Shudder’s Son Explained- The Demon Astaroth And That Bleak Ending

Son from Shudder is an effective creeper that keeps you guessing clear to the end with impactful visuals and one very disturbing kid.

Have there ever been four scarier words than, “I love you, Mom?” Usually, those sweet words instill warm fuzzy feelings of parental affection. In Son, they only instill a deep sense of unease. Throughout almost the entire hour and forty minutes run time, you don’t know for sure what is going on. There are several misdirects as you would expect in this type of movie. Luckily, Son delivers an effectively unnerving ending that fans of Let Me In might appreciate.

Shudder’s latest acquisition that premiers July 8th is an interesting take on the Rosemary’s Baby theme. What are you capable of as a parent? Anna or Laura, as she is calling herself now, lives a relatively quiet life in a small town with her young son David. That is until someone breaks into her suburban house, intent on kidnapping him. The kidnappers mysteriously disappear as miraculously as they appeared, but that’s when the trouble starts. David becomes very ill and acts strangely. When the doctors can not find reasons for his illness, Anna takes matters into her own hands to cure her son no matter the cost. She shows a mother’s love has no boundaries.

Andi Matichak(Laura) does an admirable job keeping things ambiguous as we watch her start to unravel. Is she scared for a good reason, or does she need a doctor? Does her son David. His behavior is undoubtedly erratic, and the kid clearly has something very wrong with him. You don’t know clear until the end, though, if what you see is the perspective of a flawed viewpoint or a terrible reality.

Sometimes when you say your kid is acting like a demon spawn, you really mean it. Taking a page from Twilight Zone, young mother Laura/Anna dotes on her son, even when every sign points in the opposite direction. How far would you go to protect your child? Matichak does a great job portraying both the internal vulnerability of a woman grappling with PTSD and the fierce protectiveness of a lioness saving her cub. Here what you need to know about the cult, the demon, and that unpleasant ending.

The ending of Son

At its heart, Son is a movie about a young woman who has been traumatized by something terrible in her past. In the film’s opening moments, we get a glimpse of Laura, much younger, and she is on the run. We don’t know exactly what or who she is running from, but she is wary of everyone. After driving away in a panic, she goes into labor and delivers a baby telling the baby the entire time she doesn’t want him. Despite her initial negative response, once the baby is born, she, like most mothers, feels a deep need to nurture him. That is exactly what she does in her small town. Laura thinks she may have found the perfect hiding spot for her and David to love quietly and happily forever.

That is until the cult she has been running from shows up in David’s bedroom one night. Luckily they leave without hurting him, but that is where the real story begins. Their appearance either awakened something in David or was more likely drawn to him because he was beginning his monstrous transformation. Soon after, David gets very sick, and the doctors have no explanation. Panicked and paranoid, Laura takes David to her neighbor’s house, and he promptly chows down on her. After his meal, he tells his mother he feels much better.

Unfortunately, his meal doesn’t satisfy him long-term, and little by little, Laura is forced to piece together what happened to her. What David is and finds him his next meal while avoiding the police. Before David got sick, she met Paul(Emile Hirsch), a sympathetic police officer. He follows her clear to the end, where he reveals he has been a cult member all along, and he assumes his place as the next servant of David. David will need assistance getting and covering up meals, and that is where Paul will come in. When Laura was killed in the hospital, David needed a new parent, and Paul steps in. Like Let Me In’s ongoing cycle of violence and control, David and Paul will be locked together until Paul can no longer help him, and David will move onto the next cult member.

The cult

All along, we aren’t entirely sure if the cult actually exists. Even if they existed, Laura only remembers being sexually abused, but odd things like her child turning into a beast in front of her and eating people push against that certainty. Finally, at the end of Son, we see, the cult did exist. She was raped, but not by her father. Instead, she has a demon for a child created by rituals she performed as a young girl. Her friend Jimmy played delicately damaged by Blaine Maye, tells her she was special to the cult because she was able to summon the demon when no one else could. This demon-worshipping cult wanted to bring Hell to Earth to rule the world presumably.

After Laura escaped from the cult, she began dissecting her memories and believed her PTSD was due to sexual abuse from her father. The cult had implanted those memories as a safeguard for just such as event. Jimmy helps her remember she was the tool the cult used to speak to the demon. Likely, the only person who abused her was the demon himself.

The cult may be an offshoot of one created by Urbain Grandier, who reportedly had a relationship with the demon Astaroth and was burned at the stake for it. The French Priest was accused after the events of the Loudun Possessions, although most believe now his death was politically motivated and not due to any actual demonic activity. If the cult in Son has been around for a long time, this could be the most recent iteration of this story.

The demon Astaroth

The specific demon referenced in Son was Astaroth. He is one of the unholy trinity with Lucifer and Beelzebub. Astaroth is one nasty piece of work who rides an infernal dragon and carries a viper in his right hand. He is a mighty demon who commands 40 legions of demons. Laura does summon him in the end, and if she had been able to complete her communication with him, it is possible she could have bargained for David’s return to innocence. It is implied she had the power to command him. If she had been able to complete her ritual, the demon might have done her bidding, but at what cost?

He is mentioned in the Lesser Key of Solomon, and many scholars believe he is most active in August, so watch out. No explanation is given for Laura’s unique ability to summon him, but the final act proves she may be strong enough to call him, but that is where her powers stop. His manipulations are aided by self-doubt, laziness, and rationalized philosophies which is how the cult can sway Laura so easily. He is the ultimate gaslighter.

Demons and parenthood. Since the Omen and Rosemary’s Baby, there have been terrible kids and adults who will do anything to protect them. At its core, Son is a story of a mother’s love that is so warped and twisted by others around her she is left with nothing but false memories and a terrible dread. The eerie film males the most of a committed cast and plenty of twists. You can watch it on Shudder right now. Find all our Shudder and Explained coverage here.