The Good Son And The Good Daughter

**The Good Son and The Good Daughter** is a 1993 American psychological horror film directed by Joseph Ruben and written by English novelist Ian McEwan. It stars Macaulay Culkin, Elijah Wood, Wendy Crewson and David Morse. It follows a young girl who stays with her aunt and uncle and befriends her cousin, a girl of the same age who begins showing increasing signs of violent and psychopathic behavior.

**Plot**

12-year-old Arizona twins Mark Evans and Marcie Evans (Elijah Wood) have recently experienced the death of their mother, Janice (Ashley Crow). Heading for a business trip to Tokyo, Mark and Marcie's father Jack (David Morse) drives Mark and Marcie to the home of their uncle Wallace (Daniel Hugh Kelly) and aunt Susan (Wendy Crewson) in coastal Rock Harbor, Maine where they will stay during the winter break. Mark and Marcie are reintroduced to their extended family, including their cousins Connie (Quinn Culkin) and twins Henry and Henrietta (Macaulay Culkin). Mark and Marcie and Henry and Henrietta all get along at first, and Henry and Henrietta seem to be nice and well-mannered twins. However, Henry and Henrietta both display an abnormal fascination with death and their talk of the death of Mark and Marcie's mother and that of their younger brother, Richard, makes Mark and Marcie feel uneasy.

Henry and Henrietta begin to display psychopathic behavior, about which Mark and Marcie are unable to tell Wallace and Susan due to Henry and Henrietta's dark threats. One of Henry and Henrietta's violent actions is throwing a dummy off a bridge and on to the highway, causing a massive pileup. Later, Henry and Henrietta plan to kill Connie. Afraid that something might happen to her, Mark and Marcie spend the night in her room. The next morning, Mark and Marcie wake up to find that Henry and Henrietta have both taken Connie ice skating. At the pond, Henry and Henrietta purposely throw Connie toward thin ice. The ice collapses and Connie nearly drowns, but she is rescued and taken to the hospital. Despite not believing Mark and Marcie initially, Susan becomes suspicious and sitting in the dark, out of view, is able to interrupt Henry and Henrietta when she visits Connie's room, both were planning to smother her.

Susan finds a rubber duck that Henry and Henrietta have hidden in their shed. It had once belonged to Richard and was with him in the bathtub the night he drowned, after which it went missing. When Susan confronts Henry and Henrietta, they coldly reminds her that the toy had belonged to them before it had been Richard's. Henry and Henrietta flip their demeanor and kindly ask for the duck back but Susan refuses. Henry and Henrietta try to take it from her and after a violent tug-of-war, both of them snatch the duck and run to the cemetery together where they throw it down a well. As Susan and Mark and Marcie grow closer, Henry and Henrietta insinuate they will both kill Susan rather than let Mark and Marcie continue to develop a relationship with her.

When a fight breaks out between the two twins, Wallace locks Mark and Marcie in the den. Henry and Henrietta ask a suspicious Susan to go for a walk with them, while Mark and Marcie both escape the den and chase after them. Susan confronts Henry and Henrietta, asking them if they killed their brother. Henry and Henrietta reply, "What if we did?" Horrified by what her son and her daughter has become, Susan tells Henry and Henrietta that they both need help but Henry and Henrietta flee into the woods together. Susan gives chase and upon arriving at a cliff, Henry and Henrietta both shove her over the edge. As Susan dangles precariously, Henry and Henrietta pick up a large rock they intend to throw down at her but Mark and Marcie intervenes and Mark tackles Henry and Marcie tackles Henrietta. They all fight and Henry and Henrietta viciously each try their best to kill Mark and Marcie. Susan manages to pull herself up on to the clifftop and is just in time to dive forward and grab hold of the twins as they roll over the edge. Lying flat on the rock she hangs on to both twins, one in each hand. Henrietta and Henry hold on with both hands but Mark and Marcie's one-handed grip begins to slip. Henry and Henrietta say, "Mom, I love you." Then Henry and Henrietta say to their mother, "I need your other hand." With only enough strength to save one of them, Susan, realizing the malevolence in Henry and Henrietta's nature, reluctantly releases them, and they fall to their death. Susan pulls Mark and Marcie up from the ledge and they look down upon Henry’s body and Henrietta's body on the rocks below, before they are both washed away into the sea and they both share an emotional embrace. When Mark and Marcie return home to Arizona, they both reflect upon Susan's choice to save them instead of Henry and Henrietta and they both wonder if she would make the same choice again but knows it is something they will never ask her.

**Cast**

Henry Evans

Henrietta Evans

Mark Evans

Marcie Evans

Susan Evans

Connie Evans

Wallace Evans

Alice Davenport

Jack Evans

Janice Evans