In today’s video, we will run through 2017's Crime Horror, 1922, where a simple yet proud
farmer in the year 1922 conspires to murder his wife for financial gain, convincing his
teenage son to assist. But their actions have unintended consequences.
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned. Now, like the video and subscribe to the channel
if you enjoy this video.
The movie begins with Wilfred James in 1930 walking through the streets of Omaha. He checks
into a hotel room and looks around before sitting down to write a confession to a crime
he committed in the year 1922. He starts by blaming the land owned by his wife as the
issue that led to his crime.
His wife, Arlette Christina Winters James, had 100 acres of land in Hemingford Home,
Nebraska, to her name. It was passed down to her after her father’s death. Wilfred
wanted to merge that land with his own 80 acres of freehold farm, and hopefully pass
it to their son, Henry Freeman James, someday. According to Wilfred, in 1922, a man’s pride
was a man’s land, and so was his son. There was just one issue. Arlette was never fond
of farming life. She wanted to sell her part of the land to the Farmington company.
Wilfred asks Arlette what she wants to do with the money after selling the land at dinner
one day. She suggests moving to Omaha and starting a business. Henry, however, opposes
the idea and sides with his father. In frustration, Wilfred even offers to buy the land from her
and pay her little by little in eight years. Arlette laughs at his idea and suggests one
of her own. She wants them to sell both of their lands, split the money, and then get
a divorce. Wilfred is extremely against it, mainly because he would be separated from
Henry.
Wilfred asks her for some time to think it over. Meanwhile, he thinks of going to the
law, but his hatred for Arlette stops him. He tells her he won’t let her sell the land
without a fight. That day, he finds Henry and his girlfriend Shannon Cotterie together
in the basement. Shannon is their next-door neighbor. Wilfred decides to use Henry and
Shannon’s relationship to his advantage. He feuds Henry against his mother, telling
him that she wants to take him away from his father and Shannon. Wilfred tries to convince
Henry to help him murder his own mother. That night during dinner, Henry lashes out at Arlette
and tells her to leave so they can be a family again. Arlette tells Henry to discipline him.
She tells them that no matter what, she will sell the land and bring Henry to Omaha. Arlette
plans to open a dress shop there. Wilfred finally convinces Henry to be on his side.
He then makes Arlette believe that after thinking about it, he is ready to go to Omaha with
her. Arlette is over the moon. She almost cannot believe it. She kisses Wilfred for
the first time in forever. That night, she gets drunk as Wilfred and Henry watch her.
Wilfred brings her upstairs and puts her to bed. Then he asks Henry to help him. Henry
wishes there was another way, but Wilfred convinces him that the only way for him and
Shannon to be together is to kill Arlette.
Later, Henry walks into a room to Wilfred holding a knife. They slowly go into the couple’s
room. Henry with a sack and Wilfred with a knife. Henry sobs and wishes his mom goodbye
before suffocating her with the sack. Wilfred then stabs her to death. Blood splatters everywhere.
In 1922, Wilfred had murdered his wife with the help of his son.
Wilfred and Henry then wrap Arlette’s body with the bedsheet and bring her outside. Henry
passes out before they get rid of the body. Wilfred drags the corpse and throws it into
a dried well nearby. After the disposal of the body, the father and son clean the blood
splattered on the ground. Wilfred packs up the bloodied mattress and all of Arlette’s
stuff to throw it in the well too. When he opens the well’s cover to do that, he sees
Arlette’s body infested by rats. One even gets into her mouth. The horrifying sight
makes him panic. He throws the luggage at them in the hope of getting them away from
her body.
Wilfred makes up a story about her leaving somewhere unknown to people. No one suspects
him. A few days later, the Farmington company lawyer comes looking for Arlette. The family
tells him the same story. But the lawyer seems to be suspicious as to why she would miss
an opportunity to sell the land at such a good price. However, he can do nothing. Wilfred
has to quickly think of a plan to fill the well. So, he brings a cow and makes it stand
on top of the well’s cover. The cover cannot handle its weight and breaks, sending the
cow down to the bottom. But it still doesn’t stop mooing, so Wilfred shoots it dead. He
and Henry then fill the mice-infested well with the mud.
That day the lawyer sends the town sheriff to their house. He searches the house to make
sure the family is not hiding Arlette. Wilfred shows him her clothes and belongings. When
he is about to leave, they even invite him to have a look at the buried well. Wilfred
narrates that summer was the best for the crops to grow on the farm and associates it
with Satan rewarding him for his evil deeds. Shannon is worried about Henry’s strange
behavior. She voices her concerns to Wilfred. She thinks he might be having affairs with
other girls at his school. Wilfred assures her that it is not the case. Then she tells
him she is sorry about Arlette’s disappearance.
