The Good Son 1993

Twelve-year-old Mark Evans has recently experienced the death of his mother, Janice Evans. Before leaving on a business trip to Tokyo, Mark’s father, Jack Evans, transports him from Arizona to his Uncle Wallace Evans and Aunt Susan Evans’s house in Rock Harbor, Maine, where he will spend winter break. Mark is reintroduced after a decade to his extended family, including his cousins Connie Evans and Henry Evans.

Initially, Connie Evans and Henry Evans get along with Mark, but Henry soon reveals an unsettling fascination with death, making Mark feel uneasy. Henry begins to display clear signs of psychopathic behavior, which Mark cannot safely address to Wallace and Susan due to Henry’s threats. One of his most shocking actions is throwing a dummy he calls Mr. Highway off a bridge and onto a highway, triggering a massive vehicle pileup. He then hatches a plan to kill Connie, and Mark, fearing for her safety, spends the night in Connie’s room.

The next morning, Mark awakens to find Henry has taken Connie ice skating. At the pond, Henry deliberately pushes her toward thin ice, which collapses. Connie is rescued, but she ends up in a coma. Even though Susan does not initially believe Mark, she becomes suspicious and interrupts Henry’s attempt to suffocate Connie in her hospital bed. Susan then finds a rubber duck that Henry has hidden in his shed — it had once belonged to Henry’s younger brother, Richard, and had been with him in the bathtub the night he drowned; the duck went missing after.

When Susan confronts Henry, he coldly reminds her that the toy had belonged to him first. He then flips and calmly asks for the rubber duck back. After a violent tug-of-war, he takes the toy and throws it down the well. As Susan and Mark grow closer, Henry insinuates that he will kill Susan rather than let Mark continue to develop a relationship with her. When a fight breaks out between Henry and Mark, Wallace locks Mark in the den. Henry asks a suspicious Susan to go for a walk with him, while Mark escapes and chases after them.

Susan confronts Henry, asking him if he killed Richard, to which Henry simply replies, > What if I did?

Susan realizes that Mark was right about Henry’s true nature. She tells Henry that he needs help, but he refuses and flees. Susan gives chase and, upon arriving at a cliff, Henry pushes her over the edge. As Susan dangles from a branch, Henry chooses a large rock to drop on her, but Mark tackles him. Susan climbs back up just in time to grab hold of the boys as they roll over the edge, one in each hand. Henry holds on with both hands while Mark’s grip begins to slip; with only enough strength to save one, Susan releases Henry and he falls to his death. Susan pulls Mark up, and they look down at Henry’s corpse being washed away to the ocean.

When Mark returns home to Arizona, he reflects on Susan’s choice to save him instead of Henry. He wonders if she would make the same choice again, but knows it is something he will never ask her.