duck tape, and sticks him in the freezing attic for three days without food, water, or heat. The police finally come busting down the front door looking for this poor feller. Now: What do you think they are going to do with the offender? Allow him to just saunter out of the house, arms wrapped around his family? The movie is
written just well enough not to let that happen.
So if we agree the ending is not what it seems, then use the clues to figure out what really happens to this man and his family. Hint: This movie is The Shining without the happy ending.
I’m still confused as to whether the kids are alive or dead. I know it seems like they are alive when they get into the ambulance, but when the sheriff deputies are taking away the old man he says, “He’ll get what he deserves.” Which makes me think that he murdered the kids when he was delusional with the fever.
Thanks so much, Melissa! I was frustrated until I read your review and re-watched the film. I like the potential of this movie…obviously it was good enough to be intriguing…but I wish it didn’t take so much work as to have to experience the thrill as an afterthought. HOWEVER, that being said, your review is solely responsible for my enjoyment. Yours was the best I found. Great insight and observation!!
Thanks so much for your kind words and I’m glad I was able to help with your enjoyment!! 🙂 I hope you had a great holiday and thanks so much for the read
It was clonazepam on the bottle, not lorazepam, but thank you for the ending, I was confused.
I saw this movie for the first time last night. If I think about the movie as you have said, and it is the same way I thought, then he murdered his children without the murders really being shown. I take it he drowned his son in ice water and buried his daughter in the snow. The thing I don’t understand is his motive. Why would he hate his kids to kill them? And if he liked his kids, why would he kill them, even when going mad?
Thank you Melissa !
You wrote “[…] he prescribes Lorazepam to. It just so happens he is taking the same medication […]” ; I disagree, he is on Clonazepam if I am not wrong, look again…
I liked your review which conforted my interpretation : his hallucinations and delusions.
You wrote : “Shade was having hallucinations because of his fever and due to the drugs he was taking for depression […]”, I think the fever played a big role, so did the cold and the improper way to drink and to feed himself during his delusions, his sleep deprivation, etc. But those events came after he took his drugs in combinaison with alcohol. Later, we can see that he panicked when he’s suddenly aware of the fact that he run out of his medication(s) – when he wrongly thought the guilty thief was his son, and during a flashback; so, he probably abused and took all his medication(s) and fell into a kind of “toxic psychosis” and then, later, him being more than probably addicted to his clonazepam, he fell into (those drugs should not be stopped abruptly…) an other kind of psychosis, a very strong one due to the abrupt stop of his drugs… And everything got worse… Until “the end”..?
I am quite okay with your interpretation : he was hallucinating (and still at the end, maybe and probably…) ; that’s what I have understood at the end of the film, although my english skills are not very very good (as you can see)…and the french subtitles of this film really are a Horror translation ! I have watched the OV with french subtitles (streaming) but as soon as the film begun, I quickly understood that the french subtitles are almost completly wrong – they even are an obstacle to a good and correct comprehension.
By the way, It would be very nice if someone (from Canada or someone who is bilingual..) could properly translate this film into french… I have been lucky enough to be able to understand it, but with difficulties.
I apologize for my weak english skills…
Regards
Hi Raf 🙂 Sorry about the delay to your response. It took me awhile to get back from the insanity of my 9-5 job. You could be right about the drug. They’re both benzodiazepines and in the same family of drugs so I think they work the same way though I’ve never been on Clonazepam so that may be stronger or weaker but I agree one should not just stop using those drugs and I 100% agree he was addicted and fell into it.
Please don’t apologize for your English skills. I wish I could speak a different language. I spent 4 years trying to learn Spanish and walked away with very little. I completely understood this.
I hope that someone does translate it into French as I believe this is a really good movie that should be shared.
Thanks for the awesome comments and have a great day!
Just my thought but if I heard someone telling me this story as a real life event, I’d bet money that carbon monoxide was involved. CO poisoning often involves Flu Like symptoms and disorientation. People with hypoxia and ataxia resulting from CO poisoning, experience confusion / disorientation / hallucinations / behavioral changes/ severe headaches / reduced level of consciousness / papilloedema/ breathlessness/ pallor/ tachycardia / pulmonary hypertension all eventually leading to the late signs cyanosis, bradycardia / cor pulmonale and hypotension followed by death. The fact that children, infants, pregnant women and small pets are more sensitive to CO poisoning than the average adult would lead me to pull out an air quality tester and check out all the gas appliances in the home especially the heating system, all it takes is a broken/rusty exhaust pipe.
The give away for me in watching the movie was that the pale chillins miraculously had cherry red looking cheeks toward the end. Because haemoglobin is a darker red when it is not bound to oxygen (deoxyhaemoglobin), as opposed to the rich red color that it has when bound to oxygen (oxyhaemoglobin), when seen through the skin it has an increased tendency to reflect blue light back to the eye. In cases where the oxygen is displaced by another molecule, such as carbon monoxide, the skin may appear ‘cherry red’ instead of cyanotic.
Also, Remember the set up of the fridge being on the fritz? Natural/propane absorbtion gas fired fridges are more common in cabin and camping application where the electric is spotty but they still need refrigeration. These units can and will produce carbon monoxide gas and the exhaust would backflow if the vent is blocked by say… snow.
I just watched the movie today and was rather confused throughout. There were scenes that were very clear and others that were rather complex. However, this site has helped in having a better understanding of the movie. Thanks.
Wow, if you picked up the sweater thing on the first view, you’re really observant; then again, I was a tiny tad distracted.
I think this *might* be the the actual intention of the film (as you explained).
Suddenly it turns from an incoherent jumble, to something way more eerie.
Though I don’t think ‘murdered’ his children. The ice bath was a fruitless attempt to bring down the boy’s fever, and since he ‘vanished’ into the water, it can be assumed, that’s when he died.
The girl however, I’m not so sure of.
Besides, if he really was crazy enough to kill his kids, he probably would’ve killed the store owner too for ‘infecting’ them.
Another explanation, weak I guess, but still, the figure in the window staring at the ambulance in the end, could be the spirit of his wife who tormented him; which is who *I* thought whose face was seen in the window; so, he hears her ‘speaking’ to him, saying how he couldn’t save her, or the kids…