Sumith Prasad
Geo Santini’s thriller film ‘The Bad Shepherd’ ends with a showdown involving four friends who want to lay their hands on around $2.4 million they accidentally possess. The enormous sum breaks the trust they have nurtured with each other, making them aim guns at their years-long friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Sidney, the mysterious man who demands the money after claiming it to be his own, returns from death, stunning the survivors. His actions in the closing scenes of the movie unravel his real identity and motives. The thriller then concludes with ambiguous developments that leave several questions in the viewers’ minds! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Bad Shepherd Plot Synopsis
‘The Bad Shepherd’ begins with a woman named Darlene trying to escape from a car with a duffel bag filled with cash. As she walks away, she is hit by the vehicle of four friends—John, Paul, Leonard, and Travis—who arrive in the woods to hunt deer. Darlene dies instantly after the hit, leaving the bag in the hands of the four hunters. They decide not to inform the police since they can use the money to resolve their financial struggles, much to the disappointment of Paul, who initially considers calling the cops. The friends move Darlene’s body to their truck to bury her in the woods. Meanwhile, a police officer arrives at the scene and sets out to carry out an inspection.
John kills the cop to protect him and his friends. The group then arrives at a nearby cabin, where they plan to bury Darlene. Before they lay her to rest, a mysterious man named Sidney shows up at the place. He claims that the money they have belongs to him. The man further adds that he will retrieve what he owns with or without the assistance of the four friends, who disapprove of the former’s actions and words. They tie him up in the basement of the cabin and start looking for any other people in the vicinity who may have accompanied their “guest.”
Leonard and Paul bring a man to the cabin after their search in the woods. The person tells the friends that he is someone who lives nearby without any connection to their predicament. Although the group becomes convinced that the man was in the woods to check his animal traps, John makes Leonard kill him since he has seen enough to incriminate them in a couple of murders. The innocent stranger’s killing traumatizes his killer, who has had enough of their leader. The friends start to argue against each other regarding how they should proceed ahead with the money. To add fuel to the fire, Sidney reveals that John had previously killed someone in California when his victim tried to blackmail him.
The fight between the friends intensifies as time passes, leading Leonard to shoot down John. Paul thinks that the money they possess caused the deadly turn of events, making him hide it inside a tree. After he keeps the bag away, he comes across John, who hasn’t died yet. The de facto leader of the group aims a gun at his friend and asks the latter to lead him to the money. Paul tricks him into stepping on one of the animal traps. He returns to Travis and Leonard, who wonder what they should do about Sidney and the cash now. Out of nowhere, Travis kills the man who is after the bag and asks Paul to take them to the place where he has hidden the money.
The Bad Shepherd Ending: Is Sidney a Vampire? How Does He Know John and His Friends?
After Sidney is shot down, the four friends—John, Paul, Leonard, and Travis—confront each other regarding the money they possess. Out of nowhere, the mysterious man wakes up alive, even though he gets shot at point-blank range. Sidney does not die because he is a vampire who cannot be killed using gunshots. His real identity is teased right at the beginning of his introduction, specifically in the sequences in which he tastes the blood he finds near the road and drinks a small container of red liquid. That is also the reason why he drags a dying Leonard away from the “battlefield” and extracts blood from him.
Even though he is a highly potent vampire, Sidney does not prefer to use his power to chase his targets and drink their blood. He must be of the opinion that exerting his strength over vulnerable beings is not really a level field for the latter group. He wants to be fair when it comes to extracting blood from his victims, which is why he has set up a whole scheme targeting them. Instead of hunting down inferior beings like a lion or tiger, he lets his targets kill each other, allowing him to sit down and wait for their deaths. This particular scheme starts with choosing or identifying his potential victims.
Sidney stuns John and his friends by knowing all about the group. He even knows about a murder the de facto leader of the gang committed, Travis’ troubled relationship with his wife, and Paul’s daughter, Amber, being really the child of his friend. Since the four companions encounter his money accidentally, his awareness of their secrets is surprising. What the gang does not know is that they were carefully chosen by the vampire, who has learned all about them beforehand. In other words, them coming across his money is not an accidental occurrence but something he planned to happen even before they hit Darlene.
Sidney targets John, Paul, Leonard, and Travis because he wants their blood. However, instead of killing them right away, he applies his principle to their case and lets them kill each other. He even gives them plenty of chances to escape from their deaths to remain fair with his targets. If they had confessed to their crimes to the policeman, who appears to be another “actor” playing a part, or handed the money over to Sidney right after they met, they could have saved their lives. Instead, John, Paul, Leonard, and Travis prove that the vampire is right by trying to kill each other.
