The Lodge Explained (Ending: Are They Dead?)

The Lodge is a psychological thriller directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, who also brought us Goodnight Mommy. The movie is praised by critics and called a clever new wave horror film by several viewers. If you’ve seen the film and are looking for answers, read the detailed description, parsing, and explanation of the plot and ending of The Lodge.

This analysis is done by the Cheap essay writing service experts, who have written many film reviews.

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Contents

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

The Lodge: What is it about?

Six months after their mother’s suicide, Aiden and Mia, their father Richard and his girlfriend, Grace, go on Christmas vacation to a remote country house. There, Richard leaves the three to get to know each other and have a good time together, and he goes away to work on something. After the children and the girl are isolated, strange things happen at the lodge. Before you proceed, be warned, spoilers ahead!

The Lodge: What really happened? (Plot Explained)

The Lodge: Mia an Aiden plotting on Grace

There is no mysticism in the film, just plain human cruelty. Aidan and Mia, Richard’s children, decide to avenge the death of their mother by punishing Grace. First, they gather information on Grace. They learn from the news that she is the daughter of the founder of a Christian sect. They discover that, at the age of twelve, she was the sole survivor of a cult whose members had committed group suicide – her father decided that Grace would carry the doctrine forward. As a result, Aiden and Mia carefully watch the ceremony video (the big question is who put such a thing out in the open) and devise a plan.

When the kids are alone with Grace in the cut-off house in the middle of a snowy wasteland, they set things up as if some damned thing is starting to happen. Aiden and Mia hide Grace’s pills (antidepressants), warm clothes, and food and turn the electricity off. Aiden tells Grace that he had a nightmare – in his dream, all three of them suffocated and died. He further elaborates that his vision is true, and they are actually dead.

Subsequently, the children continue to convince Grace that they are all dead and in purgatory. Grace’s father’s voice keeps calling her to repent of her sins (it’s actually a recording), and Aidan pretends to hang himself to show that they can’t die because they’re already dead. Grace constantly stumbles upon dubious but creepy evidence of Aiden’s words, like the fake newspaper article.

Grace wanders around the house and tries to find a way out but keeps getting lost and returning. Several times she stumbles upon a strange gatehouse – the building looks like a cross. This is a hallucination because she is off her meds. Grace also sleepwalks and sometimes confuses reality with these hallucinations.

How does the dog die in The Lodge?

Aiden and Mia don’t kill the dog. This was an accident, the door is left open, and the dog goes out and freezes to death. But by now, the children’s antics finally shake Grace’s psyche, which has been crippled by her childhood traumas. The death of her beloved dog becomes the final straw; Grace truly believes she’s dead and is in purgatory.

Aidan and Mia try to confess that they made the whole thing up to scare Grace, but nothing helps.

Why does “The Lodge” continually show a dollhouse?

Metaphors? No, more than that. The dollhouse in the film is much like the house where the main characters get stuck on Christmas Eve. And the toy is shown all the time. No surprise, almost at the very end, it turns out that Aiden and Mia used the dollhouse to plan all of Grace’s bullying carefully.

Shortly before the climax, Richard finds a toy child that appears to have hung himself, an apparent reference to Aiden’s prank. Realizing that something weird is happening, Richard takes off work and drives to the ill-fated house as fast as he can.

Richard’s Demise

After a session of self-torture and penance for her sins, Grace decides to undergo a final divine test. When Richard returns to the house, she tries to shoot herself – arguing that it is time to shed her old shell and be reborn. She seems to believe she will go to heaven afterwards.

Richard tries to persuade Grace not to do it but to no avail. The girl shoots, but the first fire doesn’t go off, fortifying the fantasy that Grace is already dead. She then decides it is time to help Richard cleanse himself of his sins – and shoots him; Richard dies. Grace decides that Richard simply isn’t ready yet for heaven. Aiden and Mia try to escape but can’t – the car is stuck in the snow.

The Lodge Ending Explained: What happens to the kids? What does Grace do?

The Lodge Climax

The ending of the movie The Lodge shows us that Grace has completely lost her mind. She follows her father’s footsteps, organizes another ritualistic group suicide, and prepares to kill the children and herself.

The Lodge is as depressing and sad as possible. The point is that Aidan and Mia went overboard, intimidating his father’s new wife-to-be, Grace, who has gone completely insane. They pushed a mentally fractured person over the fence, and now, there’s nothing they can do about it; the chain of events that follows is unstoppable.

The final scene shows all four sitting around a table – the dead Richard, the crazy Grace, and the terrified Aiden and Mia. A hint of the last meal? Grace hums a lullaby, then duct tapes her mouth shut with SIN written on it. She also tapes the mouths of the terrified children at the table. Then we are shown a revolver lying on the table before cutting to credits. The kids push a mentally unstable woman over the edge, and they seal their (and their father’s) doom.

And that’s that. What were your thoughts on the plot and ending of the movie The Lodge? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.