The Finch Family curse

Creating a family tree is not a new thing. Egyptians would record family data as early as 3000 BC; tapestries displaying family lineage would adorn the walls of some medieval castles; some ruling dynasties would record it in real time so as to make the path of succession more clear. Whatever the reason, it is an age old art. Edith Finch Jr has decided to take up that art, and to start with, that seemed a lovely idea.

Seemed. The operative word is seemed. Take a closer look at some of the dates on the family tree. There is a lot of infant death in this family. Couple that with the fact the very first thing we see is a missing poster for Edith’s brother Milton, I’m going to assume this is one family that when they say they are cursed, they really mean it.

The Finch family home is, of course, situated in the arse end of nowhere. First you need to navigate a thick dense woodland, then find a way across the narrow creek. Once that is done, all you’ve got left is a short climb up a notoriously steep cliff and here we are. Casa De Curse. Admittedly, if you knew nothing about the Finch family, not even their unfortunately close relationship with death, and you saw this house you’d straight away think “Damn this family is going to be weird.” The house looks like someone watched Kids next Door/played Hello Neighbour and just thought Yes. One thing I will give them props for is they have separate bins outside for recycling and general use. Never mind the fact that there’s no road anywhere near the property for any trash pick up, and no way in hell the family is carting that through the woods, back to civilisation. Which raises another question for me; once we’d traversed the woods, before we crossed the creek, there’s a tiny little lean to garage with a pick up truck in there. There’s no road though. What’s the truck for then?! Decoration?

Security wasn’t a big thing for this family either. Supposedly it was 6 years since anyone has been here, so surely we’ve brought the key and – Oh no we’re crawling through the doggy dor. Great. Very secure. The house is Definitely untouched, no one has ever tried to see if a doggy door is unlocked. Maybe the Finch Family Curse (that really does just roll of the tongue doesn’t it?) is real and people avoided the house, allowing them to have such awful security. More than likely, it’s just effort to trek through those woods, climb the hill and then attempt the door.

Upon entering, we monologue a bit about the family and who is who, and we then discover the second victim of the FFC – Edith’s older brother Lewis. There’s missing posters for young Milton strewn about the kitchen, but pinned to the refrigerator is the time, date and location for a funeral service for Lewis. Let’s just recap; our family tree shows that a LOT of this family has died young, and in this branch alone, 2 of the 3 kids are dead/missing.

I think we can safely say Yes, there is in fact a Finch Family Curse.

As abandoned houses that are apparently the epicentre of a grief and misfortune tornado go, the Finch Family Home is about as bonkers as you’d expect. Every door than can actually be closed has been sealed shut, and as we progress, Edith muses aloud that her Mother and Grandmother had a war after Lewis death; One sealed the doors shut, grief stricken, so the other drilled peepholes. Now the house has been turned into a sort of shrine crossed with a museum.

Progressing upstairs shows us that is exactly what has happened. All the rooms of the previous Finch generations are still kept exactly how they were, presumably untouched since the occupants untimely demise.

All except Walter’s room it seems. The others are sealed shut but preserved, whereas Walter’s room is empty and also open. Fate, or at least lazy workmanship, has decided that our investigation shall start there.

The room itself is mostly bare, whereas all the others we can peek into are still fully furnished The only thing that still exists in Walter’s room is a bookshelf. I’d say I find this odd but again, this house. C’mon. Turns out the reason the bookshelf with the weird display stand for one book wasn’t removed is that it’s actually a secret tunnel. (secret tunnel, secret tunnel, throooough the mountain~)

This allows us access to some more of the house, and I have to say, to begin with I was thinking “Why would you not just leave once you realised how messed up this family was?!” but if my house had secret bookshelf tunnels, I don’t think even a curse could have got me to leave. Little bit ominous that in this secret passageway there’s a large, crude drawing of some shadow figure, signed Milton. I wonder if it’s somewhat relevant that the boy who went missing rather than a confirmed death, was imagining shadow creatures?

The tunnel takes us into a little girls room, still preserved perfectly. A quick flick back to our family tree drawing tells me this is likely Molly’s room. Molly, if you recall, was born 1937 and met her end in 1947. The first thing that tells us is that this room has stood untouched for almost 60 years. Hey who is your dust guy?! This room is spotless! It also means we might be about to discover something about Molly, maybe even what happened to her.

The Diary and the hungry, hungry child.

When exploring Molly’s room, I was only expecting/hoping to just find a clue about her. I didn’t expect to be transported into the memories of a 10 year old girl, seeing the world through her eyes and hearing her voice narrate that experience for me. The conduit for this paranormal look back? A child’s diary. I know. More fool me for trying to read someone’s diary. I only have myself to blame. When we pick up the aforementioned book, we are then suddenly transported. We awake upon the bed in that same room, but obviously in years past. The definitely not creepy narration by a 10 year old girl begins, and we find ourselves playing the part of young Molly.

“I was hungry, I needed to eat.” Every child who was played up and gone to bed without supper will be familiar with that desperate search around your bedroom for any tiny morsel you have have accidentally squirreled away. Difference is, we stop at food items, or at least I did. Molly first muses aloud how she considered eating her goldfish (raw, too) and then she takes an entire tube of toothpaste down her gullet, and even some decorative berries. I then made the mistake of assuming her death was going to be related to ingesting everything she possibly could. Maybe plastic berries aren’t so good for the digestive system. Nope. She then sees a BIRD outside her window and of course her first thought is “I’m having some of that.” Again, raw. I feel like this girl would have REALLY enjoyed Metal Gear Solid 3; Snake eater because she’s practically there right now.

If you rationally thought Oh god she’s going to go after the bird and fall to her death, like a normal person, you’d be wrong. If you thought she’s going to transform into a god damn cat and jump from tree branch to tree branch, then I want a word because who the hell saw that coming? When we finally catch up to the bird and eat it, we are transformed to an owl. Now we’re soaring above the fields and picking up rabbits. I have a weird feeling we will eventually turn into one, but of course, the FFC likes to mess with me as well, because instead of becoming a rabbit, we turn into…A shark. A shark on a mountain. Not a lick of water in sight. I’ve got to hand it to the FFC for keeping me guessing. Not a single assumption I’ve made so far has been correct. After managing to wriggle our way off the mountain we reach water, and that means tasty seals are up for grabs. This girl is so hungry she’s gone through 3 different animal kingdoms, I have to hand it to her.

Our final transformation leads us to a large fishing boat. What manner of beast will we become, and what will we hunt? It turns out a Lovecraftian old one is the answer. We never see more than a tentacle, but we clear the boat of the humans, chomping them down. Either a giant squid or Cthulhu. Whatever we are, it’s messed up and I am here for it. Apparently though, it isn’t enough. Our creepy 10 year old narrator now insists there is something they can smell, some perfect meal that will finally satiate our hunger. We journey across the sea, up some sewer pipes until we reach…

Her bedroom. Now we are sneaking across the room to consume…Molly?
Molly’s hunger did kill her then it seems, in a roundabout way. It somehow woke up and possessed a potential eldritch god, and led it to eat her.


As suicides go, warging into an ancient cosmic horror and then self cannibalizing has to be the most creative.

After that, I need to sign off and go stare at the sky for a while.

–BrightStarFOX