The Blumhouse horror movie There’s Something Wrong With The Children has a shocking twist ending, but the movie’s story does add up on a re-watch. There’s Something Wrong With The Children is the latest in a long line of horror movies featuring creepy children. In this Blumhouse horror movie, Ben and Margaret join their friends Ellie and Thomas for a secluded getaway, only for things to go terribly wrong when Thomas and Ellie’s children Spencer and Lucy begin to exhibit strange behavior after a hike to a strange set of ruins.

After the hike, Ben and Margaret look after Spencer and Lucy so Ellie and Thomas can rekindle their relationship. However, the next morning the kids are gone. Ben returns to the ruins and sees them jump into a dark abyss. The 2023 horror movie shows the glowing “bright place” at the bottom of the pit, which seems to draw them into its depths. A traumatized Ben returns to tell the others that the children are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at the end of There’s Something Wrong With The Children, only for Spencer and Lucy to appear alive and well at the cabins.

What Happens In There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s Ending

Ben, Spencer, And Lucy Have Been Replaced By Doppelgängers

Ben fruitlessly attempts to explain what happened at the end of There’s Something Wrong With The Children while the deeply creepy Spencer and Lucy start messing with his head. Margaret, Ellie, and Thomas accuse Ben of making this up or having hallucinations, and things go from bad to worse when an altercation between Ben and Spencer ends with the child choking to death. While Thomas calls the police, Ben returns to the ruins.

Then, in a twist that calls to mind The Children of the Corn, Spencer revives himself and brutally kills his mother, Ellie, while Lucy attacks her father, Thomas, in the woods, incapacitating him. All too late, Margaret realizes Ben was telling the truth about the children. Margaret finds Ellie’s body and is pursued through the remote cabins by Spencer and Lucy, whose monstrous, giant-insect-like true forms are briefly glimpsed in shadows.

Margaret manages to escape the kids but is thwarted by Ben’s return. At first, she is delighted to see her partner, but soon Margaret realizes that Ben has also jumped into the pit in the ruins and been replaced by a creepy doppelgänger. Margaret stabs Ben and flees, aided by a barely alive Thomas. Margaret makes it out onto an open road and drives for freedom, only for Spencer, Lucy, and Ben to stand in her way. Margaret prepares to run them over as There’s Something Wrong With The Children ends.

What Was Wrong With There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s Children?

The Nature Of The Children’s Transformation Is Left Ambiguous

While other chilling horror movies like The Exorcist used demonic possession to explain their monstrous child and The Omen’s killer kid was justified by a familial link with the devil himself, There’s Something Wrong With The Children doesn’t offer any similarly easy answers. The bright place in the ruins seems to hypnotize the children, leading them to jump to their death into the pit.

However, it is not clear whether the beastly doppelgängers that torment Margaret and Ben are the same children after undergoing a psychical transformation or new monsters that mimic the form of the children (and later, Ben). The monsters speak like the children, implying they could be the real Spencer and Lucy.

Was Ben Replaced In There’s Something Wrong With The Children?

It’s Unlikely Ben Was Transformed

Ben’s doppelgänger also tells Margaret that he wants to start a family with her near the end of There’s Something Wrong With The Children (presumably so that these monsters can spread their influence further). While the real Ben was good with kids, he was also reluctant to settle down and start a family with Margaret before his trip to the ruins in the horror movie.

As such, there is good reason to believe that There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s monsters just took the form of their human victims, instead of using the original humans as hosts. Ultimately, There’s Something Wrong With The Children does not offer an answer to this ambiguous conundrum.

Why Did Ben Return to the Bright Place?

Ben Was Killed By His Curiosity

When Ben saw the children jump into the abyss in the There’s Something Wrong With The Children Ending, he was clearly traumatized by witnessing their death. This trauma was only compounded by his terrified confusion when he returned to find them alive and well at the cabins minutes later. So, why would Ben have returned to the scene of their deaths after Spencer choked, and his parents called the police?

The answer is that Ben wanted to understand what happened in the Bright Place, and he felt certain that something contained in the horror movie ruins would explain what was going on. Ironically, he was technically correct. By returning to the ruins, Ben was tempted into jumping into the abyss. Thus, Ben found out whatever the children learned down there. However, the character’s discovery came at the cost of his life.

The supernatural threat contained by the Bright Place is never explicitly revealed onscreen (although giant bugs, whether they are alien or earthbound, appear to be the culprits). Ben does discover whatever this threat is, but his curiosity cost him his life and allowed the unseen monsters to ᴀssimilate him like There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s villains took Spencer and Lucy earlier. This reinforces the real meaning of There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s ending.

What There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s Ending Really Means

There’s Something Wrong With The Children Is A Warning Against Conformity

The There’s Something Wrong With The Children ending, like the Blumhouse horror movie Sick’s ending, is about the dangers of mindless conformity. Specifically, There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s ending sees Margaret alone escape death, since she is the only character who is sure of her convictions. Margaret does not want children and won’t be wheedled into confirming to a lifestyle that is not for her, despite the persistent pressures placed on her by Ellie and Thomas.

As a result, Margaret refuses to return to the ruins and doesn’t look into the Bright Place. Margaret succeeds in pushing Spencer and Lucy into the Bright Place, and she briefly escapes Ben. However, in There’s Something Wrong With The Children’s ending, she is forced to choose between joining the seemingly unharmed Spencer, Lucy, and Ben’s creepy “family” or mowing them down with her car.

Unlike Ben, who was uncertain about his convictions throughout the horror movie (which ultimately proved his downfall), Margaret drives straight into them in the There’s Something Wrong With The Children ending, proving that the horror movie heroine is unafraid of saving herself and refuses to be dragged into an evil plan she doesn’t agree with against her will.

How The There’’s Something Wrong With The Children Ending Was Received

The Audience Felt Disappointed By The Movie

While critics were mixed, with a slightly positive 61% Rotten Tomatoes score, the audience seemed to hate the film. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes was a low 26%, the IMDb score was a low 5.0, and the Letterboxd rating was a low 2.2. One fan wrote on RT that, “The disjointed and poorly written nature of “There’s Something Wrong with the Children” made it a frustrating and exhausting viewing experience. It failed to engage audiences and left a disappointing and unsatisfying impression.“

For professional critics, Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times said that the film had an interesting message that was quickly ignored. He wrote “at the center of “There’s Something Wrong With the Children,” a supernatural horror film that’s also about the gulf that develops between old friends when some of them become parents.” However, he said that message was pᴀssed over for “scenes too blandly reminiscent of dozens of other “cabin in the woods” movies.“

In a Reddit thread, one viewer said the There’s Something Wrong With The Children ending ruined the movie for them. Redditor @Winbly512 wrote, “I thought the ending was bad. I hate when they leave them half finished. Where had the dad been all this time? How did the enтιтies get to the road so fast. They never showed them being faster, although the wings may indicate flight.​​​​​​​.. What could have been an interesting folk horror becomes mired in domestic schlock.“