I'm impressed how much discipline this film has, how much restraint. If they had used this ending by showing Appleyard going to the Rock, it would have been a real ghost or horror movie moment, but it wouldn't have been as haunting and evocative.
It was better left out, but so glad that this exists as a separate vignette, rich with symbolism. I don't see Sarah's appearance as a ghost but as a confrontation with Appleyard's own conscience, the innocence and nature that she worked to control and suppress in herself and others. Her school was an impressive edifice, but the rock has the last say.
Sarah appearing to her is just overkill, good on weir for leaving the ending out, it’s too obvious right down to apples wearing black as she is supposedly a dark evil character so therefore she must die......the cinema ending on apples face is an image one will hardly forget and is classic
Weir’s choice of ending the film on the look in Rachel Roberts’ eyes was perfect. loved how the clock also stops ticking - evoking the moment the watches stopping at the Rock earlier in the film. The whole point of the story is its not important what happened to the girls - a definitive answer could not satisfy the mystery anyway.
The movie shows how attractive discipline and modesty can be, in a weird way--- there's a lot left to the imagination, which is why it's so great to me. Not all mysteries of the universe need to be solved, not all people and places need to be "uncovered" and exposed to scrutiny.
