Upamanyu Biswas
In the final third of the psychological horror movie, ‘The Front Room,’ Solange turns Belinda and Norman’s lives completely upside down, becoming the de facto matriarch of the whole place. Belinda’s existence becomes a domestic hell as her manipulative stepmother-in-law utilizes her controlling attitude to take over not only her husband’s support but also her newborn baby’s. To make matters worse, Belinda has to deal with Solange’s bouts of incontinence on her own while her husband toils away at work. The combination of cleaning Solange’s discharge and taking care of her unhappy infant takes a psychological toll that manifests as confusing nightmares and hallucinations.
By the end of the Eggers Brothers’ feature debut, things come to a head as Belinda decides whether she should sit back and let the coercive stepmother take over her role or stamp her authority. Although the married couple initially takes in Solange, hoping to get their hands on her inheritance money, the cost of her stay quickly outweighs the rewards of the task. When they finally decide to kick her out, things take a twist, leaving Norman and Belinda with a new lease on life they had previously never imagined possible. However, to achieve the goal, Belinda has to take matters into her own hands and make a hard call! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Front Room Plot Synopsis
Belinda is a professor of anthropology at a university where her colleagues undervalue her. With a new baby on the horizon, she and Norman, her husband, go for a regular check-up at the local clinic. Norman and Belinda await the birth of their daughter with anticipation and excitement. However, the married couple are struggling with money and are unable to furnish their old house according to their needs. Additionally, the stress of her job and her pregnancy causes Belinda to be in a perpetual state of anxiety. She often sleepwalks late at night and is haunted by the passing of her firstborn son, Wallace.
While juggling their various responsibilities, Norman is suddenly contacted by his estranged stepmother, Solange, who informs him about his dying father. During his childhood, Norman suffered various injustices and abuse from Solange, which he reveals to Belinda. A few days later, the pair attend his father’s funeral, who dies not long after Solange’s call. At the church, they are informed by Pastor Lewis and Solange that she is planning on giving away all her wealth to Norman and his family once she passes away. Her only condition is that she moves in with him and Belinda for the rest of her days.
Initially, Belinda is satisfied with the deal and pleads with Norman to allow his stepmother to stay with them. However, once she moves in, things quickly start to change when Belinda realizes that Solange is an intense woman with deeply religious values and a questionable stance on race. She often prays in a foreign tongue in front of Belinda, causing her even more anxiety. The situation worsens even further when the husband-wife duo learns that the stepmother-in-law is incontinent. As Norman is busy with his job and trying to land himself a better role, the responsibility of cleaning and handling Solange falls on Belinda’s shoulders.
She slowly finds herself being assaulted by even more confusing nightmares and hallucinations. A few days into Solange’s stay, Belinda gives birth to a baby girl. Despite planning to name her Fern originally, the pair take up Solange’s suggestion and name her Laurie instead. At this point, it dawns on Belinda that she is slowly losing control over the family and quietly being replaced by Solange, who is commanding more and more authority within the household. This battle of domestic and psychological warfare takes a further twist when Belinda’s daughter refuses to latch on to her and instead prefers the company of Solange.
The Front Room Ending: Does Solange Have Mystical Powers?
After Solange starts staying in the house, Belinda is confronted by the eerie manner in which she recites garbled speeches of prayer and influences things around her. The stepmother-in-law learns about Wallace without anyone telling her the news, and it also seems to affect the timing of Laurie’s birth. Additionally, Belinda is mystified by how Solange’s necklace has a soothing effect on her daughter whenever it is placed close to her. As Belinda had learned from Norman that Solange believes herself to be possessed by the Holy Spirit, the protagonist makes the assumption that she must have some form of devilish power. However, given how sleep-deprived, anxiety-ridden, and prone to hallucinations Belinda is before and after her pregnancy, it is likely that she believes them to be more supernatural than they actually are.
Throughout the narrative, Belinda often visualizes strange scenarios where Solange appears as an angelic figure taking things away from her. While they may seem like displays of power, the more probable explanation is that Belinda’s fear and hate of the woman color her visions. Therefore, her seemingly mystical powers are nothing more than a figment of Belinda’s imagination. As more and more control is wrested away from her clutches, she starts seeing the elderly matriarch as a demonic/angelic force, appearing almost as a larger-than-life figure haunting her at all times. Furthermore, when Norman slowly slips over to Solange’s side, it fills Belinda with even more dread that his stepmother is using some form of dark magic to affect his psyche.
