Hold Your Breath Ending, Explained: Is the Grey Man Real?

‘Hold Your Breath’ is a horror thriller film that capitalizes on the terror of its environment as its isolation slowly but surely drives the protagonist into the mouth of unnerving danger. In 1930s Oklahoma, Margaret Bellum and her daughters, Rose and Ollie, live alone in their remote house, battling devastating sand storms as they periodically hit the arid land. However, a new danger lurks within these storms as rumors arise of a strange drifter wreaking havoc in their small community. Consequently, Margaret’s fears grow as an unknown presence starts circling the Bellum residence.

Soon enough, the danger lurking in the sand seeps through the cracks of their home, paving the way for dangerous paranoia. The story luxuriates in toying with the nuances of reality, compelling viewers to constantly guess the intentions and conditions of the central characters. Thus, the jarring conclusion is bound to leave the audience perplexed! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Hold Your Breath Plot Synopsis

In the Oklahoma Panhandle in 1933, an intense famine ravaged the land, covering the once-green fields with a thick layer of sand. This sand even follows the residents inside their homes, making itself an unavoidable part of their lives. As a result, crops stop yielding harvest, leading people to seek income from other places. Margaret’s husband, Henry, does precisely the same, leaving home to join the workforce at a faraway bridge construction site. Therefore, the woman and her two daughters, Rose and Ollie—and a third, Ada, whom the family buried on their property after her untimely death—continue living in the sand-wrecked town. Margaret’s sister-in-law, Esther, and her two kids, Thomas and Jacob, are in the same predicament.

However, Esther lacks Margaret’s obsessive sand-elimination habits, which contributes to the concerning cough that her sons develop. Additionally, during a routine meet-up with the town’s other ladies, Margaret learns that a drifter recently attacked a family, killing the mother and kids right in front of the father. His ability to escape as if he disappeared into thin air reminds the woman of the Grey Man, a character from Rose’s book. The same night, Ollie glimpses a man’s silhouette during the next sandstorm, instantly getting frightened. Although her mother assumes it must have been a figment of her imagination, she realizes the kid was right after a shadow passes through their windows at night. Margaret also finds a bloodstain on the barn door once she goes out to investigate with her gun.

The following day, the town sheriff finds an overturned cart on the street. As it turns out, Esther’s desperation to escape the sand had peaked, compelling her and her boys to leave town in the middle of a storm. The family had then gotten caught up in the whirling sand, leading to Jacob’s death. In the aftermath of the incident, Margaret becomes even more protective of her daughters and consistently wards her house from the sand outside. Eventually, after a few days, Ollie claims to have seen a man inside their barn. Terrifyingly enough, her claims end up being true as Margaret finds a man squatting in the shed. Nonetheless, the man—Wallace—claims to be Henry’s friend, even sporting the latter’s jacket to show as proof.

Furthermore, Wallace quells some of Margaret’s suspicions after he reveals himself to be a religious healer who is able to fix Rose’s nosebleeds. In the aftermath, the woman allows him to stay with them after he ensures them he can heal their cow to get it to produce milk again. Meanwhile, Esther’s depression takes hold, confining her to the bed and rendering her unfit to care after Thomas. Over time, Wallace manages to gain the trust of the Bellums. Nevertheless, it all comes crashing down after Margaret receives a letter from Henry informing her that a murderous preacher had stolen his jacket a while back.

Consequently, Margaret turns on Wallace, who has been lying about his identity all this time. Even though she manages to drive him away, he promises to create trouble for her and her girls. As such, Margaret’s obsessive protectiveness over her daughters grows. In response, she starts to watch over their house, staving off her sleep. Ultimately, this paves the way for her to grow paranoid, as she begins believing Wallace to be the Grey Man who can slither his way into their lives unencumbered by locked doors.

Hold Your Breath Ending: Is Wallace the Grey Man?

Throughout the story, the idea of the Grey man remains the most consistent source of horror in the lives of Margaret and her daughters. Since the three live alone in a scarce area, the chances of something horrible happening to them remain high. As news of a dangerous drifter travels into town, the stakes also naturally heighten. Inevitably, Margaret grows paranoid about her situation once Wallace’s true identity comes out as a killer who has been lying to the Bellums all this time. Earlier, she had seen the Sheriff take Esther’s son away from her after the mother grew unfit to care for him. For the same reason, she is unwilling to contact the authorities about Wallace for fear of losing her girls.

