Before the film starts the soundtrack begins to play which is background non-diegetic sound of nature creating an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. The first scene begins to play of establishing shots of the wilderness which helps builds the peaceful atmosphere and the scene cuts to a deer walking around in the wilderness. The peaceful atmosphere begins to change after the extreme close up as it cuts to the first person in the film hiding in the bushes with multiple cuts between the deer staring at them and walking around the bushes and multiple family members stalking the deer in the bushes and the filming style changes to handheld filming as it follows the deer until it becomes a two shot of him hiding and the deer which quickly cuts to multiple close ups as they kill the deer. We finally get to see characters however at this point they initially have a sinister atmosphere as a close up shot of a bloody knife helps reinforce this atmosphere also the audience has no idea of who any of the characters are and this ambiguity continues as a lot more younger characters come out of the bushes covered in this ambiguous camouflage. Another male character who is older comes out of the bushes and comes towards the younger male character and takes the heart out of the deer and ritualistically paints the blood on his head and claims he is now a man as the younger male character eats the heart at this point it is still ambiguous of who this group is it could be a cult of a family as the title has a sinister soundtrack behind it as the older male character has a straight face reinforcing this sinister atmosphere.
The next scene make this much clearer as they begin to wash off the mud the atmosphere changes from a eerie atmosphere to a light hearted atmosphere as they begin to splash water on each other and becomes clear that they are a family and that original sinister introduction is a very unusual way to present the protagonist and makes the characters have to work to make the audience like them as the audience is initially aligned with the deer which is killed making the characters initially look dangerous and violent even though the audience is aligned to these characters by the end of the scene they still have to work to make the audience have an allegiance with the characters and this is reinforced as the next scene of them back at home has a montage showing what their life style with a non diegetic upbeat melodic soundtrack to create a positive atmosphere making the characters look less menacing look from the opening.
The ending scene somewhat mirrors the beginning scene as Ben and Bo have a two shot close up of their conversations and this ending scene takes place in an airport unlike the beginning being in the wilderness which shows the development of themselves as characters as Bo has shaved his head and Ben has shaved his beard as they enter traditional society and this growth as characters is presented in the conversation they have talking about being bold and adventurous and growing up instead of the ritualistic hunting they had in the beginning and at this point of the film the audience is somewhat aligned with Ben and Bo as they get a lot of personal scenes having a close up on their face to create a personal connection to the audience creating this. The theme of alternative and traditional lifestyles is prevalent throughout the opening and ending scenes as we are first exposed to the characters in a very extreme way but as we learn about their life style we begin to understand but the ending scene shows that they have change to have more traditional elements in their lifestyle as after Bo leaves we see that they have moved out of the wilderness and that the other children are beginning to go to school instead of being home schooled also they both have a montage at the beginning and end of the film showing a development of their lifestyle as the ending shows the change to their domestic lifestyle from being in the wilderness to being in a house at the end. The final moments of the film are in complete silence no music or words are spoken but the audience clearly see the new equilibrium created through that montage scene earlier and how the family is gathered around the table as the camera zooms out, the complete silence during this final scene creates ambiguity especially as the father looks out the window which could be interpreted as him taking everything in or not wanting to be in a house and wanting to back in the wilderness and many other interpretations.
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