Heart-Shaped Box

Arlene takes Jude to his father Martin’s room, where he is unconscious. He notices heart-shaped candy boxes by Martin’s bed. Arlene treats Jude’s wounded hand and then leaves him and Martin alone while she checks on Marybeth.

Later, Jude is woken by Arlene, who informs him that the power is out and that images of her, his, and Marybeth’s deaths have been playing on the television. She also reveals that there’s a truck idling in the driveway and that she’s going to leave. After she leaves, Craddock’s ghost emerges from one of the heart-shaped candy boxes and greets Jude.

Craddock tries to convince Jude to murder Marybeth, but Jude focuses on internal music. Undeterred, the ghost possesses Martin and grabs a nearby shaving razor, slicing Jude’s chest and arms. Jude pushes his father into the living room, and he’s eventually joined by Marybeth. She repeatedly stabs Martin with kitchen knives, but then he slices her throat. She begs Jude to “[m]ake [] a door” so that she and Anna might have a chance at stopping Craddock (324). While Jude draws a door on the floor using Marybeth’s blood, Craddock emerges from Martin. Marybeth, possessed by Anna, erupts from the blood door and drags Craddock through it.