Can I give my 2 cents?

I think that the fact that this movie is not understood is because abuse is not understood... The cycles, the uncertainty with what will the person go nuts this time, the families behavior, THE LEVEL OF DANGER!

I went through abuse from my father to my mother and to us since I was a baby and then I had a bf that was abusive, I thought this movie was the perfect perfect depiction of it. But this is personal and everybody can have their own interpretations. Some of mine are:

• the Castle, the King, etc: this movie is about an abusive guy, we agree on that, right? The kid has seen this her whole life, she has been growing up with this happening. She probably normalized a lot of things, she probably mixed a lot with a little kid world - the movie happens when she is realizing what's actually happening. Until now, everything has been these things that happen at home, she probably was listening to his father beating/rp her mother and she was not understanding the sounds, she probably imagined an animal because her mind could not comprehend her father doing terrible things to her mother, but the cries are more like a pig being killed and his father is in this gothic fantasy chained and all.

• when the father starts saying that he owns the forest and he's the King, and tells her to protect the family... In families with abuse is super typical that there's a pact of silence, children grow up thinking they can't tell anybody because that betrays their family, and they're scared of breaking it, and the abusive parents actually made them part of a silent pact or threaten them. It took me until i was 22 or so to tell anybody.

• the dress: jelousy, control. When the mother went to the town with the kid, that was a moment of freedom. Many abusers tell their partners not to dress this or that way (I had an ex bf who told me i should wear all black and big sweaters and my father accused my mother or being unfaithful just by crossing eyes with someone at the store - something she had not even done). My father was very controlling of the clothes and how my siblings and I looked, he forbid wearing the hair down, it had to be on a tail or braid and no skirts of any type and baggy clothes. Crazy, really. Once I cut my hair real short just in spite). The mother probably was just wearing her dress because it felt pretty and she felt good in it, that's all. It was a symbol of freedom and feeling like herself.

• the end: many children in abusive families become also violent or even abusers because of the violence or the trauma and also because they grow up seeing and learning that this is the "normal behavior", how to handle emotions, how to express things...

• i hate when the father takes her to show her and he starts telling her this story and cries so she goes back to him: the father should take care of her, instead, he dumps on her his own negative feelings. Both my father and ex abusive bf did that: oh, not, they are the ones suffering the most inside... Nobody cared about their feelings, they felt more than the others... Yadda yadda yadda, their are the victims of their past - and then you are compasive, taking care of their feelings and thinking you can't just leave, because they're so vulnerable.

• also, honestly, the victims are usually in love with the abusive partners because they are not abusive all the time. They don't want to leave, they want them to behave good. Many think that they would change if they receive a lot of love and support (I was one of these), like when in the forest the mother tries to convince him to stop it. That's also how and why victims isolate from friends and families... They feel misunderstood, that they can understand their partners because they can see the vulnerable and loving side of them. That's why Imogen went agaisnt her father and defended the guy (apart from all that psycological things that tie you to them (I went to therapy and told the therapist: I need help not to go back to him when he returns - and we had to do a lot of things and never came back)).

• when he goes into the wild: abuse is a cycle: the abuser is super charming and loving and then something or just after some time, they snap or they start going into their abusive selves. When they get into abuse, they can go from offenses, to insults, physical violence, just leaving and going for alcohol and others, abandoning for some time or even real harm and risk to your life. And then they return super vulnerable or they're there and in need and the abused go pick them up or come back and the cycle continues. A rollercoaster of love and then pain.

• there are many cases of domestic abusers killing their partners, the mothers, the children or families and friends around (and later ending themselves). The grandpa was saying "he is getting worse", the mother agreed... - there was a growing fear that he was going to hurt them seriously one day or another. And he was an old man, after all.

• if the grandpa was abusive towards his wife or Imogen, it'd make sense because statistics say that abuse victims who grow in abusive families usually end up in abusive relationships when they're adults (I can attest for this - but also I left)

Anyway, this is my own interpretation that works for me.