Father Of Flies Explained- The Ghost In The Bedroom, The Witch, And What Happened To Michael?

Slow-burn family dramas with creepy maternal figures, absentee dads, and isolated settings are horror mainstays. There is a great deal to mine from grief, anger, and trauma. Ben Charles Edwards’ Father Of Flies uses a moody atmosphere, a sepia color palette, and great performances to raise the stakes with punches of supernatural ambiguity and smart costume design.

We have all seen films where a woman is thrust into a role she is ill-equipped or unwilling to assume. Goodnight Darling features Florence Pugh navigating a misogynistic landscape of 50’s pastel perfection. The Lodge gave us Riley Keough desperately trying to hold the pieces of stepmotherhood together when her new husband leaves her with his children at Christmas. It’s a good setup filled with spaces and shadowy corners waiting to be filled with weirdness and danger. Father Of Flies subverts the typical evil mother and evil kids scenario to deliver a punchy final act twist that is as devastating as it is confusing. Here’s what you need to know about the ending of Father Of Flies, the witch, the ghost, and the karmic ending.

A vulnerable young boy is convinced a supernatural force had moved in with his father’s new wife when his mother was shoved out. Teenage daughter Donna is angry and resentful of this further intrusion, while her father Richard, the late Nicholas Tucci, is concerned about his former wife’s erratic behavior and new wife’s happiness. When his ex-wife shows up at the house unexpectedly one night, she sets in motion a series of events that will haunt the family forever.

The ending of Father Of Flies

Fearing for her life, Coral stabbed Donna. After stabbing her, Coral called Richard and told him what had happened. He drove home and, in his panic, hit Coral with his car when she ran out in front of him. While all this was happening, Michael was inside his room and dragged under his bed, trying to save his mother. An unseen force pulled her. The elderly woman next door, who may or may not have been a witch, warned Michael to go into the light and avoid the dark. She told him not to look at it or let it touch him. The darkness she was referring to was probably what was taking his mother. Michael was innocent, having been killed by his mother, but she had sins to atone for. When he couldn’t leave her behind, he also succumbed to the darkness.

One of the biggest complaints about Father Of Flies is the confusing menagerie of scares that often are disjointed and don’t make any sense until they are given perspective in the final moments. Creepy nightmare scenes mixed with real-time creeps only made sense when faced with the horrifying final twist. Michael has been dead since early in the film. His mother came to the house to see the children and was turned away by their father. Richard was worried about what she was capable of. It turns out he was right to be concerned about her. In the final moments, as he drives home, we get a flashback to that night.

Instead of Michael’s mother committing suicide in their garage by herself, she brought Michael into the car too. All of the scenes of Michael were from a ghost’s perspective, and Coral’s who didn’t know how to process what she was experiencing. She was distant towards Michael because she didn’t know he was still around. Coral wasn’t ignoring him. She just couldn’t see him. Making matters worse, all of the moving objects, phones off the hook, and freaky noises were Michael unintentionally haunting Coral. He also didn’t realize that he was dead and, as a result, was desperate to reach any of the people who might help him.

One of the clues is the pale face Donna catches on her phone. That is Michael. All of the other things were Michael trying to talk to his mother and him moving objects as any living child would. Little by little, these things couldn’t be ignored, and they drove Coral insane. Of course, it didn’t help that Richard was away a lot and preoccupied with his own grief.

Why did Coral stab Donna?

Donna and Coral had a problematic relationship. Donna thought Coral was self-absorbed and strange. The tragedy of the night her mother tried to break into the house affected her more than she admits. Coral was losing her mind having been driven to the breaking point by Michael, who had no idea he was haunting her. The more Michael tried to reach out to his mother and anyone else who might help him, the worse the haunting became. The irony is Coral thinks it is Richard’s ex-wife who is haunting her. Finally, having snapped, Coral snapped and accidentally chased Donna and stabbed her. She didn’t want to hurt her, but she became convinced she was out to get her and her unborn baby. She might also have confused Donna with a ghost.

What was with the witch next door?

After the twist is revealed at the end of Father Of Flies, the neighbor’s role becomes more apparent. She was able to see Michael because she was able to see paranormal things. The old woman knows Michael is dead but believes he must figure this out himself. She gives him advice but can not help him. Unfortunately, although she realizes that Michael is stuck between the world of the living and the dead, she is powerless to lead him to safety. It looks like now he is stuck in the darkness with his mother, doomed to forever haunt the living.

The neighbor told everyone that the things we do in life must be accounted for in death. Aside from Michael and possibly Donna, everyone else has done things they aren’t proud of. Richard was probably neglectful of his ex-wife and definitely feels guilt over Michael’s death. Coral feels like an imposter in her new home and feels guilt over what happened to Michael, even though she doesn’t show it as keenly as Richard, who has constant nightmares about his death. This is what the scene with Michael and the monster in his room. All of that was a fever dream of guilt and pain. There was never anything in Michael’s room before his death, and after, Richard had no idea he was there. Neither Coral nor Michael experienced anything from Michael’s mother.

In the end, Father Of Flies is a broken family in crisis. It is a skewering indictment of parental failing and childhood innocence lost. The unsettling costume design, a killer bedroom scare, and a fantastic twist combine to make a good movie. It is available to stream everywhere right now, including on Amazon Prime, which is winding down its Prime Early Access Sale.