1922

Wilfred kills Arlette because she wants to sell her inherited land and move to Omaha, which Wilf sees as a threat to his pride and identity as a farmer. He refuses to leave the land his family has worked, and rather than negotiate or accept the sale, he decides murder is the only solution to keep both his land and his relationship with his son Henry.

Earlier tension between Wilf and Arlette over the land sale establishes his stubborn refusal to leave as a driving force behind his extreme decision.

Wilfred manipulates Henry into helping by threatening to end his relationship with his girlfriend Shannon. Wilf tells Henry that if they move to Omaha, Shannon's parents will separate them forever. This emotional manipulation convinces Henry to assist in holding Arlette down while Wilf cuts her throat.

The movie establishes Henry's deep connection to Shannon early on, making him vulnerable to his father's coercion.

Wilfred disposes of Arlette's body in a dry well behind their farm. The original plan was to bury her in the cornfield, but Henry panics during the burial, so Wilf quickly dumps her in the well instead. To cover their tracks, they drop a dead cow into the well to suggest the cow fell in and caused the backfilling.

The failed cornfield burial hints at Henry's inability to fully commit to the crime, setting up his later guilt and breakdown.

Henry escapes with Shannon because she becomes pregnant and her parents send her away to a Catholic institution in Omaha. Desperate to be with her and start a new life, Henry steals his father's car and runs away with Shannon, hoping to escape the guilt and build a future together.

Shannon's pregnancy is revealed after Arlette's murder, creating urgency for Henry to leave.

Wilfred's decline is driven by overwhelming guilt manifesting as hallucinations of rats. The rats symbolize his internal guilt and the腐败 of his soul. He becomes increasingly paranoid, drinks heavily, neglects his farm, and eventually suffers a rat bite that becomes infected and requires amputation, a physical manifestation of his rotting conscience.

The rats appear immediately after the murder, foreshadowing their eventual dominance over Wilf's life.

After escaping, Henry and Shannon turn to a life of crime, becoming parallels to the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. They attempt robberies to survive, but tragedy strikes when Shannon is killed during a violent confrontation during a robbery. Devastated by her death, Henry later commits suicide, leaving his body to decay similarly to how Arlette's body was consumed by rats.

The ghostly Arlette reveals their fate to Wilf, hinting that their criminal path was predestined by the family's corruption.

The movie deliberately blurs the line between supernatural and psychological. The rats are primarily a manifestation of Wilfred's guilt and paranoia, his mind creating visual reminders of the horror he committed and where he disposed of Arlette. However, the film leaves enough ambiguity to suggest Arlette's spirit may indeed be tormenting him, especially when she appears surrounded by rats to reveal Henry and Shannon's fate.

The ambiguity is present from the first rat sighting, never fully resolving throughout the film.

Henry commits suicide after Shannon dies during a robbery. The loss of the person he loved most, and the realization that their criminal lifestyle led to her violent death, overwhelms him with grief and guilt. Additionally, Henry is already haunted by his involvement in his mother's murder, and Shannon's death becomes the final breaking point that drives him to end his life.

Henry's guilt over Arlette's murder has been building throughout the film, making him vulnerable to complete emotional collapse.

Eight years after the murder, Wilfred writes a confession detailing the crime, ending with 'In the end, we all get caught.' This represents his ultimate reckoning with his sins. He has lost everything, his wife, his son, his legacy, and the confession is both an admission of guilt and an acknowledgment that his actions destroyed his entire family. He then dies surrounded by rats, wielding the same knife used to kill Arlette.

The title '1922' and opening narration establish this is Wilf's confession from the start.

Sheriff Jones investigates Arlette's disappearance and grows suspicious of Wilfred and Henry, but he never finds enough evidence to arrest them. The cow dropped into the well, the family's consistent alibis, and the lack of a body all prevent conclusive proof. The sheriff's investigation remains unfruitful, though his suspicions add tension throughout the early portion of the film.

Sheriff Jones's lingering suspicions create ongoing pressure that contributes to Wilf and Henry's guilt-driven behavior.

Harlan Cotterie, Shannon's father, rejects Wilfred when he tries to salvage some kind of legacy or connection. Harlan views Wilfred with contempt and drives him away, seeing him as responsible for the corruption and eventual death of his daughter. This rejection further isolates Wilfred, leaving him completely alone to face the consequences of his actions.

Harlan's rejection underscores the theme that Wilfred's evil has spread beyond his immediate family.