Why Does Norman Turn Against Solange?
At the beginning of the story, Norman is completely against the idea of letting his stepmother stay with him and his wife. Having lived through a miserable childhood under her thumb, Norman is well aware of her personality and her ability to crawl under people’s skins and turn them into puppets. Therefore, as soon as he gets the offer from Solange, he rejects it without blinking. In many ways, his swift decision speaks volumes about his thought process, suggesting that no amount of money is enough to put up with Solange. As such, it comes as a huge shock when Belinda begins to notice that after a few days of staying in the same house, Norman is more supportive of Solange than of her. The personality change is rectified only at the end when something terrible happens to Laurie.
One night, Norman discovers a bite mark on his daughter’s tiny arm. At first, he believes that Belinda is responsible for the injury. However, upon further examination, the pair deduces that the bite mark matches Solange’s teeth structure. Enraged that his stepmother is taking advantage of his family and harming his daughter, Norman decides to switch his allegiance back to his wife’s side and kicks Solange out of the house. She does not take the news well and instead tries to coerce him even further, which he rejects. When Solange spits on his face, leaving Norman to contend with his stepmother’s poisonous hold over the family thus far, things reach a final conclusion in their relationship.
For large chunks of the narrative, Solange’s antics are mostly witnessed by Belinda. As Norman is away at work for most of the day, Belinda primarily deals with his stepmother’s wild and out-of-control behaviors. Thus, it is likely that Norman views Solange’s attitude as abrasive but not intolerable. Additionally, the pressures of his job and landing a new role cause him to ignore what is going on in his house and the struggles of his wife. In that sense, it is reasonable that he thinks Belinda is the one exaggerating the difficulties back home. It is not until Solange harms his daughter that he realizes the danger that she has put on his family’s well-being, causing him to finally turn against his stepmother for good.
Who Kills Solange? What Happens to Belinda and Norman?
In the final moments of the movie, a distraught Solange, who has been kicked out of the house by Norman, starts pleading with God to let her die. She keeps reciting the chant over and over as Belinda and Norman retreat back to their upstairs bedroom and go to sleep. The following morning, the pair wake up to find that Solange has miraculously passed away, almost in accordance with her heavenly requests. After her death, Norman and Belinda go on to have better lives as Solange’s wealth comes into their possession. The pair move to a new home, and Belinda sings a song about having no regrets while driving to an interview for a new job. During the interview, Belinda has a flashback to the night when Solange died. It is revealed that the stepmother-in-law was killed by Belinda on that fateful night.
For most of the movie, Solange and Belinda are at odds with one another as they compete to be the matriarch of the house and family. Although Belinda feels sympathy for Solange at the beginning, that sentiment quickly morphs into hatred when she realizes the coercive and manipulative nature of the woman. With each passing day, Solange takes control of the house’s running, paying off its mortgages and buying antique furnishings that fit her style. Additionally, the biggest power struggle arrives through Laurie, Belinda’s daughter, who refuses to latch on to her mother and instead finds solace in the presence of Solange. The stepmother-in-law also remodels the house’s interiors, replacing Belinda’s religious idols with her own memorabilia and antiquities.
Meanwhile, day by day, Belinda has to clean up Solange’s discharge while watching her identity being eroded away and her house being taken over by an alien woman. Therefore, her feelings of resentment keep building with every action Solange takes. Even her husband slowly turns his back on her and begins to be supportive of Solange, a woman who made his childhood miserable. However, things finally come to a boiling point when, like Norman, she realizes that Solange has bitten her daughter, Laurie. The act of aggression against her child causes a switch to flip inside Belinda’s head. It is also worth noting that by this time, she is at breaking point anyway and detests Solange like no one else.
As such, the night when Solange lies on her bed and screams to God to be put out of her misery, Belinda decides to take matters into her own hands and ends the woman’s life by smothering her with a pillow. While her actions may be egregious, killing Solange seems to result in a favorable outcome for both her and Norman. The married couple gets the inheritance and can leave their miserable home to move to a new house. At the film’s end, Belinda is also pregnant with a set of twins and expecting them any day. While the murder may be rooted in a dark part of her memory and something she wishes to avoid, the film’s ending suggests that it was the only correct option left for her, given the psychological turmoil visited upon the family by Solange.
Read More: The Front Room: Is the Horror Movie Based on a True Story?
