SO SAD ABOUT GLORIA

A young woman, Gloria Wellman, is picked up by her uncle, Frederick, as she's released from a mental hospital.

She occasionally zones out, fantasizing about a man in black axing the chains and lock of a coffin.

Janie Mylan, a friend from school and college, visits Gloria at her mansion. Elaine mentions Gloria was away for three years, traveling abroad, since they last met.

These visions are then, somewhat confusingly, mixed in with a flashback to the axe murder of another woman, Linda Gaines, in the house that Gloria later moves into with her new husband, Chris Kenner, a man she met trespassing on her estate and married after a short romance.

On a prowler call, police almost catch the intruder at the house Gloria and Chris are about to move into. Though the police manage to fire a few shots, they quickly give up, blowing off the matter as merely a homeless person, a "wino." Despite remembering Linda's murder, they oddly don't consider the prowler could have been Linda's murderer.

In parallel, another man, Mr. Ballinger, is often trespassing on the grounds of their new house, chopping wood unsolicited and offering to help out in any other way.

Janie visits the new house, and recalls a prank she pulled on Gloria that drew such a reaction that she subsequently felt guilty.

Gloria occasionally hears a music box, though Chris claims he hears nothing, which makes Gloria worry that she is relapsing.

Chris is away for work one night, to deliver his finished novel. Frederick claims he can't get to her house for dinner as scheduled. She now hears the music box again. Worse, Mr. Ballinger is lurking about, knows too much about her husband being away, and insists on coming inside to deliver chopped wood. After Ballinger leaves, an axe wielder in a mask breaks into her bedroom and swings the axe at her over and over, stopping only when he hears Frederick at the front door.

At the front door, the axe wielder meets Frederich, who is strangely unafraid. Chris reveals himself from under the mask. Frederick is wracked with guilt and wants none of the money from their plot to drive Gloria crazy. Chris ends the partnership by killing Frederick. We learn later that Gloria is blamed for her uncle's murder.

Gloria's doctor tells Chris she is catatonic and will likely have to be in the hospital for the rest of her life. Chris returns to the house to collect some things, including a tape recorder that plays the music he claimed he could not hear. An axe wielder—perhaps the prowler from an earlier scene, perhaps the axe murderer of Linda—then kills Chris, thus exonerating Gloria of Frederick's murder.

Chris is revealed as one of the conspirators gaslighting Gloria, and after murdering Frederick, he is later killed by an unknown axe wielder, exonerating Gloria of Frederick's murder.

The ending exposes the web of deceit around Gloria, showing her as a victim of a scheme to drive her insane. Chris's demise at the hands of a possibly supernatural or real killer shifts suspicion away from Gloria, highlighting the film’s theme of blurred reality and the destructive power of manipulation. Gloria, left catatonic, embodies the devastating consequences of psychological torment.