Name: You Should Have Left (2020) Ending Explained
Rating: 4.3

You should have left is a 2020 psychological horror film starring Kavin Bacon, Amanda Seyfried etc. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers that play with perception, reality, and guilt, you might have enjoyed the journey of a haunted family trying to survive a stay in a creepy modern house in Wales. But what exactly happened in the last act of the film? Did the characters find redemption or damnation? Was the house a manifestation of their fears or a punishment for their sins? And what does the ending say about the nature of time, memory, and morality? In this post, I will try to unravel the ambiguous and unsettling finale and offer my own interpretation of its themes and implications. Spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, prepare for some spine-chilling revelations!

You Should Have Left Ending Explained & Plot Story in Details

* * * Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t seen the movie yet, turn back now! * * *

Theo, who is a rich banker, wakes up having a nightmare about her young daughter Ella. His beautiful young wife Suzana who is an actress is quite an amicable, fun loving, caring person. We see Suzana is swimming in the pool while Theo is just sitting cosily in a chair. When Suzana tells Theo to take a refreshing splash, Theo apprises her of a phone call. Suzana checks it out and sarcastically calls Josh, her co actor, a fool.

Next day She gets ready to go to the shooting spot where she has to make some intimate shots with her male co actor. Theo goes to the spot and asks permission to enter but the production boy recognises him, so he doesn’t allow him to enter without the higher authority’s consent.

They come to a beautiful village in England to enjoy some moments where they get a luxury house to live in. Suzana and Ella seem so happy thinking about living in such a massive house. Suzana shouts out to Ella to tell she has got a room of Connecticut size. Ella was so excited having a big room to sleep. But when Ella is making a dog shape with hand lying down and is about to sleep, she notices a shadow on the wall. At that moment Theo comes and we realise that shadow was not Theo.

Theo talks with her wife sweetly and says he has downloaded every episode of her favourite series. Before that Theo walks down to check the lights and he notices that all the lights are on and there are mysterious rooms linked with each other. When he enters a room, there is always a door which confirms the existence of another room. When Theo gets down the clock shows the time 10ঃ35 but when returns it shows 3:35. But Theo can’t realise he has spent 5 hours switching the lights off.

Read more, Gone Girl (2014) Ending Explained

Next morning Theo again has bad dreams. He wakes up and gets a note beside his bed. He grabs his diary and starts writing about his mental state. On the other hand Suzana is asked by Ella why everyone hates Daddy. Suzana informs Daddy was married to a woman who died in a bathtub. She took a lot of sleeping pill and got drowned. After that incident everyone accused him for her departure.

Theo goes to a supershop to buy things and everyone asks about Stetler. Theo gets no idea who he is. When Theo returns Ella expresses consolation to him. He becomes so pissed off as he finds Ella knows everything. He confronts Suzana to tell what exactly she has told her. She tries the phone and makes him understand that it was time to let her know. They decided that they would tell Ella when she was seven. Theo misunderstands her and Suzana calls Theo passive aggressive for making things complicated.

When Suzana goes to take a shower, Theo checks on her laptop and phone to clear his doubt and finds nothing. He gets down to the reading room and writes about his mental health and suddenly hears a banging sound. He walks down all the way to the corridor and checks the underground areas and feels like some shadowy figures are roaming around and suddenly a picture of him is captured. He follows the click and finds a lot of photos scattered. He finds Ella’s doll fallen down the floor and gets so scared thinking Ella is in danger.

Later Ella is tracked down to the room beside the corridor. He feels as if he were in a dream. He starts to slap him and eventually slits his throat and wakes up from sleep.

He tells Suzana about his dream and takes her to the mysterious rooms and shows her where he found Ella’s body. As they all are having bad dreams everyday after coming here, they decide to leave the house. They pack everything up Suz goes out and plays with Ella. At that moment Theo sees her phone ringing in front of him and watches her talking over another phone in her hand. He gets himself in front of her and asks her about his doubt and Suzana acknowledges. He tells her to leave the house because he needs a night to himself and refuses to be with her.

Theo and Ella are all by themselves. Theo sees two watery portions are not being mixed up so he takes the triangular thing to measure the house and he finds the house is bigger inside than the outside. It’s pretty weird. When Ella gets inside to put on her jacket, she loses herself. Theo gets in to find her but he can’t trace her. Suddenly Theo realises the house is shifting its rooms from one place to another by itself. Theo tries many ways, the house is making puzzles. Then at some moment he reaches out to an old corridor.

In the meantime Ella comes into a room where she sees someone dipped in a bathtub. She gets scared and screams, Theo breaks into a locked room and finds Ella. They decide not to leave each others company and Theo calls out Suzana for help. Theo calls the shopkeeper from the other day and gets asked to use the triangle. Theo gets to know it is the devil’s house. So he will never understand how it works. Theo gets scared and gets Ella out of the house. Ella sees someone watching them from the window and its figure is kinda similar to Theo.

They walk for a long time to get a taxi but they can’t get any help or any way to get rid of this house and eventually they return. Theo thinks they should stay in the house otherwise they will be frozen out of cold.

Theo wakes up hearing water dripping sound and reaches out to that bathtub. Then a devilish form attacks him and throws dirty water upon him. He escapes and reaches another room where Stetler is waiting for him. He asks him where Ella is and pleads for letting her go. But he says as long as Ella is with you she will be harmed. So if you want her peace then let her go.

In the meantime Suzana comes and wants Theo back in her life. But Theo apprises of his incapacity and says he loves her. At that moment Theo confesses that he killed her wife, he hated her and let her drown. That’s why this house won’t allow him to leave.

Why does that house not allow Theo Conroy to leave?

Theo used to hate his first wife but he didn’t leave his wife. He became the cause of her frustration and she got depressed and took sleeping pills. He saw that but didn’t save her. He let her drown. Since he commited a crime he becomes the shadow of this house. This house is a mysterious house who selects those clients who had the chance to escape the sin but they didn’t. So it allows them to enter it and keeps them forever. There is no chance to escape. So Theo can’t either.

Who is Stetler?

He can be anyone. Anyone who commits sin, the people whom the house chose to stay in is called Stetler.

We can see here a man can be the weirdest but with his daughter he is the sweetest. If someone is making your life measurable, then let her go. Don’t keep your grudge inside you, express it otherwise someday someone will whisper inside your sleep, ‘You should have left’.