Suddenly, the cows on the farm start making a lot of noise. Wilfred goes in to check when
he finds the cow shed infested by rats. They had come in through a pipe that led to the
well. The sight makes Wilfred puke. He shoves a cloth into the pipe to block it. When he
comes back to the house, he sees Arlette’s shadow, but it turns out to be Henry. The
next day, he shields the pipe entirely. As he writes this in his notebook, Wilfred hears
a mouse screeching in the back. The room’s wall starts to crack.
The next day, Henry comes to the house with news. Sharron is pregnant with his child.
Henry wants to get married, but Wilfred tells him that he is too young. He brings up his
mother and tells Wilfred she would have allowed him some money to run away with Sharron. Just
then, Sharron’s father, Harlan Cotterie enters. He is the wealthiest of the farmers
in the town. Wilfred is jealous of his brand new Cadillac and home water pipeline, but
more so, he is jealous of his obedient wife. He wants to send Sharron to a Catholic home
in Omaha until she gives birth when she will give the child up for adoption.
Sharron’s stay will cost him three hundred dollars. He knows, given Wilfred’s poor
status, that he cannot pay for half of it. So, he asks him to pay at least seventy-five
dollars. He also tells Wilfred that he should have let Arlette sell those 100 acres to Farmington.
He would have money and a loving wife if he had done that. Henry doesn’t agree to send
Sharron off. He suggests to Wilfred that they can run away. He is against the idea. Henry
lashes off at his father, saying that he cannot tell him what to do. He blames Wilfred for
his mother’s death and tells him there was another way.
When Henry leaves for school the next day, Wilfred looks through Arlette’s belongings,
searching for money she must have saved. He finds twenty dollars inside of her hat. The
next day, he drives to a bank to take a loan of thirty-five dollars to pay Harlan Cotterie.
He stays there for a while, but when he comes out, his truck is gone. He finds a note from
Henry. It says that he has left with Sharron and taken the truck. In the note, he warns
Wilfred that if he sends the sheriff looking for them, he will expose the truth about his
mother’s death.
Wilfred is reading a book alone that night, but he cannot get the thought of Arlette’s
death out of his mind. He is startled when a drop of blood drops into his book. He looks
up to see it is just his leaky ceiling. He cannot sleep that night. The following day,
the town sheriff informs Wilfred of a robbery in a nearby town. He thinks Henry could've
done it. Wilfred, on the other hand, tells him that his boy is a gentleman and wouldn’t
do such a thing.
Wilfred takes out a mortgage of $750 the next day. He had to fix the leak on the roof, but
more than that, he had to work to keep himself sane during the winters. He returns home with
the money when a rat bites his palm, wounding it severely. He steps on the rat, leaving
it squashed and bloodied on the floor.
He aids his injured palm and scrubs the blood off the floor with the other one. It is snowing
the next day. He removes the bandage from his palm to see that the wound has been infected.
He walks through the snow to his car to go to the doctor. But he has a hard time starting
it with just one hand. In despair, he comes back to the house. The door starts creaking
and banging continuously. He looks through it to see his wife’s ghost standing outside
the house. Scared, he runs inside and peaks through the hallway door. She is coming towards
him. Wilfred then runs down to the basement.
He falls from the stairs, and when he looks up, hundreds of rats along with Arlette’s
infected body come through the door. The rats get to Wilfred and surround him. He comes
face to face with Arlette’s spirit. Wilfred writes that she whispered secrets to him that
only a dead woman could know. She tells him that Henry has become a robber in the city.
He managed to sneak Sharron out of the catholic home. They became a famous criminal duo called
the sweetheart bandits and killed several people. She tells him how Sharron got shot
and her child died.
Wilfred begs her to stop and just kill him. Slice his throat as he sliced hers. But she
wants to make him suffer more. She tells him how Henry found Sharron dead in a bed and
then killed himself afterward. In despair, Wilfred listens to her whisper of his son’s
death, who he cherished the most. A few days later, Wilfred goes to a doctor to get his
wound checked. The infection has grown so much that it has to be amputated. The sheriff
tells him that they had found the dead body of a woman in a ditch who is expected to be
Arlette. Wilfred goes along with the story.
After a few days, Henry’s corpse is brought to the village on a train. At the station,
Wilfred is surrounded by reporters who ask him about Henry’s death. He is terrified
to see Henry’s decaying corpse. Several rats had infested his body. He kisses Henry’s
corpse on the head and orders him the finest coffin. He writes that no father should have
to kiss his son for the last time, but if there is anyone who deserves it, it is him.
Wilfred tries to sell the 100 acres of land to Shannon's father, who tells him to leave
his property and never come back. With no other way, he sells it to a livestock company
at a low price. Wilfred moves to Omaha and finds a job hauling pallets.
By the time he completes writing this, his hotel room is completely filled with hundreds
of rats. The corpses of Arlette, Henry, and Sharron stand in front of him. Hendy holds
the knife he used to kill Arlette. The movie ends as Wilfred narrates, “In the end, we
all get caught.”
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