The Owners-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: When a group of friends plan to burgle an elderly couple's house, little do they know who they are really dealing with. 

A few years ago, there came a movie where a trio of robbers break into a blind man’s home only to find out the owner isn’t as helpless as he seems.

He’s blind but his ears worked just fine. So...don’t breathe or you’ll be found out and tortured and killed.

There have probably been more movies like these over the years, all of them giving away the same message: don’t break into other people’s homes to earn a quick buck.

These movies were meant to discourage crimes, except for some reason, rather than having a “The Last House on the Left” kind of vibe where you do root for the owners of the house, movies like Don’t Breathe and The Owners give away the message: it’s okay to attempt to break into other people’s house. They might be criminals that need to be taken down and don’t need sympathy.

The Owners walk the line behind Don’t Breathe.

It does start with a trio making plans to break in, only for one of them to have their girlfriend come tagging along.

THE OWNERS Movie Plot 

Gaz, Nathan and Terry have made the perfect plan to escape their boring town, rob an elderly couple and make a lot of money.

Nathan’s girlfriend Mary finds him just as he’s watching the house he has to rob and waiting for the Owners to leave. They’re in Mary’s car and she keeps talking about being late for work and needs to get her car back.

She’s on her bicycle and could have just ridden that to work. Is her job somewhere in another city? And as the hours pass, she keeps complaining about being late for work, but it is dark now and she is, well too late to go to work. Isn’t anyone from her workplace calling her to ask if she was coming in or not?

Anyway, Mary demands Nathan returns her car and then is annoyed to learn of his intentions to rob a house. Nathan’s friend Terry seems to have a soft spot for Mary and offers to drive her to work and then come back with the car for Nathan to use.

Terry seems like a decent, timid guy, does he not? Well, he isn’t. In this case, the quiet one is the dangerous one.

Nathan ignores Mary and as soon as he sees the Huggins leave, drives the car closer to the gate. Mary follows them on her bicycle. Nathan promises he would be in and out in a couple of minutes and with the money he gets, she will never have to work again.

Mary is already late for her job and agrees to the plan of making quick money.

The trio jumps over the wall while Mary waits in the car. Nathan has taken the car keys and Terry has twisted his ankle when he jumped over the wall.

When they enter the house, Gaz wants to destroy everything. Maybe he thinks the Huggins are hiding cash in the cushions and their dead daughter’s dollhouse?

While he thrashes the place, Terry goes into the basement and finds a safe. He calls the others and Gaz is irritated to learn that it isn’t an electronic device. He had brought a gadget and everything to open an electronic safe.

They don’t know how to open a combination safe and decide to wait for the couple and get it out of them. They want to get the money no matter what.

Night comes, the trio is watching TV. Terry is the servant who serves them snacks. Mary starts honking the car horn. Nathan gets bugged and goes out and convinced her to come in.

Mary comes in but hesitates. Nathan starts making out for her once she comes in and she agrees it’s a good idea to rob elderly people too.

The Huggins arrive and Gaz gives them all stockings to wear over their heads that barely hide their faces. What’s the point of wearing a stretched stocking over faces. It’s not concealing anyone. All they’ve done is tear an old woman’s stockings with their big heads.

The Huggins enter but it isn’t a surprise birthday greeting they get. Ellen, the wife of Richard Huggins, the Doctor, cries out when she sees the state of her living room.

Gaz comes out from behind yelling surprise and manhandling the elderly couple. Ellen falls and hurts her hand. Richard, even when he is all tied up, gives instructions to stop the bleeding and bandage his wife’s hand.

Mary volunteers to do it and think that she’s wearing a stocking mask and so there’s no way the Huggins could know who she is. So of course, she doesn’t need to hide the tattoo of her name and her twin’s, because the Huggins probably have weak eyesight and can’t read cursive.

Several seconds are wasted on Richard’s expression as he sees the tattoo and gives an “oh, I know your name now,” look.

Considering what we learn, later on, Richard already knows who she is because again, the stocking isn’t hiding her face.

Mary removes Ellen’s splinters and bandages her hand like a good nurse. Gaz wants to know where the money is and he tells them about some petty cash he has hiding in cookie jars.

Gaz drags the couple to the basement and shows Richard the safe. Richard pretty much goes “Oh, this safe. I had no idea this existed.”

But the reason he seems confused when Gaz asks him about the safe is that it isn’t actually as safe at all, as we find out towards the end of the movie.

Gaz tries every trick in the book to get Richard to give away the combination code since clearly, Ellen seems out of it. She is allegedly suffering from dementia. Nathan is forced by Gaz to try and cut off Ellen’s finger. Richard still doesn’t budge and Ellen too doesn’t show any fear. Dementia or is it because this is nothing compared to the violence she is capable of?

