The grief of losing someone you wanted to share your life with can be life-altering, more so if you are someone concerned with societal expectations over the expression of grief. At least that’s what seemed to be the premise of Director Sebastian Matthias Weibach’s psychological thriller, Stutter, until the sinister truth gets revealed in the final few minutes of the movie. There is certainly some intrigue around the complex narrative treatment, which is accordingly supported by good acting, as right from the beginning, Stutter keeps viewers entrapped in a confusing liminal space between reality and imagination. And viewers venture further and further into the rabbit hole of the human psyche the more the storyline inches towards the final revelation. However, by the time the story finally reveals the guarded secret after meandering through the confusing twists and unresolved plot threads, the majority of the audience have either already figured it out or no longer care about it enough to stick through till the end.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happened With Jon?
Jon Holbrook, a man in his thirties working as a freelancer in an unspecified industry, is devastated after the tragic death of his wife, who suffered for a long time as a cancer patient before ending it all by taking her own life. The agony of losing his wife has left Jon totally stupefied, to such an extent he can’t even act like a living person any longer. Jon lives alone in the apartment where his wife (unnamed) took her own life by slitting her wrists, and his depressed mind retreats further down into its dark recesses thanks to his completely isolated existence. Nothing is revealed about Jon’s background, but from the conversation he has with the crematorium authorities, it seems Jon doesn’t really share a good relationship with his family and acquaintances. A vintage radio, which belonged to his wife, emits a strange stutter—white noise, which might or might not have been messing with Jon’s mind. The one thing Jon is most afraid of, however, is how people perceive him following the tragic death of his wife; he fears that others hold him responsible for her death, and he can’t bring himself to share his troubles with his psychotherapist either.
What Is Jon’s Relation With Red?
Jon comes across Red, an enigmatic woman whose life remains shrouded in mystery all through the narrative, and almost immediately starts a secretive relationship with her. Jon feels guilty as he becomes wary about how others might feel to see him move on so easily after a tragedy like this, but at the same time, he cannot stop himself. An impulsive, relentless Red seems to have a morbid fascination regarding the death of Jon’s wife, and her derisive, vulgar perspective regarding it makes it seem she derives a sick sense of pleasure from poking at Jon’s insecurities. Red’s demented thoughts, which she unabashedly shares with Jon, allow him to open up about some crucial information about his past. In her frail physical state, Jon’s wife had assumed he would cheat on her with a cleaning service agent, Alyssa. Jon confessed to having carnal feelings for Stephanie, who is later revealed to be one of his wife’s colleagues. Jon receives a call from a finance firm as its operatives inform Jon that he will inherit a large sum of money that his wife had left him, and it is at this point that we learn that Jon had been struggling financially while keeping up with rent and stuff.
Slowly, Jon seems to be losing touch with reality, as he remembers events from his past that don’t align with his present, and he is caught in a strange flux of temporal change. For example, he digs up the remains of his pet dog after suddenly remembering her death, and while carrying the remains back to his apartment, gets apprehended by police. Strangely, a search of his car reveals Jon wasn’t carrying the remains like he assumed he was, and his interaction with the police repeats as if they are caught in a temporal loop.
Red appears to be an ominous, omnipresent entity in Jon’s life, ever curious about his dark secrets and details regarding his wife’s death. There seem to be some discrepancies regarding Jon’s memories about his wife’s final moments. On one occasion, Jon is practically interrogated by his wife’s unnamed colleagues, who were apparently betting on her life expectancy and on the state of her relationship with her husband. Again, this also seems to be conjured up by Jon’s mind, as he continues to drift more and more towards Red’s morbid, ruinous worldview. Jon visits his therapist, and it is revealed that he apparently missed his last few appointments with her. Jon returns to Red following a heated argument between them due to Jon’s fading grasp on reality, and she taunts Jon by reminding him of the all-pervading white noise, which is lately driving him insane—and is acting as a signifier between reality and imagination.
Jon has confided in his therapist about Red, and she considers her to be a detrimental presence in Jon’s life, who needs to be rooted out. Following this conversation, Jon’s reality starts to get increasingly muddled, as he is haunted by Red, who seems persistent about re-enacting his wife’s final moments. Later on, Jon meets Alyssa, and their conversation raises more questions about Jon’s mental state, as he seems to be facing trouble remembering his wife. Alyssa, who doesn’t appear to be a cleaning service operative, is hinted to be a counselor by profession, and according to her statement, it seems Jon had multiple such imaginary wives over the period she has been acquainted with him.
Did Jon Really Kill His Wife?
Plagued by his thoughts and fears, Jon goes to his therapist once again, but this time it seems to be a projection of his mind as she implores him to eliminate Red from his life for good to start the healing process. As Jon approaches Red, the white noise continues to plague him, and he considers Red to be a projection of the fear and agony he is subjected to through the stutter. At this point, Jon confesses on his own to having possibly been responsible for killing his wife as he decides to kill Red to put an end to his own misery. However, Red appears to be a manifestation of Jon’s guild-ridden mind, as he returns to the nightclub where he met her for the first time. As the movie ends, their first interaction is replayed all over again, as Jon notices Red making love to a different person—who in the present context is Jon himself—which indicates that Jon was carrying his personal demons all along.
The most sane, logical explanation of the events shown in Stutter can be that Jon, a mentally disturbed and licentious man who was struggling to cope with his terminally ill wife’s impending death, ended up killing her for the financial aid he would receive after her death. However, unable to cope with the realization of what kind of person he truly is, he conjured up a relationship with Red, a figment of his dark imagination, who became his emotional outlet and the carrier of the thoughts he wanted to bury. The white noise coming from the vintage radio, which belonged to his wife, was a constant reminder of her presence, of the fact that Jon’s secret will be revealed to the world sooner or later, and this fear drove him over the edge. Alternatively, Jon might not have been a married person to begin with, as suggested from his conversation with Alyssa and from the fact that he doesn’t remember her face and her name hasn’t been uttered once in the movie. There is a possibility that the enigmatic woman, Red, is in reality his own wife whom he killed and conjured up a demented relationship with—but the chances of it being a possibility are low.
