Dhruv Sharma
‘Amulet’ (2020) is not for the weak-hearted. But in all of its gory mess, there’s a terrifyingly unique story that attempts to subvert gender stereotypes. With Romola Garai at its helm, the horror-thriller first introduces some familiar haunted home tropes. It then brings in spine-tingling body horror and ultimately concludes with an unforeseeable ending. So for those who are looking for answers to the burning questions of the movie’s twisted ending, we have you covered in the explainer below.
Plot Summary
The plot of ‘Amulet’ unfolds itself through two parallel narratives. Out of these, one depicts an event from Tomas’s regretful past—an event that sent him on a downward spiral. The other shows Tomas’s present timeline, where he moves from one homeless shelter to another until a nun, Sister Claire, offers him a place to stay. He shares this new abode with Magda, a young woman who devotes almost all of her time to her sick mother. At first, Magda seems to resent Tomas’s presence at her home. However, she soon gets accustomed to his presence and appreciates how someone is now looking out for her. As a result of this relationship, Tomas starts taking care of Magda and even tries to protect her from her mother, who wreaks havoc in the attic she is locked in. Little does he realize that nothing is as it seems.
The Ending
In the final moments of the film, Tomas’s past reveals that he had sexually assaulted a woman who was seeking shelter with him during a war. In the present, he still carries the regret of this wrongful act and tries to suppress his sexual urges when Magda gets close to him. Ultimately, he attempts to seek redemption for his wrongdoings by becoming Magda’s protector. He vows that he’ll liberate her from her responsibilities by killing her mother. However, things don’t go as planned, and Magda’s mother almost murders him. To protect him, Magda steps up and promises her mother that she’ll never leave her.
Following this, Tomas forgives himself and is relieved from his regretful thoughts. But just when he starts believing that the punishment for his sins is over, he gets very sick. Moments later, Sister Claire shows up at the house and breaks it to him that Magda’s mother’s sickness is now inside him. Claire then offers him a caretaker and asks him who he would prefer. To this, he demands that he only wants Magda as his caretaker. And to have her all for himself, Tomas kills the woman in the attic even when Magda warns him to stay out of it.
After this, he finds a colossal shell right in the middle of his room. He crawls inside the shell and finds Magda embodying a goddess-like figure. “Don’t you find me beautiful anymore,” she says, while Tomas starts crying and meets the same fate as the woman in the attic. In the closing scene, Magda stops at a gas station and meets the woman Tomas had molested. She hands her an Amulet, which is exactly like the one that Tomas had previously dug up. She then gets back to her car and drives off to a distant location, with Tomas in the backseat.
Who is Sister Claire?
Sister Claire is not a nun. Just to make sure that Tomas takes her advice of staying at the house, she pretended to be one. Unlike Magda, Claire seems to be a human who only serves as a mediator between Magda and sinful men like Tomas. Her role is to lure men towards Magda so that she can later enslave them and punish them for all of their sins.
Who is the Lady in the Attic?
The woman in the attic is not Magda’s mother. In fact, she’s not even a woman. Right after Tomas kills her, he finds an old newspaper clipping, which says, “MISSING: Man Accused of Murdering Wife and Mother of Six to Marry Daughter.” The newspaper reports that the man, Christopher General, was declared missing after he failed to show up for his court hearing. This scrap of paper makes it pretty evident that Christopher General owns the home, and it’s probably the same place where he killed his wife and mother. Several scenes in the movie also foreshadow for this revelation. For instance, Tomas finds a bag of tools with CG written on it.
Moreover, Magda also keeps giving him men’s clothes and claims that the owner of the home left them behind. A scene also reveals that the attic “lady” knows all about the electrical wiring of the house. This scene further confirms that Christopher General once owned the home.
Where is Magda taking Tomas?
The woman at the gas station asks Magda if she’s a tourist and even claims that tourists previously avoided visiting her town but are now slowly returning. The fact that tourists were avoiding the area suggests that it probably the same place depicted in Tomas’s past timeline. If one can recall well, the location was set amidst an ongoing war. Thus, it seems very likely that Magda is now taking Tomas to his old home, where he had previously assaulted the gas station woman. Exactly how she enslaved Christopher General in his home for several years and made him repent for his sins, she’ll now do the same with Tomas until she finds a new victim.
What is Magda’s Purpose?
The ending of the movie suggests that Magda is either a godly figure or a demonic entity who punishes immoral men. It seems more likely that she’s a demon because there’s a scene where Claire claims that “evil entities like these live for centuries and need companions!” Now some viewers might assume that when Claire says evil entities, she probably refers to the attic lady. But if you think about it, the attic lady was not immortal. In fact, she aged quite rapidly. So Magda may be an evil entity who uses these men as her companions just to get by with her long life. She’s a demon who feeds on the pain and suffering of her sinful victims and even gives them a glimpse of hell while they’re still alive. Her motive is not only to punish but to thrive on the sorrows of her victims. She dominates them and makes them rely entirely on her. Then she ruthlessly eradicates them and moves onto a new victim.
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