Death Whisperer Ending Explained- Who Is Possessed, Why Were The Trees Special, And Is The Spirit A Pop?

When good stories mix culture, folklore, and traditional horror tropes, the results are always good. The combination offers a fresh take on old favorites. The stories are injected with creativity, and the scares are unexpected because they are told through a new lens. The Thai box office smash is a prime example of that. With The Exorcist: Believer, The Omen prequel, and Late Night With The Devil renewing interest in the possession subgenre, Death Whisperer lands on Netflix at a great time. The film is full of unexplained supernatural happenings, and the ending is sure to have left you wondering. Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of Death Whisperer, the Thai spirit Pop, who is possessed at the end, and what we can see in Death Whisperer 2.

The story begins with a girl named Nart, who died mysteriously after being sick for a long time. Little is known about Nart, except she was a classmate of the three girls, Yam, Yad, and Yee, who we follow for the remainder of the film. The three girls come from a larger family of farmers. Two older brothers live on the farm, while a third lives on his own and has dreams of becoming a soldier. The possession begins as most do in horror movies, innocently. A school-age ghost story and whispers of scary things in the woods lure a trio of young girls to a strange tree and a ghoulish woman leering at them from the shadows. Before they know it they are being haunted by something strange that wants their soul.

Yam has been marked for possession, and she quickly begins acting strangely. She eats raw meat, lashes out verbally at her sisters, and eventually attacks them. Once she begins acting odd, everything escalates quickly. The creepy woman shows up frequently, scaring them and seeming to be able to control their minds, rendering them paralyzed on occasion. Yam sleepwalks and ghosts are around every corner. Things aren’t helped by the brothers constantly fighting, either. Yos blames Yak for leaving the farm and resents his ability to follow his dreams. Yak loves all of his family and feels guilty but needed to find his own path in life. Knowing Yam is very sick, they all vow to find a cure and keep everyone safe from whatever lurks in the darkness.

Before they can do anything, however, the woman sneaks into their house, rips one of her teeth out, and eats it. They force her out of the house, but the damage is done. It is then that they learn the old woman is not a ghost but a woman named Chuay who recently moved to the area. She is rumored to have practiced black magic that she couldn’t control. It drove her insane, and she has been haunting the woods ever since.

Everyone is terrified of her, which is why the previous farm workers refused to stay. Yak’s friend Sarge tells him there are spirits that hunt in the night for bodies to possess. When they find one, they steal a tooth and take over. That is why Chuay killed herself. Her body was no longer needed. Sarge tells Yak he thinks it is too late for Yam but hopes he is wrong.

The ending of Death Whisperer

When the spirits come for Yam, everyone begins hurting themselves, so the whispers of the spirits do not affect them. Yad manages to protect herself, but the brothers are not as lucky. All three of them fall asleep, leaving Yee and Yad to fend for themselves. Yad manages to wake up Yak, who wakes the other two, and they send Yad into the bedroom. The spirit plays tricks on all of them by making Yak think he shot his mother and chasing him through the field. While the boys are outside, Yam tries to break into the bedroom. They manage to keep her out, and everyone survives the night.

The next day, Mr. Puth comes to offer guidance. He is a spiritual leader who has come to perform an exorcism. Despite their best efforts, it doesn’t go particularly well. Yam convinces her mother that everyone is trying to hurt her, and their father tries to rip her away by beating her with a stick. The group is forced to retreat and come up with a new plan. Mr. Puth tells them they need to cut down the massive bamboo tree on their property, and when they do, they find a collection of human organs, including a still-beating heart. Before they can burn it, Yam finds them and swears to stop them.

Mr. Puth continues the exorcism while the brothers burn the tree and all of the organs. Mr. Puth then instructs Yak to take Yam to the hospital. The group splits up, with the majority going with Yak to take Yam to the hospital. Along the way, they see spirits everywhere who try to stop them. Mr. Puth tells them to be strong no matter what happens. Sarge tells them if they close their eyes and don’t speak, the spirits can’t affect them. Yak has to drive through a line of his family and shoot at them with sacred bullets in order to proceed.

