Posthouse Ending Explained: A troubled film editor finds himself in the grasp of an ancient evil from folklore while he tries to restore a forgotten silent horror film.
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Posthouse Movie Writer & Director
Nikolas Red
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Posthouse Netflix Cast
Sid Lucero, Bea Binene, Rafa Siguion-Reyna, Carlos Siguion-Reyna, John Patrick Petilo
The film has a runtime of 94 minutes.
Posthouse Ending Explained
The film starts with Cyril giving an interview surrounding his restoration of an old silent film surrounding the Manananggal, a mythical creature in folklore. He is editing the film while grappling with accusations surrounding Ang Manananggal and its original creator, H.N. Anderson, after the lead actress of the film, Stella Estuar, accused him of some heinous stuff, only to retract her statement and eventually take her own life. Cyril himself is going through some ups and downs after his dream is shattered, and he now works as an editor for commercials.
Unhappy with the direction his life has taken, he pours his efforts into restoring the silent film, hoping to get back some respect and live his dreams. The restoration project, however, reveals that the film might have been cursed and things slowly start to get more and more treacherous.
Is the Manananggal real?
The film works as a metaphor through the Manananggal. It works as a symbol of inherited trauma, generational guilt, buried secrets and the weight of legacy. The restored film symbolises the lost history that Cyril was able to recover, but, of course, that has its consequences. He brings the past that was once forgotten, denied and buried to light, but the good also holds hands with some terrible secrets that haunt Cyril. Although the film wants to showcase the Manananggal as real, heavier subjects are hiding behind the terrifying creature that wreaks through Cyril’s life and psyche.
Does Cyril become the Manananggal?
Obsessed with finishing the restoration and bringing his family’s shining legacy to relevancy once more, Cyril gets deeper and deeper into the Manananggal’s demented plans. It showcases how deep one’s traumas live within oneself and how one is forced to embody this trauma within. It doesn’t just disappear by destruction or repression; it lives within us and slowly turns us into “something” we possibly don’t want to be. Beneath the Manananggal’s mask, thus, we still see Cyril, but he has been corrupted by his own past and has become a distorted version of himself.
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What does Rea’s reaction mean in the end?
Rea manages to burn the physical reels of the film, hoping that it destroys the Manananggal, but eventually realises that the film has been uploaded on social media. It states the fact that the curse, thus, is still alive and is now spreading through digital means. The sequence indicates how, regardless of how hard we try to destroy our past, it still lives on through us in some way or another. Trauma is forwarded from one generation to the next if we don’t pay attention, and can cause equal damage if not controlled from the first instance.
The film brings forth some interesting questions and leaves us with an ambiguous ending to make us wonder what happens next.
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Also Read: Posthouse Review: A Unique and Impactful Horror Treat For Fans