The Sacrifice Game (2023)-- Horror Movie Ending Explained with spoilers

 

Plot: During the holidays, two boarding school girls are unable to go home. Trouble comes calling when a gang arrives at their doorstep.

If you have watched the trailer for The Sacrifice Game, you would be fooled into believing that this is yet another movie about a break-in and things going awry for two girls at a boarding school.

You'll be in for a surprise when you actually watch the movie and realise that this is not a typical movie about serial killers making things problematic for innocent girls.

Also, the acting seems much better when you watch the movie. This is that one instance where the trailer doesn't do justice to the actual movie.

The Sacrifice Game has all the ingredients of a slasher movie but then the twist hits and it becomes an altogether different movie.

The Sacrifice Game is dark, surprising and gory. But its also fun and has an air of mystery.

The Sacrifice Game Movie Plot

The movie begins with a group of carolers singing before a house. The family in the house is enjoying the Christmas season.

Unfortunately they are unaware that four people are watching them closely.

After the carolers leave, the four approach the house. The father comes out to check out who is at the door, expects more carolers but is in for a violent surprise.

One of the men removes a knife and quickly slits the father's neck. He wanders in his home, stunned and bleeding. His family is immediately attacked. A woman is pinned on the table and her dress lifted. There is mark on her stomach. The killing begins and blood spills everywhere.

The woman used the blood to make a symbol.

We then get to visit a boarding school where the girls are excited for the holidays and making plans.

A teacher, Rose, is planning to stay in during the holidays and talks to the cook, Jimmy. She tells him how all the girls believe he is her boyfriend.

At the lunch room, a girl called Clara is mocked for not going home and a girl asks her straightaway if her parents hate her since she is always in the school. Clara tells them to shut it and gets to her work.

Samantha learns later that her father has advised her to stay in school and that he isn't coming. Samantha is disappointed.

When Rose finds out she tries to cheer up Samantha but the girl is resigned to mope on a sofa.

Jimmy drops the rest of the staff and plans to pick something for a special Christmas dinner.

Rose manages to get Samantha off the sofa with promise of vodka in the basement.

Meanwhile, the gang is introduced to us. They are led by Jude, Maisie, Grant and Doug. The foursome are barging into the house of yet another hapless person. They lift up his clothes, cut off the patch of skin with the symbol and then snap his neck.

The four are on the road afterwards. Maisie and Jude make out and a jealous Doug accidentally runs over a reindeer. While they are tossing the animal aside, a cop shows up and makes a remark about Santa missing a reindeer this year. Poor Santa.

The four decide they don't like to feel guilty about Santa's problems and decide to kill him. The officer finds the scrap of skin on the road and wonders what it is. Considering the four need it urgently, did they seriously not keep it safe? Like in a box?

The officer meets his demise too but before that he was removing his gun to shoot and accidentally shoots Doug's arm.

It is not Doug's day as he was the only one injured in the accident.

The four go off on their way and head to...guess where?

At the boarding school, Samantha not only finds a bottle of vodka but Clara creeping around as well. She is busy studying some books. Like in every school, there are books on witchcraft and rituals to summon demons. At least that is what we have to believe. Or maybe in the 1970s schools believed students should be exposed to all kinds of culture, even ones that used witchcraft.

Clara admits she overheard the teachers talking about Samantha's tragic personal story. Turns out after her mother died, her father had tossed his daughter in a boarding school so that he didn't have to deal with parenthood.

Clara promises to keep it a secret and the two are on their way.

Upstairs, there is a knock on the door and Rose thinks it is Jimmy. It's not.

We have to assume that the security guard was killed at some point because he doesn't show up.

Rose is immediately on alert when she sees the four. She discourages their entry but Maisie tells them she is an alumna and that she knows there is a first aid kit in there to help her friend Doug.

Rose reluctantly lets them come in and patches up Doug. She asks him how he got shot and he replies why shouldn't he be shot.

After that, the four remark on the food and how there is enough of it for all of them. Rose tells them to leave but Jude and Maisie are on their worst behaviour and demand to be invited.

Rose uses a pair of scissors to threaten them and asks the girls to leave. Samantha and Clara are almost at the door when Clara says she forgot something. Samantha waits for her and ends up getting chased.

Jimmy has finally returned and Rose tries to alert him through the window but he ends up getting conked in the head.

Rose is the next one to be caught. The four of them are tied to a chair and made to sit around the table. It is Christmas after all and a time for togetherness.