Are Travis, Leonard, and John Dead?
Travis, Leonard, and John seemingly die after their showdown with each other, which also involves Paul. After John ends up in the animal trap, Travis becomes ambitious and greedy. He decides against looking for his friend and asks the others to leave him to die, unfortunately, without knowing that the latter is listening to them. John kills Travis for choosing money over him and faces Leonard. The latter ends up in John’s bad books by trying to kill him. Since he nearly loses his life due to Leonard’s gunshot, the leader of the group does not show any compassion towards his friend.
Leonard is then dragged to the roadside by Sidney, who drinks his blood. The vampire does not show any mercy to his target and may have left him to bleed to death. Since nobody else arrives at the place right away, we believe that Leonard is not rescued by an unrevealed individual or group, which confirms his death as well. Finally, Paul kills John for being a ruthless, vicious murderer. Throughout ‘The Bad Shepherd,’ the principles of the two men clash repeatedly. Paul becomes an accessory to murders, even though he disapproves of the killings, because of John.
John’s homicidal impulses have severely troubled Paul, who now has to deal with the aftereffects of several traumatic incidents. He descends into a murderer because of the former, which explains why he kills his friend. By murdering John, Paul is trying to cleanse himself. In other words, he is retaliating against the force that made him a murderer by killing his companion.
Why Does Sidney Spare Paul? Is He a Vampire Now?
Even after making it clear that he wants to see his targets kill each other, Sidney decides against murdering Paul. Furthermore, rather than leaving him to live or die, the vampire makes him taste his blood, which changes him as a person. Paul is now a vampire like Sidney, which explains why the latter tells him that he may feel weak during the daytime and strong during the nighttime. The vampire spares the fourth member of the gang because he is unlike the other three. Sidney targets the group because he is convinced that they will kill each other because of their greed and other flaws.
However, Paul is not at all like who Sidney expects him to be. Rather than being greedy to possess the money, he proposes handing over the bag to the police. He has also been against murdering people, unlike the other three. Paul tries to convince his friends to spare the man in the woods and fights against John’s decision to kill the policeman. Even when his friend targets him, he does not kill the former but leaves him in an animal trap with an opportunity to survive. The goodness in him is also visible in the scene in which he chooses not to kill Travis, who betrayed him by having an affair with his wife and fathering Amber.
Paul’s qualities make it evident that he is not a random beast that will kill another person for selfish reasons. Sidney rewards his selfless actions by sparing his life and transforming him into a vampire. As far as the former is concerned, human beings are vile creatures who cannot be trusted or relied upon. Paul does not deserve to be targeted, manipulated, and betrayed by his friends because his characteristics are beyond the basic flaws of humankind. That’s why Sidney makes him a vampire. By letting Paul drink his blood, he invites the survivor to his world without betrayal and manipulation.
Why Does Sidney Leave the Money Behind? How is Darlene Still Alive?
Throughout ‘The Bad Shepherd,’ Sidney tries his best to lay his hands on his money, which ends up with John, Paul, Leonard, and Travis. However, when he finally retrieves it, he leaves it on the top of Darlene’s car and disappears. Surprisingly, Darlene returns to her car alive, only to get hit by two men in the same way John, Paul, Leonard, and Travis kill her. Sidney leaves the money behind because he has never been interested in keeping the same. He asks the four friends for the bag only to give them an opportunity to kill their greed and escape with their lives.
As far as Sidney is concerned, the bag full of cash is a bait he uses to catch his targets. He then asks for it to test their qualities or characteristics. He will spare them if they hand the money over to him because the same shows that they are not beasts who will kill each other. If they don’t, they fail the test, and he will wait for them to eliminate one another. By leaving behind the money for Darlene, he is targeting his next potential victims, who take the bait by coming across the bag full of cash, unknowingly facing two choices that are also given to John and his friends.
Darlene can be someone who was initially Sidney’s target, trying to run away with his money. Her panic in the opening scene of the film adds weight to this theory. He must have chased her to the road where he knew John and his friends would appear. After the four friends kill her, Sidney may have resurrected her using his blood, turning her into a vampire like Paul. She must have agreed to join his scheme and be the “victim” of another car accident, trapping the vampire’s next targets. Darlene’s involvement in the scheme makes the vampire’s “test” all the more interesting, especially since his targets trying to cover up her apparent murder is the first challenge given to them.
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