At the beginning of the film you see a butterfly under a glass dome, Victor studies it for a while, then releases it, and you see it flying through the town. I was wondering about it myself, as the last part of the film includes the butterflies. Definitely a connection.
At the beginning the butterfly is trapped, and I think this is the connection. Emily was trapped in the land of the dead, and at the end she appears to have been released by Victor when she hands him back to Victoria. She turns into butterflies. At the beginning, possibly it was Emily in the form of a butterfly - the one under the glass dome. Not sure, but I think Victor helped Emily revenge Barkiss, on his death Emily could then rest in peace, so she was set free herself, hence the setting free of the butterfly at the beginning.
Hope y'all can understand that lot - took me 8 mins odd to put it into words!!
I still am a bit confused, and i didnt see the begining since my friends first: were being pigs and tried to get something in macdonalds (but lines were too long), the ticket buying lines were massive, and my friends wanted to get snacks at the snack bar. Anyway, Emily was also dancing around a butterfly when she went back to the land of the living. So what happens to Emily anyway? Is her spirit gone forever or is it gone to heaven or back to the Land of the Dead? I'm so confused! 😖
I would say she has gone to heaven, I think if she had gone back to the land of the dead, the ground would have probably swallowed her up, and the ending would have been far more unhappy. As the butterflies went upwards, I assume she went to heaven, as when she arrived she came from below, which most people think of as hell. The land of the dead in the film wasn't hell, there was no devil or anything to signify that it was. True it is confusing!
The butterfly has obvious significance, I think when Emily danced around the butterfly, and it was like some kind of magic spell, and she turned into hundreds. I would say her spirit has gone forever, she is no longer in the land of the dead.
How much of the film did you miss - I had the opposite, got there on time, but got cheesed off with the trailers - must have been about 10!!
The first 10 mins was the opening where the butterfly was under the dome. It flew through the town, you saw it passing the fish guy chopping heads off fish and several other town characters, then you saw Victor's family getting ready for wedding rehearsals, and his mother being squeezed into the carriage. That is about it.
Victor's mother's bosom and backside wobbling as she walked out the house at the beginning was pretty good attention to detail. Her rather large body moving under her clothes as she walked, everything swayed and wobbled in time with the steps she took. Very good attention to detail.
Sorry to lower the tone, but I was pretty amazed at how real it looked.