Yam begins whispering to them all and everyone falls asleep but Yak and Mr. Puth. She crashes their car, and Yak wakes up to find Yam dragging everyone’s body out of the car. The spirit took his gun during the crash and now threatens everyone, including her host body. She taunts Yak, saying she loves her current family because it is more fun than any other she has devoured before. She shoots Sarge and then aims at his siblings. Yak offers himself to save the others, but before he is shot, he stabs her, and Yam vomits up blood.

From out of the woods, a hag emerges, and Yak shoots her. We next see Yam recovering in the hospital with no memory of what happened. Just when it seems like she has been saved and the family has survived, Yam pulls a tooth out of her mouth and tells Yad to say goodbye to her sister. She dies, and the family mourns her. Yak then cuts down and burns a shrine by the large tree that the girls first saw at the beginning of Death Whisperer. He vows that this isn’t over as he watches it burn with the spirit watching.

How is the spirit still in Yam, and is Yee the next victim in Death Whisperer?

It is likely that the spirit has either already taken another host, which is why it no longer needs Yam or simply knows Yam will no longer be a viable body. Mr. Puth told Yak that the spirit is highly manipulative and will trick them constantly. It controls their minds and makes them see things that aren’t real. The spirit never left Yam and only made it appear she did, or it jumped back into her after being forced out by the stabbing. We know that the spirit is not in Yad or Yak but it could be in any of them and could jump in and out of them all at different times.

It is possible Yee has been the true target all along and Yam was just another appetizer. The hag pointed at Yee first, and she was the first to see the old woman. She was also left alone tons of times when she could have been possessed or doing nefarious things. She may have been the one calling all the shots all along and Yam just did her bidding. Based on how Nart and Yam died however, it can be assumed Yee was not possessed at the same time as Yam, but she is likely the next target.

Why was Yam chosen?

Mr. Puth explains Yam was chosen becaise she was special. The spirit likes worthy prey. It will take lesser minds, but that is only to make it stronger. It prefers people who are special because they offer something unique. Yam was special because she almost died as a young baby. She had malaria, and her mother thought she would die, but not only didn’t she die, she seemed almost immune to disease after that. Unfortunately, she was not immune to the spirits, and even though everyone thought she was saved, she died in the same way that Nart did.

The spirits also liked the entire family because all of them were strong-willed and devoted to each other. Torture made them more fun because it hurt them so much. Their caring dynamic and willingness to sacrifice themselves for each other made them entertaining to the spirits.

Is the spirit a Pop?

Also known as a Phi Pop, this Thai spirit is a cannibalistic spirit that consumes its victims from the inside out. Pop’s have been known as both male or female spirits depending on the story and the region. The Pop in Death Whisperer could be a male pretending to be a female or a female spirit moving from body to body eating raw flesh. This is why there was a huge collection of human viscera in the bamboo tree. It is essentially the equivalent of storing food up for the winter. This was the spirit’s hibernation cave that could be used to refuel and rest during the day before hunting down humans at night. The only way to kill a Pop is through a whirlpool dance performed by a Shaman. The Pop becomes mesmerized by the dance and walks toward it. They fall into the circular dance and get trapped.

The bamboo tree

The spirits that live in the tree have been controlling all of them for some time. This caused the father to become violent, the mother to behave irrationally, and aided in Yam’s possession. Chuay likely put all the organs in the tree when she moved there. It was her totem and the way to get closer and control the entire family. Like the large tree where the girls first saw the hag, it acts as a place of power that is used to channel its energy.

Visually, Death Whisperer is reminiscent of Indonesian horror films like May The Devil Take You and The Queen Of Black Magic. It is gory, scary at times, and wildly fun. As the first Thai movie shot in IMAX, it is one of a kind. A sequel has already been announced, and we shouldn’t have to wait too long before finding out the fate of Yad, Yak, Yee, and the rest.