In My Mother’s Skin Ending Explained: Exploring themes of hope in the times of hardships and the complex nature of despair and desperation, this Filipino folk-horror film is written and directed by Kenneth Dagatan and stars Beauty Gonzalez and Felicity Kyle Napuli as a mother-daughter duo caught within the horrific times of World War II and desperate for help only to be faced with a flesh-eating fairy who tricks young Tala. The film has a runtime of 97 minutes.
In My Mother’s Skin Trailer
In My Mother’s Skin Ending Explained
Who is the fairy?
The fairy is a representation of Tala’s desperation and a need for hope in the times of need. As the food in her house slowly dwindles down and her father doesn’t return after two weeks, she grows more and more desperate, espeically when her mother also gets violently sick. She wonders out loud several times what will happen if Romualdo doesn’t come back or if Ligaya falls more sick, insinuating that she’s concerned and stressed about taking care of herself and her brother without her parents.
The fairy comes at a time when Tala is desperate for any form of assistance and is wearing similar garbs as Mother Mary in her home altar. She disguises her true self as a trustworthy and believable figure, Tala’s fairy godmother in a way. Her glowing, otherworldly figure draws Tala in, who is quick to put her faith in her after being decieved by her calm demeanour and disguised exterior.
Where does Tala walk off in the end?
In the end, Tala decides to take a chance on her own instead of falling for the fairy’s deception. She doesn’t eat the glowing fruit that the fairy gives her and lets it rot, instead opting to trust her own instincts out in the world after going through the tragedy that wiped her entire family out.
What would have happened if Tala ate the fruit given by the fairy?
In the scene before Tala meets the fairy, we see a similarly small child lying motionless on the floor of the shack in the woods with a bunch of cicadas feeding off of her. She also had a similar looking fruit in her hand, but the only difference was that that fruit was bitten into. It’s possible that the fruit is poisoned and is another way for the fairy to kill off the one living member of the family and claim their soul and flesh as well.
Did Romualdo steal the Japanese gold?
In the end, it is revealed that Romualdo did steal the Japanese gold and it was hidden under Mother Mary’s altar. He gives in and tells the Japanese of the gold’s location in the last scene, wherein he comes back home to see the carnage in his house and his family dead. The Japanese soldier, after getting his hands on the gold, proceeds to then shoot Romualdo, taking away the last of Tala’s family.
Why does the fairy target Tala?
The fairy targets the weak and vulnerable who are seeking for guidance or someone to believe in during their times of desperation. The fairy is well-versed in this weakness of humans and targets those who lose their way and end up at her place. She creates this false exterior and uses her deceptive powers to lure such people in, giivng them false hope that she will cure all of their problems if they do one thing – release a cicada trapped in a bottle.
Of course, that is all a lie. The fairy uses the cicada to burrow inside its victims and uses the body as a host to eat the person’s flesh from the inside out. When there is nothing else to take from teh body, the cicada leaves its host, leaving it dead.
Why does the fairy give Tala the glowing orb after her family’s death?
The fairy’s last victim was meant to be Tala after she ravaged her entire family. She wanted to use the fruit to possibly kill her and take her flesh and soul as well, but Tala, after seeing teh carnage that the fairy caused to the rest of her family, refuses to trust her anymore and throws the fruit away, which eventually turns into a rotten one instead of the glowing orb that we see previously. This indicates that the fairy was lying once again and a bite of the fruit would definitely have killed Tala.
What are the baby birds?
The baby birds probably represent the soul of the people that the cicada inhabits and the host discards them after every kill or so. It might represent parts of the soul leaving the body after taking a life which the fairy then feats on. It might also represent the victim’s innocence that comes out when they take another person’s life and that the fairy devours.
Have other interpretations of the themes mentioned in the horror film? Tell us in the comments below!
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She reminded me of a Venus Fly Trap