Throughout the movie, we are told the story of the castle’s dark past: a Baron who was obsessed with pure bloodlines married his sister. The villagers rose up, burned the sister, and the Baron’s child was lost to the water.
At the beginning of the film, Lockhart represents the ultimate corporate drone: ambitious, soulless, and physically broken (he wears a cast). The clinic claims to cure the "ailments of the spirit" caused by modern life. a cure for wellness explained