The movie begins by Rolfe Whitehouse (William Defoe) narrating the movie about a phone call he received from his brother, Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte), the night after Halloween, which was what lead up to Wade's mysterious disappearance. Using a narrative approach in the movie was an excellent choice for the plot. It made you feel as if something was going to take place in this town, but no clues were given. In the movie Defoe not only does the narration, but also plays Wade's (Nick Nolte) brother. Defoe's character grows up, moves away and becomes a schoolteacher. This was something different for Defoe, but by using a quite and soft-spoken tone it made his character fit smoothly into the plot.

Flashing back to the night of Halloween. Wade is driving Jill his daughter

(Bridgid Tierney) to her ex-school's Halloween festival. It is

Glenn comes back and tells Wade and Margie that she is coming. Unwilling to wait, Wade goes upstairs and finds his mother frozen to death. At this point in the movie you begin to understand the kind of abuse that had been enforced on the Whitehouse family by Glenn Whitehouse (James Colburn). Glenn Whitehouse portrayed by James Colburn was very well acted. The use of the whiskey bottle as a symbol was well thought out and helped to feel and see the dysfunctional problems within the Whitehouse family. Wade's mentally capabilities really start to take a turn for the worst. He loses his job as sheriff and handy man. By now he is convinced that Jack murdered Trombly. In the mean, Margie and Glenn are at the farm, sitting at the kitchen table discussing Glenn's point of view on how men should not let women run them. But it is then when she notices Glenn put salt on his hand, lick it and take a shot of Whiskey. Then Wade comes in and complains about the toothache he has had throughout the movie. He finds a pair of pliers and pulls out the tooth. Then takes a drink of the whiskey, but that's not what Margie noticed. She noticed when Wade got the salt placed it on his hand, licked it and then took a shot of Whiskey. Margie realized it was over between her and Wade.

What happens in the next scene is very shocking and unbelievable. While Wade is walking toward the barn to get the truck, Glenn follows him and starts verbally abusing him just like in Wade childhood. Wade goes into the barn to get into the truck, but Glenn comes up behind Wade and hits him over the head with a Whiskey bottle, Wade turns around and hits Glenn with a shotgun. Wade raises the gun, pulls the trigger, to find that the gun is empty. After realizing the gun was empty, Wade says, TRICK it was just a joke. But it was too late, Glenn died. Wade picked up his father put him on a workbench, poured gasoline over him, and burned his body.

The movie ended

Some common words found in the essay are:
James Colburn, Wade Whitehouse, Wade Jill, Wade Margie, Nick Nolte, Whiskey Wade, James Coburn, Jim True, Rolfe Wade, Margie Jill, wade whitehouse, glenn whitehouse, nick nolte, lillian mary beth, beth hurt, lillian mary, rolfe whitehouse, whitehouse james, mary beth, whitehouse william, whitehouse william defoe, mary beth hurt, rolfe whitehouse william, william defoe, whitehouse nick nolte,
Approximate Word count = 1307
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)