When I first started watching Cellphone, I thought it was heavily inspired by Black Swan as its focus is on dual personalities or psychological struggles. But as the movie went on, it became clear that comparing it to Black Swan gave it too much credit, I mean, where Natalie Portman’s brilliant performance in the movie made it captivating, in Cellphone, the lead character, Wynne, played by Whitney Noble’s poor acting made it too hard to watch. But, I want to mention that this film made a significant effort to create a scary atmosphere, however, the story itself was so lacking in substance that the cinematography couldn’t save the movie from being dull, to be honest. Anyways, enough of my blabbering, so to give you some context, Wynne moves to a secluded inn-like house after her husband dies and there’s a rumor that the house is haunted by a ghost named Betty, furthermore according to the owner, the previous couple who stayed there died, possibly murdered. The first question that might pop into your head is: Why would Wynne make a foolish decision to choose to stay in a place known for ghost stories and mysterious deaths when she is already suffering from severe PTSD after her husband’s death? Also, after arriving, her cell phone starts ringing constantly, and whenever she answers it, she either sees herself dead or her new friend Chris dead. But what’s actually happening? Is this all in her head? Did anyone survive? Cellphone leaves you with more questions than answers, but anyway, we will try to figure it out from this explainer of what happened in the movie.
Spoilers Ahead
What happened to the previous couple?
As I mentioned earlier, before Wynne moved into the house, there was a couple who used to live there—Brian and Jeanie. They seemed like a lovely couple at first, but from Brian’s point of view, things started to get weird after they settled in. He began receiving creepy phone calls, and every time he picked up, the screen camera would show his wife, Jeanie, being harmed—by him. I think the phone camera somehow captures his “mirror self,” or your alter ego, which then starts influencing you in the dark in horrible ways as it messes with your mind, haunting your memories and pushing you to the edge until you either go insane or commit the horrifying acts you’re seeing that ultimately lead to your own downfall. I believe that’s exactly what happened in Brian’s case, because we saw Brian’s phone camera reflecting his alter ego in the mirror, and soon after, he murdered Jeanie and then hanged himself. I also think that the owner of the house, Bob, knew about all of this but chose to keep it a secret. Instead, he just vaguely mentioned that the couple had been murdered but obviously left out the grim details.
What happened to Wynne and Chris?
Now, the new tenant of the house, Wynne, had recently lost her husband in a car accident, and it’s clear that she blamed herself for his death. It seemed like she was the one driving when the accident happened, and she’s been carrying that guilt ever since, and believed she was the murderer who killed her own husband. To escape the constant reminders, she left her town and moved into the secluded, 150-year-old inn-like house, despite all the red flags—being old, isolated, and infamous for the ghost named Betty. But somehow, Wynne trusted the owner, Bob, and moved in any way. Wynne felt incredibly lonely as she had no one to talk to except her friend Emily, who would sometimes call and offer company to help Wynne stop blaming herself for her husband’s death, but it didn’t seem to help. Wynne kept having visions of her husband who kept on appearing as if he was trying to protect her, but she couldn’t shake the overwhelming guilt anyway. Soon after she arrived at the house, Wynne began receiving strange video calls from unknown numbers, just like Brian did before. She would see things moving around on their own, or a woman is chocking her. It was bizarre, and even though Wynne had heard stories about Betty and how she might have died, Wynne stayed in the house.
Things seemed to improve when she met Chris, a man who appeared to have autism. He slowly became her friend and tried to help her face her fears, like driving again. He encouraged her to go out shopping and would show up at her house unannounced to try to be a good friend. But whenever Wynne tried to drive, she would see her husband’s dead body beside her, or Chris’ unexpected visits would frighten her, which made her feel like someone was constantly watching her every move to haunt her. Wynne’s fears only grew when she started seeing disturbing video calls where she would either see her own dead body or Chris’ body lying on the road. She felt like she was losing her mind and thought maybe her PTSD was making her hallucinate. But everything felt too real for her to brush off as just visions.
One day, Wynne found Brian’s old phone in the ashes in fireplace and discovered how he had killed both his wife and himself. He had even written down how he would die on a piece of paper. To her horror, she then found a video of herself doing the same thing—writing down a note to Chris as if she had to prepare herself for something terrible. She of course feared that she might harm Chris like Brian had harmed Jeanie, so she decided to write him an apology letter, terrified that her mind was making her do something she didn’t want to do. But then Wynne noticed something strange, in the video, she was writing the note with her left hand, but Wynne was right-handed, so how could that be her? That’s when everything clicked. It wasn’t really her—it was her alter ego, the darker side of herself who was controlling everything, making her see herself as the villain and murderer. This was the same thing that had likely happened to Brian, who saw himself as the bad guy and ended up killing his wife and himself. Wynne realized that her alter ego was behind it all and was pushing her toward the same fate as Brian. But unlike him, she now knew the truth, and she was determined to save both herself and Chris from her darker self before it was too late.
That’s why, in the end, there is a terrible fight between her and her alter ego where the alter ego tries to kill her, and then maybe kill Chris, after which it might have tried to record the incident to haunt the new tenant who would come to stay there next. Maybe it is Betty who takes on the alter ego and tries to haunt everyone like this. But this time, the real Wynne finally faced her fears. When the alter ego came out on the road, Wynne did something she hadn’t been able to do before—she drove her car and crashed it into her alter ego which made her disappear. That’s how Wynne saved both herself and Chris in the end, and maybe the next tenants too now that Betty is gone. After all this, we can hope that Wynne will finally move on and leave behind the guilt and self-judgment that she was a murderer. It seemed like Wynne had been battling with herself this whole time, and maybe, just maybe, she had finally won.
