A Deep dive analysis of the misunderstanding between the two families in the horror short film “the littles”
In the movie, 11-year-old Juliet stubs her toe on a loose floorboard in her bedroom. her parents come in and her father fixes the floor board by hammering a nail into it.
Later that night, the floor board somehow comes loose again despite being “fixed” and Juliet gets out of bed to stomp it down again. Only for the floor board to pop up again.
This happens several times before a light turns on underneath the board.
Curious, Juliet gets out of bed to investigate. Pulling up the board, she discovers a tiny little dinning room with a set dinner table with dinnerware and food. Along with that, she sees a tiny little human head peeking out from behind the table.
She tries talking to them, telling them “don’t be afraid.”. Trying to show that she’s friendly and not going to hurt him. But the little person only shuts off the light and runs to out of sight.
So she goes back to her nightstand to grab her phone and shine the light in to examine this strange tiny living space.
She then notices the loose board her father hammered down, turning it over to find a tiny little body impaled in the nail. Horrifyingly she pulls the little body off the nail as they are still momentarily alive and whimpering in pain as she pulls them off.
She screams in horror at seeing the little face, discovering that it was a child. She drops the little person in shock. The little child lands on the tiny dinner table dead and with a horrifying look of terror frozen on their face.
The little family turn the light on and gather around the dead child.
They look up at Juliet and the little father grows angry. Pulling out what looked like a cork board pin and jumps out of the tiny living space. In a fit of rage, the little father rush’s at Juliet intending to hurt/kill her. Only for Juliet’s father to step on him, protecting his daughter from the tiny threat.
The story ends on a cliffhanger of what will happen next as more floorboards lift up around the house.
This deep dive analysis is about the confrontation between the two family and how it looks from both perspectives.
Most people would wonder.
In this horror film, who is the villain? Who is the monster?
This whole situation was a mess where no one was the villain and both sides are caught up in a tragedy that lead to misunderstandings and viewing the other as the bad guy.
From Juliet’s family’s perspective.
* To them, the issue of a loose floorboard is nothing more than a result of poor upkeep on the house by previous tenants and that the house needs work.
* Having unusual noises and the floor board popping back up is possibly a sign that they have rodents.
* Discovering a tiny family under their floorboards was a shock and a surprise. They didn’t expect that. Nor did they ever expect the existence of tiny people to be real.
* Having a tiny being suddenly get hostile and try to hurt their daughter makes the parents go into protective parent mode and kill the threat.
From the little’s perspective.
* they are tiny little people who fear humans and hide to keep from being discovered. They are living in secrecy to keep themselves safe.
* Having a giant suddenly come along and hammer a nail into their “roof” and impaling their child in her own bed is a horrifying tragedy that they did not expect to happen when they should feel safe in their little hidden home.
* A little girl pulling the roof off your home and looking at you is very terrifying cause they don’t know if this little girl will hurt them. She’s a giant and still a threat.
* Having said little girl pulling their dead child off the nail and drop them on the table unceremoniously makes them see her as being heartless, uncaring and that she’s mocking them by tossing their dead back to them.
* Seeing his child dead because of the giant enraged the little father, feeling anger that these giants did this to his kid and he is so overcome with grief and rage that he wants the giants to pay. So he lashes out at the girl with the intent to kill her for taking his child from him.
Is this situation anyone’s fault?
Why it’s one or both their faults.
Why it’s everyone’s fault.
* When discovering the loose floorboard, the father could have taken more mindful measures and approached the situation like a real handyman. By checking if the floorboard was rotten or needed replacing, using a stud finder to find a stud instead of recklessly hammering a nail, not knowing if it is hitting a stud. If he had investigated under the floorboard, he would have found the little family. And avoided the tragedy.
* The little family could have made themselves known and introduced themselves. Maybe even show up with a tiny little casserole and welcome their new neighbors. (Not that a tiny casserole would feed all three of the giants.)
* the little family picked a very dangerous place to make a home. As everyone knows well, we are very weary of pests and infestations. Taking measures to ensure that bugs and rodents stay out of our homes. Households are very dangerous for said pests and the chances of getting hurt or killed are high. The floorboards are a terrible place to make a home. And for many reasons.
When you have giants living above you stomping around, how do you expect to enjoy peace and quiet?
What if said giant neighbors decided to re-carpet the floor? What are you gonna do then?
What if the giants decided to remodel the house and replace the floorboards?
These are just a few examples of why them living there is a bad idea. Granted the life of a tiny life form is hard and dangerous but intentionally living in close proximity to larger life forms are a recipe for disaster.
* The human family were not made aware of the little people and therefore did not know of their existence. If they were made aware, they might have taken better care to be careful and mindful of them and this tragedy would not have happened.
* the little people are untrusting towards humans and see them as beings who would hurt them. So it makes sense that they would not make themselves known.
* The human family did not know that driving a nail into a floorboard would result in a tiny little person getting impaled.
* Juliet pulled the child off the nail. She was not being malicious. She was an innocent child who found herself in a bad situation.
* The tiny father created his own demise by lashing out at Juliet. Her father was only responding to a threat to his child. If roles were reversed, the little father would do the same.
So the bottom line is that this situation is an issue of coexistence.
It is really hard for different beings to live together in the same environment and coexist peacefully. Especially if there are of different sizes.
