The Night House (2020) is a psychological horror film directed by David Bruckner. The movie is the first premiere on January 24, 2020, at the Sundance Film Festival and is theatrically released on August 20, 2021.

The Night House (2020) Film Ending Explained with Full Plot Story

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In this movie, we see a lady named Beth. She is a school teacher. She lives in a big lake house with her husband named Owen. Last 15 years her life was going through the same flow.

But last night her life became flawless. When she was sleeping her husband Owen committed suicide. He left a mysterious note for Beth. This incident hardly nudged her up.

Beth begins experiencing bizarre dreams and hears some weird sounds. It feels like a grim shadow on the wall looking at her all the time. The shadow vanished in the dark whenever she tried to look at it. Off and on she finds that the front door is wide-open. The whole experience makes Beth exhausted.

She decided to live a routine life the next morning. But in the morning, she goes near the lake and follows some muddy footprints. She finds that the footprints come from the boat to her house. This is the boat in which Owen committed suicide. Therefore Beth feels a little bit uneasy. A thought started bothering Beth – are these Owen’s footprints? Is he coming back? She keeps thinking like this all day. Afterward, Beth didn’t discover any footprints when she returned home in the evening.

Beth was emotionally reliant on her husband Owen. It was challenging for her to tolerate him go. Beth feels so angry about Owen’s suicide, but she has to move on. So she decided to sell the house.

When she is packing Owen’s things, she discovers a diary where Owen draws all floor plans, interior designs of a house. She finds that this design is similar to their house. But a floor design is the reverse of their house. She became dazed when Owen noted in a page, “trick it, don’t listen to it.” It seems like Owen wanted to build another house but he never told her about it.

Read another similar movie No One Gets Out Alive (2021).

In the middle of the night, the music system turns on by itself and Beth wakes up. She tries to figure out what’s going on and suddenly her cell phone beeps for a text. A trembling hand she sees the text is from Owen’s number. Beth calls and it is Owen on the other side. He tells Beth to look at the lake from the window. She looks and sees Owen is standing there.

After that, she wakes up in the morning. It seems she was dreaming. For confirmation whether it was a dream or not Beth checks Owen’s phone. There is no recent message. Woefully, she obtains an unknown woman’s photo on Owen’s mobile.

Claire is Beth’s best friend. She shows that picture to Claire. But Claire tells Beth not to overthink this matter. Claire says, “Owen is gone, but you have a life to live.” Beth agrees with her and decides to depart from this house.

For air change, Claire invites Beth to hang out with her two colleagues. In the middle of the drink, Beth opened Owens’ note.

You were right.

There is nothing.

Nothing is after you.

You are safe now.

Claire comes to Beth’s house. Beth tells a story about her life. This is an incident when Beth was a teenager. It was an accident. Beth’s heartbeat was stopped for 4 minutes. She felt darkness and nothingness. Only Owen knew about it. Hence, Beth thinks that ‘nothing’ of the note is related to Beth.

Beth was sleeping. Suddenly a harsh noise wakened her up. She heard Owen inviting her outside the house. So she stepped outside. As she looked at the lake, she noticed a lot of girls jumping in. She also marked a house on the other side of the lake. At that time she heard a whisper “boat.” Maybe the soul of Owen. But Beth couldn’t achieve that. She follows Owen’s blood in the boat. Suddenly she hears the footsteps of someone in front of her. She tries to experience the presence, and she becomes senseless. Now, we recognize an invisible entity that takes Beth to the other side of the lake.

After waking up she notices that there is a house similar to Beth’s. Even the number of the house is the same but written in a reverse way just like a mirror image. In this house, Beth identifies those girls who jumped into the lake before. When she tries to enter the house, she enters her own house where she is sleeping.

Beth becomes demented completely. Therefore, she opens Owen’s laptop and figures out a lot of girls’ images. It seems like Owen was in a relationship with these girls. Beth feels so depressed.

At that point, Beth crossed the lake to find the second house. She is almost about to return at that time a direction sign drawn in the tree comes towards her eyes. She follows the directions and finally discovers the mysterious house. Beth discovers an odd statue inside the house. Beth thinks Owen may have gripped her here.

After returning home, she observes all the things Owen has done. At that time she found a book named “Caredroia.” In this book, she discovers a picture of a doll the same as the statue. It is a voodoo doll that could keep away all dark energies. The book is about how to confuse an evil spirit. Owen marked some lines too. It surprises Beth.

The next morning Beth goes to discover the bookseller. At the library, she identifies the girl on Owen’s phone. The name of the girl is Madelyne who accepts that she admires Owen. They date two or three times, but they have no physical relationship.

Beth returns home. She thinks about her husband’s dark sight. She decides not to think about them anymore and stays at Claire’s house for some days. But when she goes to pack everything, someone knocks on her door. Madelyne comes to see her. Madelyne tells Beth that a while ago she had a dream where she saw herself as Beth. She was feeling a little out of breath. Therefore, she came to confess Beth the absolute truth.

Madelyne equally tells Beth that she had come to this home with Owen a few days earlier. Owen brought her. They crossed the lake and headed home inside the forest by the lake. Owen’s behavior was terrible after he had gotten there. He displays a statue in Madelyne’s hand and tries to execute her. But when Madelyne forbade, he stopped and apologized. Owen’s talking while leaving that house was very confusing to Madelyne. Owen said he was extremely tired to work on it either. After that day she never met Owen again.

After Madelyne leaves Beth goes to the second house on the other side of the Lake. This time she finds many murdered bodies under the wood floor. Beth returned to her house and was about to contact Claire. At that moment she feels an invisible person is standing in front of her. She assumes this is Owen and becomes happy. But the shadow tells that he is not Owen.

Beth stares at the mirror and witnesses Owen with a girl. Owen injures her head hard on the mirror. Beth feels the impressions of cruelty and helplessness on Owen’s face. When Beth tries to escape, the invisible entity seizes her and hits her head in the mirror. Beth collapsed.

When waking up, Beth regards a reverse world in front of her where Owen is torturing a girl. The image Beth sees is of Owen with various girls in a separate room. This time the invisible entity attacks Beth and conveys her down.

Beth realizes it’s not Owen. He tells Beth, “I’ve met you before when you died. I’ve been with you since then.” Beth understands that this is what she told Owen about. This is “Nothing.” The dark entity was forcing Owen to execute Beth. But Owen tricks and ruins the girls who look like Beth in the house inside the forest. Owen commits suicide when he can’t stop the Dark Spirit even though. He thought it would make Beth safe, but he was wrong.

The spirit tries to tie Beth like a voodoo doll. It grasps her on the boat. We discover two moons in the sky. One was blood color, the other was common which symbolizes life and death.

In the real world, it’s morning. Claire comes to Beth’s house seeking Beth but can’t find her anywhere. At the last moment, Claire sees Beth in the boat in the middle of the lake through the window.

In contrast, Beth is controlled by the Dark Entity. We perceive her sitting with a gun in hand. In Owen’s figure, we see the Dark Spirit. He says that she consumes nothing here. She should go back to him. It is hypnotic. She hears Claire scream as she pulls the trigger. Claire saves Beth.

Beth now understands how to deal with ‘Nothing.’ She will live because Owen dedicated his life to keeping her alive.

The movie ends here.