Edge of Madness is a 2002 drama film based on the short story A Wilderness Station, written by Alice Munro

Alice Munro

Alice Ann Munro is a Canadian short-story writer, the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work, a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction, and a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize...

. It stars Brendan Fehr

Brendan Fehr

Brendan Jacob Joel Fehr is a Canadian actor. He portrayed Michael Guerin on the WB television series Roswell and Laboratory Tech Dan Cooper in CSI: Miami.-Early life:...

, Caroline Dhavernas

Caroline Dhavernas

Caroline Dhavernas is a Canadian actress. Dhavernas is best known in the United States as "Jaye" from the short-lived television series Wonderfalls on Fox. She starred as Dr. Lily Brenner in the ABC medical drama Off the Map.-Life and career:...

, and Corey Sevier

Corey Sevier

Corey Daniel Sevier is a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his role on the Fox television series North Shore as Gabriel McKay or as Timmy Cabot on the television series Lassie from the late 1990s.-Life and career:...

.

Plot

The story is told in the present and flashbacks of a young woman, Annie (Caroline Dhavernas) who was abused by her husband, Simon (Brendan Fehr) whilst his brother, George (Corey Sevier) was seemingly helpless to intervene. The film hits an interesting twist when Simon is murdered. Annie is convinced that she is the murderer, even as she gets herself admitted to the gaol in the Fort.

In 1851, Annie is living in an orphanage and is put into in an arranged marriage

Arranged marriage

An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...

 to Simon, who takes her to a homestead which is still being built. He puts her to work cooking and cleaning for him and his brother, George. At night, Simon expects Annie to submit to his rough sexual advances, even raping her several times. George tries to talk to Simon about treating Annie better, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. Simon becomes ever more brutal towards Annie, even beating her while he's in a drunken rage.

Meanwhile, George himself is interested in pursuing Annie, which puts her into emotional turmoil.
Simon's murder culminates these events, with Annie being locked up in the gaol, while a Detective named Mullen investigates.

Through flashbacks, we learn that George, distraught from witnessing how his brother treated Annie, kills Simon by hitting him in the back with an axe. He brings Simon's body back to the homestead, telling Annie that a tree branch

Branch

A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...

 had fallen on him. Annie, by this time, had been driven mad from the beatings and rapes Simon had forced upon her. She hits Simon posthumously on the head with a rock. She and George consummate their feelings. Days later, she admits herself to the gaol, while George has fled the homestead to stay with a neighboring family.

Annie finds out while in the gaol that she is pregnant, but is not certain whether the father is Simon or George. She declares the baby girl as being Simon's child, so that the child will always be welcome and cared for in later life.

George marries the neighboring family's daughter, Jenny.

Cast

• Brendan Fehr
  Brendan Fehr
  Brendan Jacob Joel Fehr is a Canadian actor. He portrayed Michael Guerin on the WB television series Roswell and Laboratory Tech Dan Cooper in CSI: Miami.-Early life:...
  
  .....Simon Herron
• Paul Johansson
  Paul Johansson
  Paul Joseph Otto Johansson is an American-born Canadian actor, writer and director, best known for playing Dan Scott on the WB/CW television series, One Tree Hill, and for his role as Nick Wolfe on the short lived Highlander: The Series spin-off Highlander: The Raven...
  
  .....Henry Mullen
• Corey Sevier
  Corey Sevier
  Corey Daniel Sevier is a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his role on the Fox television series North Shore as Gabriel McKay or as Timmy Cabot on the television series Lassie from the late 1990s.-Life and career:...
  
  .....George Herron
• Jonas Chernick.....William Sellor
• Caroline Dhavernas
  Caroline Dhavernas
  Caroline Dhavernas is a Canadian actress. Dhavernas is best known in the United States as "Jaye" from the short-lived television series Wonderfalls on Fox. She starred as Dr. Lily Brenner in the ABC medical drama Off the Map.-Life and career:...
  
  .....Annie Herron