Terry snivels and hides in a corner, Mary pleads with Nathan to show some mercy to the old people. She runs away after Haz turns to violent methods and tries to call the police. But Gaz finds her and breaks the phone. Then he drags her back to the basement as Richard tries to convince Nathan to give up trying to rob him and his wife and leave.

Dr Huggins seems to know all their names and tells Nathan that his friend Gaz is a terrible influence. Nathan gets second thoughts especially because Mary has just told him she’s pregnant.

Nathan caves and attacks Gaz when he tells Nathan to cut off Ellen’s finger to get Richard talking. Gaz easily defends himself and in the ensuing struggle, Nathan gets stabbed.

Richard says he can save Nathan if he is untied. Gaz doesn’t care. Mary begs Richard to give the code and not give Gaz the wrong code.

Gaz loses his patience and finds an electric saw. Weren’t they curious why these people had so many tools to cut off things? Or does everyone have a basement with complete toolsets?

Gaz threatens to chop off Ellen’s neck but the cable is too short. Ellen barely blinks. Gaz finds a socket next to her head and criticizes the outlet placement in the house.

Mary begs him to stop. Terry does nothing but cries in the corner. Mary loosens her ties and manages to find a sledgehammer to bash Gaz’s head in. He dies in a pool of blood. Richard and Ellen are freed and the doctor asks Terry and Mary to bring Nathan upstairs. They do that and put him in a room.

Nathan is taking his last breath and Richard removes the blade to find oozing blood. He says no vital organs are hit but even Mary thinks the wound looks life-threatening. Richard sends them away, citing that he needs quiet to work. He promises to call the ambulance.

Mary roams around the house and sees Terry being tended to by Ellen who has given him a painkiller injection for his sprain and kissing his bum.

Mary is mortified looking at the way Terry is being treated like a child. His mother works for the Huggins and that is why Ellen probably coddles him.

THE OWNERS Ending Explained with Spoilers!

Mary has her suspicions that something is off and why the ambulance still hadn't arrived. Terry doesn’t care because he’s got snacks now. Ellen seems to dislike Mary and Richard comes along to stop his wife from threatening Mary. He asks Ellen to point out where he’s kept the injection and she finds it on the table.

Because he’s a doctor and Ellen used to be his assistant, he’s kept injections everywhere to jog Ellen’s memory.

Mary bursts into the room where Nathan is and Richard assured her he is sleeping after he gave him a drug. But Mary can’t find a pulse and gets suspicious.

She demands Richard to call the ambulance right now. He uses the same phone Gaz has broken and pretends to make the call.

Mary and Terry are invited to have tea. Mary tosses the cups aside and demands answers because she knows Richard didn’t call the ambulance and her boyfriend is dead.

Richard shows her a book is missing people, and one of them is of Jane’s, Mary’s missing twin who she thought left after her breakup with Terry.

Mary is locked in the space under the staircase with Terry as a guard. Terry becomes delusional and keeps taking to Mary like she’s his girlfriend Jane. Mary uses this to her advantage and escapes even as Terry gets paralyzed after being drugged by Ellen.

She holds Ellen hostage and tells Richard to let her go. Richard wants to know his wife is fine and asks her to sing a song.

There is smoke everywhere because the Huggins also have tear gas stored in their homes.

Mary wants to take Terry with her and tells Richard the deal is that she wants to escape in the van in the garage with Terry.

Richard tries to enter the kitchen and Mary slams the door repeatedly on his hand until his finger pops out and rolls towards Ellen who has seen plenty of dismembered fingers before.

Mary escapes with Terry, throws him in the back of the van and gets into the driver seat after opening the garage door.

The Huggins is there waiting for her and Mary decides she’s going to run them over.

But suddenly she’s shot. She looks down and back and realizes she should have never brought Terry with her. He has betrayed her and shot her. Richard laments that he wanted Mary to join the te after she used a sledgehammer on Gaz. But then had second thoughts because he didn’t want to replace his wife who was better at being cruel. So what if she has dementia? She knows how to dig gardens and bury people.

Terry is rewarded for his efforts and taken to the safe. It’s not a safe but a prison door for their captives. Inside is Jane, dressed as the Huggin’s dead daughter who Ellen wanted to replace. Terry is gifted his girlfriend but must remain in the room with her?

Mary sees her sister in the rearview mirror then succumbs to her injuries.

Later, Ellen is busy humming and burying a hand while Terry’s mother, after having cleaned the house, confides in the Huggins that she hasn’t seen her son in a while.

She gets a “boys will be boys” reply and Terry’s mother goes on her merry way.

How long does the Huggins intend to keep Terry? Or was he killed too after Ellen got bored of him?

Perhaps people who have large gardens should be searched properly.

Scare scale: 2.5/5