You must be here after seeing director Avan Jogia’s hyper-stylish but also quite substantial punk thriller Door Mouse, looking to clear some doubts about the movie, especially the final scene. I hope you had a ball while watching the film, as I did, and I am very excited about analyzing this film. In this article, we are going to go deep into the grunge, dread-filled world of Jogia’s movie and, of course, extensively talk about Door Mouse‘s cathartic ending.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Movie?
Adult comic artist Mouse’s days start in the afternoons with existential dread and a cup of bad coffee, which ruins the taste of her cigarettes. Her Comics don’t sell too well, despite the comic-book-store guy constantly praising her for the kind of work she does. To make ends meet, Mouse works at a local burlesque club.
OG Jean Grey, aka Famke Janssen, runs the club. Mouse and everyone else calls her Mama. She seems like a person who genuinely cares about the girls who work in her club and always does her best to protect them from everything Bad that comes their way. Because in this world, evil lurks around the fairer gender to pounce on them at every possible opportunity. For example, this guy Kelly, who keeps bothering Mouse’s colleague and friend Riz keeps getting thrown out of the club again and again, but continues to come back doing the same thing.
However, there are some decent men in this narrative as well. A guy named Eddie, who repeatedly visits the club just to see Riz; The bartender Sweets, who seems like a nice chap; and last but not the least, Mouse’s friend Ugly, aka Ryan, a slick suit-wearing young man who is clearly in love with her but doesn’t get his feelings reciprocated. In fact, Mouse mocks Ryan for being a good guy in this world full of darkness. In this dark, gloomy-looking town, these people hang out around the club, as life keeps throwing Pelters at them. The story kicks off when Doe Eyes, a girl who works in Mama’s club, suddenly stops coming to work. Mouse and Ugly decide to look into the matter.
Does Mouse Find Doe Eyes?
Doe Eyes, who has a history of drug abuse, lives near Mouse’s place. That’s where Mouse and Ugly check first, thinking maybe Doe is using again. But instead of finding Doe, they find the place ransacked, implying something bad has gone down. To investigate it further, Mouse pays a visit to Moony, a drug dealer who we are assuming is Mouse’s ex, although the movie never makes it clear. After a night of intimacy, Mouse finds out from Moony that he hasn’t seen Doe Eyes for a week. He also confesses, that he did sell drugs to her.
Moony suggests Mouse look into this man named Crawdaddy, a womantrafficker who has his neck deep in all kinds of terrible things that tickle the bones of evil men. Craw Daddy claims to have no involvement in Doe going missing, but he does claim to have valuable information, which he would only share if Mouse and Ugly managed to run one of his errands.
The task is to scare a judge with some despicable photos, and Craw Daddy doesn’t want to take the risk because the judge is rich and powerful and essentially has all the legal privileges. Finding the judge turns out to be quite easy, thanks to Ugly, aka Ryan’s father, being a rich lawyer. Ugly reveals to Mouse that he does not come from money, but he was banished and never wishes to return. And thanks to Mouse’s disdain for the upper section of society that gets to eat all the cream, Ugly never told her this before. The two go to Ugly’s place, come across Ugly’s terrible adoptive mother, break some things, just to let off some steam, and eventually walk out with what they came for – the judge’s address. Craw Daddy turns out to be a man of his word after all, as he does give Mouse and Ugly the name of this high-end hotel called Sophia, where all the terrible things are going on, and the ringleader of it happens to be a woman who calls herself The Dame. While all this is going on, Riz gets kidnapped right outside Mama’s Club.
What Happens To Riz?
Earlier in the movie, Mouse notices a suit-wearing, sinister-looking bald guy quietly checking people out inside the club. Mouse, getting creeped out, asks Sweets to throw the guy out of the club, but when Sweets goes to do so, the guy whips his cash out to shut him up. Mouse notices the same guy again while working in the club one day, and this time, she tries to go after him, but this time, the guy flees.
Meanwhile, Mouse and Ugly stake out the Sophia Hotel from outside to find anything suspicious that would help them find Doe Eye. But this turns out to be completely fruitless. Ugly goes inside the hotel; thanks to his appearance, nobody suspects him, but other than coming across an old guy who needs medical help to get his thing up, but is still very enthusiastic about participating in the crazy sex parties, nothing of substance happens. With Riz getting taken, Mouse comes to the conclusion that they would never be able to do anything, if they continue to wait outside the Sophia Hotel. The only possible way, she could find out something, is to use herself as bait. Despite Ugly being against the idea, Mouse approaches Crawdaddy for the necessary help. After a bit of hesitation, Craw Daddy promises to help her in exchange for the money he would receive from The Dame’s Organization for delivering them a new girl, i.e., Mouse. Unfortunately, though, Crawdaddy fails to make a deal with the organization. A dejected Mouse and Ugly receive a call from Eddie, that Riz has been found dead behind the club. Upon rushing to the location, they see Kelly getting arrested, screaming to the police that he didn’t have anything to do with Riz’s death. It’s evident that Kelly, despite being a creep, is being framed by The Dame and her organization.
