Not to be confused with the novel Glasshouse by Charles Stross.
Glasshouse is a 2021 South African film directed by Kelsey Egan from a screenplay by Egan and Emma Lungiswa de Wet. It centres on a ritualistic family who shield themselves from the Shred, a viral dementia that wipes people's memories, in a greenhouse until their order is disturbed by a injured stranger. It is essentially post-apocalypstic/dystopian science fiction mixed with gothic and folk horror elements.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Time Period: Although set in the future, the story takes place in a Victorian greenhouse and the costumes are evocative of Edwardian fashion. In addition, it is not made clear when the Shred started nor how much time has since passed other than the fact that the youngest daughter appears to have no memory of a time before.
- Becoming the Mask: How the Stranger manages to weasel his way into the family structure. It's implied at the end of the film that this is perhaps how all of them came into the family, perhaps unwittingly and having forgotten who they were before.
- Bottle Episode: The entire film is shot in and around the vicinity of the greenhouse.
- Death of Personality: This is essentially the Identity Amnesia effect of the Shred, that you stop being a person without your memories.
- Despair Event Horizon: So filled with pain and regret, Bee gives up and intentionally breathes in the toxic air.
- Devil in Plain Sight: The Stranger obviously murdered Mother, but no one ever suspects it was him.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Gabe discovers at the end of the film that the family might not be related at all.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Bee, dreaming of human connection, finds herself drawn to the injured Stranger.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Bee is the foolish to Evie's responsible.
- Frame-Up: The Stranger frames Gabe for killing Mother.
- Grey-and-Grey Morality: It is difficult to know who to root for in this film, as most of the characters have done pretty despicable things largely in the name of self-preservation.
- Human Resources: The family have a ritual of shooting Forgetters (or presumed Forgetters) who trespass on sight and using their remains as fertiliser or as glue to keep the glasshouse airtight.
- The Immune: The Stranger shows up wounded but is somehow unaffected by the Shred.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The Stranger sows division in the family.
- Long-Lost Relative: Luca, another brother who wandered off some time ago. Bee in particular longs for his return.
- One-Word Title
- Mistaken Identity: Bee brings the Stranger in because she mistakes him for her missing twin brother Luca.
- The Place
- Promotion to Parent: Evie takes on her mother's role after her death, taking on her responsibility of managing the family's memories.
- Sadistic Choice: Bee getting pregnant has terrible implications, as there is not enough air in the glasshouse for another person.
- Sanity Slippage: Gabe's mental health and memory has been gradually declining since he was accidentally exposed to the Shred at a young age.
- Small, Secluded World: The glasshouse itself. Based on the establishing Astronomic Zoom, it appears to be located in a patch of forest surrounded by more barren land, as if it is the Last Fertile Region. The Stranger reveals "it's the only patch of green for a three days' walk".
- The Spook: The Stranger does not even have a name.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The youngest daughter Daisy, Conditioned to Accept Horror from a young age or possibly even from birth, is disturbingly willing to murder and dismember trespassers.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Mother to Bee when she blames Evie for Gabe's exposure to the Shred.Mother: Not all changes are good, Bee. You didn't used to be cruel.
