Here's the Horrifying, Downright Disturbing Twist at the End of The Witch

Updated on Feb 22, 2016 at 10:00 AM

The Witch hits theaters on Feb. 19, so there's not much time left to prepare for one of the most disturbing films of the year so far. We've already done a little digging to figure out how much is historically accurate, but there's something else we need to discuss: the events of the film itself. Are you someone who doesn't mind spoilers? Is your curiosity getting the best of you? Are you planning on skipping The Witch altogether, but still dying to know what happens? You're in luck, because we're breaking down everything that happens in the disturbing, twist-filled ending. Gird your loins, read on for the spoilers, then see the other horror movies on the horizon.

The Death of Caleb

The action really picks up in a scene where Caleb, the family's eldest son, goes missing in the forest. While his sister Thomasin desperately tries to find him, we watch as he meets the witch herself. Although she appears old and bedraggled in the first scene of the movie, the witch in this sequence is young, beautiful, and utterly entrancing. She approaches Caleb, and just as she gives him a tender kiss, an awful, decrepit arm grabs him.
Flash-forward to the evening. Thomasin has reunited with her father. A storm rages outside. Thomasin goes outside to feed the animals, and she finds Caleb, naked and slumped against the fence. His body is contorting in strange and awful ways.
Caleb grows very, very sick. In one of the film's most disturbing sequences, his fever pitches and he writhes, completely under the witch's awful spell. He chokes and regurgitates a full, unharmed apple. He begins chanting in religious tongues. He reaches what can only be described as religious ecstasy, but it's clear that Satan himself soon takes over in some sort of horrific demonic possession. Caleb falls limp to the floor, dead.

The Torturous Turn on Thomasin

Almost immediately after Caleb's death, Mercy and Jonas — who are twins and the youngest members of the family — say it was Thomasin who killed him. They accuse Thomasin of being the witch. William, the father and the patriarch of the household, turns on her almost immediately, asking her if it's true. She swears up and down it's not her. When the twins are suddenly rendered immobile and unresponsive though, he doesn't believe her.
William drags all of his remaining children — Thomasin, Mercy, and Jonas — outside, trying to figure out the source of the evil witchcraft. The twins continue to insist it's Thomasin, but she quickly fires back, saying they've been talking to the family goat, Black Phillip. It's true — the twins have been whispering to the goat for the entirety of the movie. Unable to reach a consensus as to who's actually evil, William locks all of them in the stable with Black Phillip.

The Final Night

In the darkness, Katherine, the family's mother, has a vivid dream. Both Caleb and Samuel — the infant who dies at the start of the film — return from the dead. She believes she's holding them in her arms, but a brief flash to reality shows she's holding a blackbird, and it's pecking ceaselessly at the flesh of her nipple. (It's as gross as it sounds.)
Meanwhile, a guest has broken into the boarded-up stable, where the three children are spending the night. It's the real witch herself, back in all her ugly, naked glory. She's drinking from Black Phillip, and when she notices the company, she laughs. Come morning, the whole stable is destroyed — a huge hole has been gouged in the side. The twins are presumed dead in the wreckage. Thomasin staggers out.

The Deaths of William and Katherine

When he sees the wreckage of the stable, William immediately places the blame back on Thomasin. As William gets ready to do whatever it is he wants to do, though, Black Phillip charges and gores him brutally with a horn. Black Phillip is clearly possessed, or may be the Devil himself. Black Phillip charges William two more times, pinning him against the stack of fire wood. If he's not already dead, he surely dies in the avalanche of wood that follows.
Overcome with grief, Katherine attacks Thomasin. She pins her daughter on the ground, with her fingers coiled around her throat. Thomasin, nearly dead, desperately grabs for something to stop her mother, and her hand finds a garden tool. She slashes, hitting her mother in the face, causing a spray of blood. She slashes again and again until her mother falls lifeless on top of her.

Thomasin's Turn to the Darkness, to Satan, and to Witchcraft

Having killed her mother, Thomasin takes a long nap. She wakes up in the darkness of the next night, and heads to the broken stable to find Black Phillip. Still not sure if he can actually talk, or if his agency was just fantasy on the twins' part, Thomasin asks him to speak. No answer. When she asks him again, though, he responds in a deep, gravelly voice, asking what she wants. He asks if she wants all the happiness and riches and spoils of the world. She says yes.
We suddenly see the legs of a man who walks behind her. This, unmistakably, is Satan himself. He puts his hand on Thomasin's shoulder and binds her by contract. She removes her clothes. He leads her into the forest, where she happens upon a huge bonfire. A group of naked women dances around. They suddenly all begin to levitate, and a tight shot on Thomasin's face shows that she's levitating, too. The screen cuts to black.