Interesting take on the movie, and one I've never considered (or realized). I'll watch it again with this in mind.
I watched it the first time a cpl of Christmas Eves ago and I had somewhat an eerie feeling from the first line on.
Plus, there's a very Kubrick type scene in the beginning of the movie's second act. It's Halloween night and the two youngest daughters--one of whom is morbidly obsessed with death and the afterlife--stuff an old dress to look like a body, and laid it on the trolley tracks to sabotage the trolley car. And when someone answers the doorbell during trick-or-treating, the girls' goal is to 'kill' the 'victim' by throwing flour in the flustered person's face.
