The movie, which is dedicated to A.T. White's deceased friend and which begins with a "based on a true story" title card, is an allegory for grief. The monsters unleashed in town mirror the loss in Aubrey's life. Her reaction to them follows the 5 stages of grief. First, she ignores everything and goes through denial ("I wonder if the world still exists if I choose to ignore it"). This abruptly switches to anger (punching the wall until her hand is bloody), then bargaining ("okay Grace, you get one chance...we'll try it your way"), followed by depression (the despondent conversation in the library where she says she's incapable of happiness), and culminating in acceptance (finally seeing Edward's face in her visions; symbolically drowning the man she cheated with; writing out the "Forgive + Forget" message; letting go and floating upwards).
When Aubrey dreams of Edward, she visualizes him with his face blown off. Some reviewers have interpreted this to mean Edward shot himself to death, but Edward is still alive. When Aubrey and her mother talk on the phone, she asks Aubrey if she saw him at Grace's funeral the day before. Like much of the film, his gruesome facelessness is a metaphor (perhaps for the fact that Aubrey cannot face him after what she did to hurt him).
The songs on the mixtapes are: "These Few Presidents" performed by WHY?, "Gloomy Planets" performed by The Notwist, "Swimming Eyes" performed by Jeniferver, "Install a Beak in the Heart That Clucks Time in Arabic" performed by 65daysofstatic, "Porchlight" performed by Seafood, "Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake" performed by Grandaddy, and "Ekki Mukk" performed by Sigur Ros.
Partially filmed in Leadville, CO