The Ending Of Malevolent Explained

Florence Pugh is one of the most recognizable actresses in the world right now. It's all thanks to a series of roles that showed the world just what she could do as an actress. She terrified men everywhere as the May Queen in "Midsommar" before showing just how far a woman with drive could get in the world in "Little Women." It all led to her most high-profile role to date as Yelena Belova in "Black Widow," which she's set to reprise in the upcoming Disney+ series "Hawkeye."

It'd be easy to call Pugh an overnight success, but the truth is anything but. Prior to her stellar run starting in 2019, she already had quite a few projects to her name. If you like what you've seen out of Pugh so far, you owe it to yourself to check out some of these older projects, especially the 2018 horror flick "Malevolent."

The film follows a group of scam artists posing as paranormal investigators, simply looking to make a quick buck off of those who believe in ghosts. It all centers on Angela Sayers (Florence Pugh), who has the ability to communicate with the dead. It may start as an act, but in one particular case, she soon develops a genuine connection with terrifying results. You won't want to pause it for a single second once everything starts going down, and here's the ending of "Malevolent" explained in case you need a primer.

When the scam artists first pull up to the job, it seems like just another case. There's a woman, Mrs. Greene (Celia Imrie), who wants them to investigate why she's hearing the screaming of little girls at her abode. Of course, she naturally gets wise to the scheme they're trying to pull and eventually lets Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) know how she's aware of their phony stories. But that's not the only thing she unveils.

Years ago, she couldn't handle the noise the girls at her house made, hence her penchant for sewing people's mouths shut. When the team uncovers her secrets, she can't let them go, so one by one, they take out the investigators.

The only person that can help Angela and Elliot (Scott Chambers) out of the conundrum are the spirits of the little girls Mrs. Greene killed so long ago. They do what they do best — scream. Mrs. Greene can't take the torment anymore, giving Angela just enough time to escape and kill her. 

Angela and Elliot are the only ones to make it out of the house alive. They recuperate at a hospital, with Angela phoning her grandfather to check in on him. He's worried that she's going to be alone now, and it's at this point a mysterious shadow comes over Angela. And she clarifies, "I'm not alone."

It's clear this entity is another spirit seeking out Angela due to her ability to commune with the dead. But what's the identity of the apparition? That answer's never revealed to us. It could just be the spirit of someone who died in the hospital with some unfinished business. But we like to think there's a more personal connection with the moment. 

The spirit could very well be Angela's mother, who died prior to the events of the film. It could be her brother, Jackson, who died at the house. It seems unlikely "Malevolent 2" will ever materialize, so it will continue being open to fan interpretation for the time being. Hopefully, this particular spirit's a benevolent force rather than a malevolent one.