Jude is being a jerk and makes Rose eat mashed potatoes and peas like a dog. She complies. Next, Jude tells Rose that he found a ring on Jimmy.

Jude makes Jimmy forcefully propose her but then slits his neck. Rose is devastated and numb as Jude slips the ring over her finger.

The three are then dragged near the fireplace where Jude decides to tell them a story but only because that's what you do when you are with people, share stories.

Jude has never told any of his victims his origin tale but he does so now to give Rose enough time to plan an escape.

While the others are bound, Jude notices Clara isn't gagged. Grant tells him its because Clara is cooperating.

Gifts are exchanged first, in true Christmas Eve fashion. Rose has given Samantha a dress which Jude forces her to wear in front of them. At her objection, he allows Clara to stand before her so she can retain some modesty. Clara is given a book of places around th world since she has never gone out enough to see the world. Clara thanks Rose.

Afterwards Jude tells them how he was the son of a preacher but turned the other way when he was promised power. Maisie had found a book in the boarding school that told her of a demon that could be summoned to grant them power. When she was accused of practicing witchcraft and expelled, she managed to tear off one page and flee, and make this team of course.

While he taunts Rose, she has managed to use the diamond on the ring to cut through the tape. So...the diamond is real.

She punches Jude right in the nose but he recovers quickly and hits her back. Then he drags her into the circle where the symbol is drawn and stabs poor Rose right in the heart because what they needed was the blood of an innocent.

The fire burns brighter and "something " does happen but no demon physically shows up. Jude is disappointed while Doug wonders if they went on a killing spree for no reason.

Maisie and Jude goes to read from the book again to find out what went wrong. Clara is free from her binds and begins to taunt both Doug and Grant. They are both in love with Maisie. Doug cracks and wants alcohol. He is told there is some in the basement and off he goes.

Clara approaches Grant and there is something off about her eyes. She then contorts her body and removes her dress to show Grant the markings on her body. She influences Grant to let Samantha go.

Uh-oh there is something wrong with Clara. Samantha runs off at the first chance she gets.

In the basement, Maisie finds out that the ritual is incomplete. They forgot about the blood of the guilty.

Maisie then learns something shocking. The ritual was not to summon a demon but to unbind it. The demon has been within the walls of this building already.

And there's the twist.

And that's why Clara never goes anywhere. That's why she keeps to herself and lurks in the basement to find a way to leave.

Maisie then realizes why she thought Clara looked familiar. They check the yearbooks and yup, there she is in all of them.

Why didn't anyone else in the faculty notice her? Perhaps because Clara influenced them to forget she existed and that is why merged into the background.

In the midst of all this, Jude has gone full on cuckoo. He believes that the demon did come and it is possessing him. He draws the symbol on his chest with a knife. He begins to act like a demon is inside him. The acting is convincing and creepy right here.

Clara uses Grant to get everyone to the table because they haven't had a proper Christmas dinner yet.

Now it's Clara's turn to tell the story.

THE SACRIFICE GAME Ending Explained

Clara tells her audience about how the demon inside her was once summoned by the townsfolk but they didn't like what they saw. Was it not as pretty as they expected a demon to look? Just why couldn’t the townspeople accept the demon for what it appeared to be?

The poor rejected demon. The people then tries to burn the whole town in order to destroy the demon. Or maybe they used fire to destroy the demon but it was uncontrollable and led to the whole town burning down.

The demon then resided in the boarding house but why it couldn't leave the premises is still unknown. Or maybe someone trapped the demon in the building when they couldn't destroy it.

The demon took the form of Clara and stayed inconspicuous. Jude tells her that he is the one who is a demon but Clara laughs at his face.

Meanwhile,  after informing the police, Samantha decides to return to the boarding school to save her friend.

Clara doesn’t really need her help. She has already gotten rid of Grant, Doug and Jude.

Maisie tries to make a run for it just as Samantha enters. She is shocked to find Clara with powers. She mocks Samantha for being a silly human with silly human problems but is grateful to her for coming back for her.

Samantha has no family since her father continues to neglect her. But she does like Clara and hey, a demon can give her the security she wants. To show her loyalty to Clara, she kills Maisie who was trying to leave.

And that's all they needed for the ritual to complete: blood of the guilty.

Clara and Samantha finally leave the boarding school, probably in search of some adventures.

The movie ends.

The Sacrifice Game is a fun movie that makes its twists and turns work in its favor.

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