It still haunts me, and Amma continues to fascinate, so I still feel the need to write about it. And I feel some readers may still be confused by, especially, the post ending proceedings, so eventually I am going to dissect each and every murder for you.
But, first, let's get a little more acquainted with Amma. She may be the richest girl in town, which factors in on her meanness, but so does her being part of a generation of women who pass down their need for attention in a sick way, and act on that need equally so. We know it did in Marian, Camille knows it would have done her in, had she stuck around, and Amma is unsafe with Adora. While the town, who knows about Adora, but, because of her money and prestige, chooses to look the other way, are unaware of is Amma's coping mechanism--yes, they may know about the wildness, and the roller skating, and the partying coupled with drugs. But no one--ABSOLUTELY NO ONE--would suspect Amma of murder--especially not when she is forced to wear that overtly childish get up at home.
Which is part of the reason Amma acts out. Why she chooses murder may puzzle some, but there is so much anger and rage, not to mention adolescent hormones, bursting in Amma, she has to release it all, somehow. Her psychosis probably manifested itself early, with animals; there are no pets, in the Crellin house, and, if you go back into Amma's past, I can guarantee there will be some mysterious animal deaths. The whole scene with Amma at the pig farm, holding the baby pig, is a clue in to all of this. "Sharp Objects" is one of the better presentations I have seen, demanding careful attention to each and every thing in it.
But, as with all budding serial killers, animals eventually become not enough as victims. Larger, more challenging fare, is sought, and Amma, inheriting her mother's pathology, takes it to the extreme, starting with her first victim--Ann Nash.
The murder of Ann is done months before the story we know as "Sharp Objects" starts. Adora, trying to pull off appearances as a pillar of the community, joins the local elementary school tutorial program, where she begins tutoring Ann. In time, she becomes genuinely fond of the girl, which is bad, considering this is Adora; who knows what she might try. But Amma beats her to it. Because, once she sees how Ann is detracting from HER attention, Amma's killer impulse is triggered, and she has to, in her rationality, get rid of Ann.
The sequence above is quick. But I can surmise what happens. Based on Ann's bicycle eventually turning up in the pond by the pig farm, it is my belief that Amma used her power of charm to lure, or maybe take a walk with Ann, out there. Ann and Amma would have had a slight acquaintance through her mother's tutoring, so it would not be unusual for them to cross paths.
My contention is Ann was out riding her bicycle, going to a friend's house, like her parents said. But somewhere before that, she was accosted by Amma who, with the charm she can exhibit when warranted, enticed Amma out to the pig farm, where her acolytes, Jodes and Kelsey, were waiting. Once there, Ann was ambushed by them, held down by the other two, while Amma furiously tore into Ann, destroying her, but allowing her body to be found as a challenge to the town, and dumping the bicycle in the pond.
Anyone who diverts attention from Amma is in danger. Best never to cross paths with her. But people find that out too late.
Natalie Keene--Natalie's murder has just about happened when "Sharp Objects" begins. At this point, she is missing, but is eventually found, propped dead in that alley way, with all her teeth extracted. I love that Amma and the girls are on hand at the discovery, displaying such genuine shock over the horror they know they caused! Sick!
Teeth extraction is important to Amma, as is eventually found out. As for Natalie, she was another one of Adora's "projects." She came from the Goat Alley section of Wind Gap, and Adora wanted to help her, both in school, and socially, as Natalie was such a lovely girl. Again, both women are drawing her into their clutches. But, again, Amma beats Mama to the kill. What looks like happened was Amma, in one of her "goddess" moods, dressed as the Woman In White, and lured the curious Natalie out to the shed in the woods. Again, Kelsey and Jodes were waiting there, and from the film, if one looks closely, this seems to be where Natalie was killed. Beating, rope, choking, orgiastically screaming with sadistic delight, this is the most fun Amma seems to get out of life, but let us not forget, that, in killing these girls, she is also acting out on her desire to kill her mother, whom she does hate, but, as is seen when they visit in prison, Amma and Adora still have a sick dependency on one another. If only someone had told Natalie to avoid the Crellins in Wind Gap!!!!!!!!!!!
Mae--Mae is the briefest killing in both the book and film, because her murder is used to eventually reveal Amma as the Wind Gap killer, and to demonstrate that, as long as she remains at large, Amma will kill again. Though brief, Mae's, in some way, is the most important of the murders.
In the book, Mae was a white girl named Lily Burke. She was an outcast, and a black girl in a St. Louis school, where the presumably bright Amma goes, would be an outcast, making it easy for Amma to glom onto her, and train her as an acolyte. Mae, I am sure, is thrilled with the warmth and friendship that Amma exudes, so she has no reason to fear expressing thoughts of her own, like she does to Camille and Frank Curry, But this does not sit well with Amma, and the viewer already knows what Mae is in for, when Amma does that joke hanging routine. Eventually, it becomes all too clear, as Amma lures Mae to the alley where they skate, and kills her singlehandedly, with killer strength, strangling her through the fence--trapping Mae, who is held in place as Amma wraps the rope around her neck, so she can kill this one herself. And she has the strength to extract teeth, even if kids' teeth are weaker, and easier to pull.
Wind Gap has no idea how lucky it was. Jodes, who is treated throughout by Amma as a third wheel, I can tell you would have been Amma's next victim, had she remained. And who knows how long Kelsey would have been around, after that? Not a good idea to make friends with Amma, as it usually ends in the friend's death.
Meanwhile, what about Amma and sex? Is she just precocious, or has she had experience? The line where she talks about how letting boys do it to her is doing it to them, that she exerts control, suggests Amma's chastity vanished as fast as she matured, which makes her even more dangerous. If left free to grow into an adult, she would become an equal opportunity serial killer--murdering both men and women. And heaven help them were Amma to have children herself! Not only are they in for sick treatment, they may go psycho themselves.
Or not, because Camille didn't!
So, that is my take on the murders. The ending reminded me of "The Other," from 1972, where Niles is at the window, imprisoned in his own world of insanity.
I would hope, when it all comes out, Kelsey and Jodes are charged, as accomplices to murder.
I would love to see Adora's face when the truth about Amma is revealed. Or did she know already?????? Then Adora, though not guilty of murdering Ann, Natalie or Mae, is guilty of protecting a psychopath, impeding an investigation into the truth!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no doubt I will keep coming back to "Sharp Objects." It is that kind of story!
And talk about type casting--wouldn't Amy Adams and Eliza Scanlen make a terrific Constance and Merricat in the never filmed Shirley Jackson novel, "We Have Always Lived In The Castle????????"
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