As a result, Margaret’s only solution remains to keep watch over her family on her own. However, this requires her to let go of her sleeping pills, which prevent her from nightmares and sleepwalking, ailments that have haunted her in the past. Yet, the pros outweigh the cons. Thus, Margaret’s descent into mania begins. The woman has been obsessive about the safety of her daughters from the start. Therefore, her obsession grows once Wallace becomes a potential threat to them.

One night, while Margaret is on watch, she hears Wallace through the walls and finds her children’s room on fire shortly after. The same, paired with the man’s previous attempts to spook her by claiming to be the Grey Man, compels Margaret to believe he is one. Nevertheless, while Margaret’s concern over Wallace remains justified, the added fear that he is Grey Man tints her anxiety as implausible. After all, the fact remains that the lack of sleeping pills is significantly altering the woman’s perception of reality. In fact, she once mistakes Rose’s laughter for an imagined attack, freaking out her daughters with her frantic reaction to it.

Margaret’s behavior continues to be concerning once the family attends the ball in an effort to ensure the town that there isn’t anything fishy going on in their house. Although the woman tries to conceal it, her troubled state eventually bleeds out. That night, her paranoia exponentiates due to the added concern of the townsfolk labeling her unfit to care for her daughters. For the same reason, she’s on edge when she overhears Wallace calling out to her. Armed with her gun, Margaret steps out into the stormy sand, convinced that Wallace is circling her house. Consequently, when a figure approaches her, she instantly shoots them. In the aftermath, she tells her daughters that she had shot Wallace, but he had simply disappeared into the sand—proving his identity as the Grey Man.

Nonetheless, this is only a product of Margaret’s delusion. Esther’s predicament, the drifter’s murderous story, and Wallace’s appearance in the Bellums Resident are all simply unfortunate coincidences that have intensified the woman’s paranoia. Furthermore, all three of these instances perfectly fit into the narrative of the Grey Man. To Margaret, Esther must have grown negligent after she “breathed the Grey Man in,” which influenced her actions. Likewise, the drifter must have evaded the authorities because he’s the Grey Man who can disappear into thin air. In conclusion, Wallace—the man wishing ill upon her family—must also be the Grey Man, who can harm them at any time.

The cyclic nature of Margaret’s paranoia and mounting anxiety has tricked her into believing a scary story that was never true to begin with. In fact, every inexplicable feat she pins on Wallace is actually executed by her as she sleepwalks. In this instance, Margaret’s fear is the only apt candidate for the Grey Man. Fear seeps through the walls like the presumed boogeyman, entering the woman’s life through locked doors. Similarly, once breathed in, it grows and compels Margaret to do horrible things, replacing her bearings with growing paranoia. Ultimately, the Grey Man becomes more of an idea than a tangible human. Yet, it’s no less dangerous to the Bellums.

Is Wallace Dead? What Happens to Him?

Margaret’s encounter with Wallace outside the house triggers something unprecedented in the woman. The residual fear and paranoia from the altercation heighten her sleepwalking issues, compelling her to relive the nightmare of Ada’s death. Furthermore, she almost mistakes Rose for Wallace, hallucinating the man in the place of her oldest daughter pleading with her to put the gun down. Once Rose witnesses the same, she realizes that her mother’s dysfunctional state is the only threat in their house.

Consequently, after a charged confrontation between Rose and Margaret, the former tries to run away from home with Ollie to keep them safe from their mother’s unpredictability. Still, the younger girl is unwilling to believe her mother is a threat to her. In the tussle that follows, Rose ends up falling in front of a corpse—and realizes with dawning horror that Margaret has killed Esther instead of Wallace. When Margaret had rushed out to confront Wallace earlier, she was sleepwalking and living out an imagined nightmare.

In actuality, Wallace had never come near their house in the storm. Instead, Esther had come to check up on the family. However, in her delusional state, Margaret mistakes her sister-in-law for Wallace and accidentally shoots her down. The same remains evident in the fact that Wallace’s voice had been eerily tangled with Esther’s during the encounter, showcasing that the man’s presence was a result of Margaret’s paranoia. In fact, it is likely that Wallace hasn’t returned to the Bellums since his last stint with them. Instead, each instance of his presence could simply be Margaret’s imagination. In the end, the woman’s fear of Wallace gets Esther killed, as the former disappears from the town.

