The 2019 horror movie The Lodge takes the common story of a father finding love again and turns it on its head, crafting a dark and twisty tale that features a very creepy atmosphere. Richard Hall (Richard Armitage) becomes engaged to Grace Marshall (Riley Keough), and his kids Mia (Lia McHugh) and Aiden (Jaeden Martell) aren't thrilled. As the family spends time at a lodge in the wintertime, the children begin to notice something strange about Grace, and they learn more about her past growing up in a cult.
The Lodge wasn't a massive hit, but for the most part, people praised Riley Keough's acting, and she definitely carries the entire movie. The ending of The Lodge is much darker than many other horror movies. It doesn't shy away from discussing tough subjects and thinking about harsh emotions. What happens at the end of The Lodge, and why does it stay with audiences for so long afterward?
What Happens In The Lodge's Ending?
The Lodge ending focuses on Grace and the fear that Aiden and Mia feel as a result. She has a breakdown and goes outside, but when Mia and Aiden are scared that she won't survive, they share that they have been playing with her mind. Grace isn't responsive when the children tell her that they want her to take her meds. Instead, she says they need to prove that they can get into heaven as she believes they are in purgatory.
Grace shoots and kills Richard after she lights part of herself on fire. When Mia and Aiden can't drive away because of the massive amount of snow outside, Grace brings them into the lodge and duct tapes their mouths. She writes "sin" on each of their mouths and makes sure that they are sitting next to their dead father. Like other shocking horror movie endings, like the very dark ending of the 2022 movie Smile, there's no question about the predicament that the main characters find themselves in. And there's no coming back from the terror that they have endured over the movie's runtime.
While some horror movies have optimistic endings, that is definitely not true of The Lodge. Grace has a gun nearby and she could choose to shoot and kill Mia and Aiden in the next moment. She believes that it's necessary for them to atone for their sins, and she isn't able to hear anything that they have to say. It's frustrating that the kids can't get through to Grace, but it's also very realistic.
The horror genre has a history of featuring characters with mental health struggles. Too often, this devolves into the trope of saying that a character is "crazy" and "seeing things that aren't there." While some slasher movie tropes are necessary, it's often insulting to make these kinds of comments about a character. While The Lodge isn't perfect in its portrayal of Grace, it does treat her with some empathy and compassion.
At the same time, however, Grace is the villain of the story. And like other mysterious horror movie villains, she is given just enough backstory for it to make sense. However, it's hard not to want to learn more about her past, which would help give more meaning and power to the ending of The Lodge. While it's explained that Grace was in a cult, some more information and details would definitely be welcome here.
Did Audiences And Critics Like The Lodge's Ending?
Many reviews of The Lodge praise its creepy atmosphere and sense of dread. For the most part, critics consider it to be an interesting but ultimately average horror movie. And for some critics, it didn't quite earn its ending or really go anywhere. The Lodge manages to end in a totally bleak manner while still seeming mysterious and vague.
The Atlantic called The Lodge "unsettling but underwhelming," and that seems to be the consensus. While it's a great horror movie in terms of pacing and tension, the atmosphere seems to be given more care and attention than the story beats. It's possible to say that The Lodge ends the way many movies considered to be elevated horror do: with more questions than answers. It's unclear what will happen to Aiden and Mia, although it's suggested that they are in a lot of danger.
With a dark story like The Lodge, it would be tough to craft a horror movie ending that would feel satisfying. Audiences feel for all the characters, from the distress and pain that Grace is going through to the fear that Mia and Aiden are experiencing. And there are definitely no easy answers here. For some, The Lodge's ending is too dark. For others, it's the only logical conclusion to a story that doesn't shy away from showing Grace's unraveling.