It is hard for tiny life forms to live along side giants without the dangers of being hurt or killed.
In order maintain a peaceful coexistence, both parties should have made themselves known to each other, both should have sat down and communicated. And both should have worked together to find a peacefully solution for living together peacefully.
This is also symbolic of how we as humans have a hard time coexisting peacefully with nature.
With deforestation and human living development, animals are being driven from their natural environment and forced to survive by living in close proximity to human settlements. It is hard for them cause they are trying to adapt to finding places to live where they can be safe and not be harmed by humans.
This is why it is important to be mindful and aware of the tiny little lives living around us and to take care to make sure we are not causing them harm or trouble trying to live amongst us.
Cause even though communication would help make coexistence easier, animals can’t talk and they don’t trust us. So we have to put in the extra effort to be understanding of them and make coexistence easier for both parties.
Getting back to the little father lashing out and trying to hurt Juliet.
Honestly wtf did he expect to happen? He’s frickin tiny! If it wasn’t for how creepy and scary he looked, she could have easily punted him across the room.
It’s like watching chucky come after you!
Yes he’s a grieving father but lashing out at a kid who didn’t know better, in her own room with her parents nearby is just asking for it.
It only made sense for Juliet’s father to protect his daughter by stomping on the threat. Granted he could have just caught the little father and put him in a jar or something and try talking. But with a fast pace, high stress, high tension situation like that, everyone is reacting on fight or flight. They weren’t thinking in terms of logic. Just “Omg there’s a tiny person trying to kill me!” “Omg there’s a tiny person trying to kill my daughter! Die!”
The situation could have been handled differently by all parties.
But again. Hindsight 20/20.
Also these little guys might also be considered closely related to or a type of fairy folk. and according to folklore, invoking the wrath of a fairy folk has deadly consequences.
In traditional folklore, the fae are not the gentle, winged creatures of modern pop culture. They are powerful, ancient, and deeply vengeful beings that expect absolute respect. Hurting or killing one even accidentally is considered a severe taboo that invites swift and ruthless consequences.
So that might explain why the little father was an idiot in attacking Juliet. He displays the vengeful unforgiving wrath of the fairy folk.
They also closely resemble classic European folklore creatures such as house elves, brownies, and boggarts.
In traditional mythology, these creatures are tiny, hidden entities that live alongside human families in the walls and floorboards, functioning as the supernatural explanation for creaky houses and missing items. While they can sometimes be helpful (acting like brownies or house elves that do chores), they can also act like mischievous or malevolent boggarts that cause physical damage to the home and terrorize the residents.
Killing one of these is universally considered a catastrophic offense. If you kill one, you absolutely risk relentless, malevolent vengeance from the creature's family, its kin, or the spirit itself.
* Brownies: In Scottish and English folklore, these household spirits are generally helpful but fiercely proud. If you offend, mock, or kill one, the consequences are severe. The brownie's kin will bring down horrible curses on your home, livestock, and family line. A famous aspect of their lore is that mistreated or angry brownies will actively transform into boggarts to torment their former masters.
* Boggarts: These are fundamentally vengeful entities. A boggart is a malicious trickster spirit that delights in souring milk, hiding tools, and physically tormenting humans. Because they are already the personification of vengeance and malevolence, "killing" one is seen as nearly impossible, but attempting to harm them will cause them to escalate their attacks until you are forced to flee your home entirely.
So if all this was the case.
This family is upshit creek.
That little father might even come back as a boggart after getting stepped on.
If it was a black family in this movie, I could totally picture how the father would react.
Father: Oh fuckin Hell naw! Fuck this shit! I’m out! HONEY! WE’RE STAYIN AT A HOTEL! Frickin tiny murderous little white folk tryin to murder my ass! I’m not even gonna call the exterminator. He ain’t never gonna believe this shit! 😠
And I can absolutely imagine how that phone call would go.
Father: dog! Do you remove tiny little white folks?
Exterminator: …. I’m sorry what? 🤨
Father: do you exterminate tiny little white folks?
Exterminator:…. Dude are you high right now? What dope are you on?
Father: naw dog! I actually have tiny little white folks living in the floorboards of my house!
Exterminator: dude you don’t need an exterminator, you need the police to come evict their squatting asses.
Father: do you really think the police are gonna do anything let alone believe me when I tell them there’s tiny little white folk livin in my floorboards?!
Exterminator: …. You could try playing loud music or gasing them out.
Father: they’re trying to murder my ass!
Exterminator: oh hell then fuck that shit! Just burn that house to the ground dog! Send those things to Jesus!… or hell.
And if that little father came at him. He’d get kicked out the window football style.
Father: *whoop in excitement* GOAL BITCH! ✋😆🤚
It would be like punting chucky.
Father walking out of the house and to his car with his family.
Father: like hell we’re stayin here. I am NOT about to reenact the scene from Gulliver‘s travels. wakin up tied to the floor with a bunch of tiny white folks walkin all over me! I’m callin the realtor! He ain’t said NOTHIN about tiny little white folk rodents! Next time we buy a house, we’re insisting on a pest inspection first!
I love “what a black person would do in a horror movie” videos on YouTube. And I would love to see a video of how a black person would react to this short horror film. To see how they’d handle a situation like that. I bet it would be funny as heck.