What is Wrong With Margaret? Why Does She Want to Kill Her Kids?

Soon after Rose discovers Esther’s predicament, things take an unexpected turn. In the wake of the recent tragedies, Rose wants to get out of the town and reunite with her father in a place less weighted down by sand. Nevertheless, Margaret is vehemently against the idea. In fact, the woman’s choice confined her and the girls to the town in the first place. As such, once Rose voices the thought of leaving, Margaret instantly becomes unstable and tries to hold her down inside the house to ensure she doesn’t run away. In the meantime, the sheriff arrives at the door, concerned for the family after witnessing the mother’s earlier condition at the ball.

As a result, in his presence, Rose finds the perfect opportunity to escape from her mother’s grasp by informing him that Margaret is no longer fit to look after her children. Therefore, once the Sheriff sympathetically announces he will be taking Rose and Ollie away, Margaret ends up killing him. In the aftermath, the woman realizes that her actions are bound to get her hanged in the town. Thus, she arrives at the conclusion that Rose and Ollie must also die with her. Still, this instance isn’t born from a place of malice. Instead, Margaret’s predicament is much more nuanced.

Even though Margaret puts on a good front at the story’s start, her issues began years earlier. In 1928, Ada and Ollie contracted the Scarlet Fever, pushing the young girls near death’s door. Since the disease was contagious, both girls had to quarantine away from the family. While Ollie coped with the situation well enough, Ada grew frustrated and routinely cried out for her mother. As a result, Margaret was forced to hear her child in distress day after day until Ada finally passed away. Hence, the mother developed intense trauma that made her grow fearful of losing her other daughters. She also adopted the violent habit of sleepwalking, which feeds into her paranoia.

Furthermore, Margaret also grew attached to Ada’s tombstone at their property. For the same reason, she turned down Henry’s offer to take the family on the road with him. The woman has become so drowned in her past sorrows that she’s willing to suffer in the present for it. Likewise, the mother has the same possessive attachment to Rose and Ollie. Margaret thinks the girls are extensions of herself and doesn’t wish to be parted from them. As such, only one solution remains when she realizes her actions have made it impossible for her to stay in the neighborhood anymore. If Margaret is to die, she must take her girls with her to reunite with Ada in the afterlife. This way, the woman can finally feel whole again.

Does Margaret Die? What Happens to Her Daughters?

Once Margaret comes up with the plan to enact a group suicide between herself and her daughters, Rose realizes that she has well and truly lost her mother. For the same reason, she considers the idea of murdering Margaret in cold blood with a blade. Nonetheless, her daughter doesn’t have the stomach for something as violent as the same. Therefore, she decides to play along with the woman’s plans to trick her into letting her guard down. As such, Margaret begins crushing sleeping pills while Rose concocts a plan.

Once Margaret laces peaches with sleeping pills to induce overdoses, Rose catches her attention with claims that Ollie has run away from home into the storm. Naturally, the mother frantically rushes out to help the child, wanting her to pass away peacefully in her sleep rather than choking on sand. She ties herself to a rope harness with the other end tied to the house door and ventures out to find Ollie. After she walks out far enough, Rose cuts off the rope from the house’s end. Still, it takes a significant emotional toll on the young girl to let go of the rope and de-tether her mother from the house’s safe haven. Even so, her own survival instinct and love for her younger sister compels Rose to let go of the rope, stranding her mother out in the storm.

Thus, once the rope goes limp, Margaret realizes what has happened as she succumbs to the storm swirling around her. In the end, the woman dies choking on the same thing she has been terrified of from the start. Nonetheless, in death, she finds the peace she has been missing ever since Ada’s death. Ultimately, Margaret’s demise remains incredibly tragic. Yet, there was never a different ending for her. She had allowed her fear to engulf her in her entirety to the point where it was always going to swallow her down.

On the other hand, Ollie emerges from her hiding place back at the house, showcasing that the two sisters are finally safe from their mother’s mania. Moreover, with Margaret and her fear gone, nothing keeps Rose and Ollie tied to their town. As such, the sisters take a train out of Oklahoma, presumably to reunite with their father. Finally, the kids are able to escape their sandy reality and find some greenery, symbolizing a new start. Yet, Rose can still see particles of sand clinging to the air around them. This showcases that even though the sisters have managed to escape their fear-filled past, the memory of it will always remain a companion by their side.