Does Mouse Manage To Beat The Dame?
After Riz’s death, Mouse’s mental health goes further down the drain. Her comic-book-Karriere takes off, as her latest comic books, based on the recent events of her own life, start selling like hotcakes. But that fails to make Mouse feel any better about her unfortunate life. Her plan to get herself taken by the bad people in order to find Doe has already failed, but she keeps trying. Days go by, and the dread keeps intensifying, but nothing really happens. One day, Mouse’s wish finally comes true, and she finds herself locked in a hotel room with a note from The Dame herself, which basically says Mouse is now owned by them and she has to do whatever she is told.
The narrative goes generic here, as the inside of Sophia Hotel is exactly as you would imagine: filled with slick-looking, mask-wearing rich men who have gathered to fulfill their sadistic fantasies because they just can. Mouse follows instructions, and on her way to the center hall, where these men are going to bid on the girls, she finally spots Doe Eyes, who looks visibly distressed. One of the men makes a mysterious gesture to Mouse, and Mouse also nods back at him. The man tries to buy Doe Eyes but gets outbid by another man. He eventually ends up bidding on Mouse, and this time, he tastes successful. It doesn’t come as a shock when this man turns out to be none other than drug dealer Moony, who joined the good guys upon Mouse’s insistence and his feelings for Mouse. With Moony’s help, Mouse rescues Doe Eyes and kills some of the people of The Dame before escaping in Ugly’s car, which was waiting for them outside of the hotel.
With an act like that, retaliation is always expected, so Mouse asks Doe to get far away from the town immediately. Doe also asks Mouse to do the same, but Mouse can’t do that yet. She still needs to avenge the death of Riz and find out who The Dame is. She soon gets the opportunity, as she is taken from her own home and finds herself right in front of The Dame herself and a freshly dead Moony, whose final words happened to be that he loved Mouse, which only proves there was some good in the drug dealer after all. Instead of doing anything to Mouse, The Dame, a stoic-looking old woman, proposes to make a deal with her. Mouse wouldn’t do anything that harms her organization and the business they do, and she would leave town with Ugly. Failing this, The Dame is going to make sure Ugly is viciously tortured and killed, and Mouse gets to see that. The Dame gives Mouse the day to choose and lets her go. Before leaving, she reveals that it was Mama who sold both Riz and Doe to her.
A heartbroken, extremely angry Mouse goes to the club to confront Mama. In front of a gun-wielding Mouse, Mama breaks down and confesses her crimes. She tells Mouse that the club is going under and she needs to do something so that the girls don’t end up on the street. She picked Doe because she was already a goner, thanks to her drug abuse. However, Riz was not her choice, and The Dame forced her to do that. Mouse, upon hearing this, has no choice but to blow Mama’s head off, and she goes ahead and does exactly that. Ugly comes inside, and Mouse asks him to get away from everything by catching the train at night. She also gets to the point of confessing her feelings for Ugly, which was also evident from the start. Ugly tells Mouse, he is either going to leave with her or stay with her, in case she decides to take on The Dame. Mouse manages to convince Ugly, that she is going to leave with him by getting on the train.
But the dread she feels inside is never going to let her go, after all. The things she has seen and the trauma she has suffered were never going to let her leave and find the light. So this story could end only one way: With Mouse not going to the station, where a heartbroken Ugly keeps waiting for her, and then heads for the den of The Dame instead. A fearless, cool-looking Mouse blowing a perplexed-looking The Dame’s head off right in front of a high-society crowd, blood getting smeared on her face while she coolly keeps smoking a cigarette, is how this story ends on an absolutely perfect note.
The obvious question that pops up inside our heads here is: Does Mouse survive at the end of Door Mouse? My logical answer would be no; she doesn’t. The director does the right thing by ending Door Mouse with the camera focusing on her face, and you see that she has finally found peace. The hero of our story has finally done something that matters to her. But she is probably going to end up dead very soon in the hands of The Dame’s Henchmen. However, considering she has chopped off the head of the rotten tree, the organization will probably fall eventually. Considering that, Mouse might just get away. Maybe she would eventually find green pastures with Ugly, in a place far away from the dreadful town of all this evil and darkness. Thanks to director Avan Jogia leaving us at a point that is open to our own interpretation, we can always keep our hopes alive for Mouse.
