A Classic Horror Story Ending Explained (Spoilers)

In this gruesome suspense film, strangers traveling in southern Italy become stranded in the woods, where they must fight desperately to get out alive.

A Classic Horror Story: Spoilers Below

Elisa is unsure about her plan to get an abortion at her parents' home in Calabria by carpooling through a rideshare app. She boards travel blogger Fabrizio's RV, also including Riccardo, a doctor, and Sofia and Mark's extroverted couple. When Elisa's morning sickness causes the group to pull over, Mark drives for Fabrizio. That night, Mark drinks beer while driving; he swerves to avoid running over a goat's corpse and crashes into a tree. Elisa wakes up to see the group doing first aid on Mark's broken leg in the morning. They realize that they're now in a clearing of a forest instead of on the road, and no one knows why.

They find a cabin in the clearing but decide not to enter. Instead, Fabrizio and Riccardo find an altar of three deformed scarecrows with pig's heads on stakes; they leave, terrified. Elise decides to explore the cottage and discovers a ritualistic mural of three deities: Mastosso, Carcagnosso, and Ostro, who promise their worshippers riches and abundance in exchange for human sacrifice. They spend the night in the RV but are awoken by screaming coming from the cabin; everyone save Mark goes to investigate. In the house's attic, they discover a girl trapped inside a cocoon of hay. The group is horrified when they see that the girl's tongue has been mutilated.

While hiding in the attack, they see Mark pulled out of the RV and strapped to the living room table by three masked figures. They have no other choice but to watch as the three masked figures gouge out Mark's eyes and break his feet with a wooden hammer, killing him. The trio drags his corpse outside while the group waits until dawn to escape into the forest. They find an abandoned car graveyard and realize that they are not the first victims of the cult. The girl they found in the attic uses her diary to tell them that her name is Chiara, the lone survivor of her family.

They walk in circles and arrive at the clearing again. During the night, they share their personal stories with each other as they share the last beer bottle. Elisa wakes up and sees all the sect's followers standing on a ceremonial stage in front of the house with Riccardo, Sofia, and Chiara as hostages. The masked figures representing Mastosso, Carcagnosso, and Ostro begin the ritual. They mangle Riccardo's ears and gouge out Sofia's eyes. They place their severed body parts on a giant scarecrow where Chiara is trapped. Sofia and Riccardo cut their throats as Fabrizio and Elisa watch from inside the cabin. Elisa confronts Fabrizio after realizing that he put sleeping pills in their alcohol and discovers that he has a hidden earpiece. He angrily instructs one of the cult members to drag her outside.

In the morning, she awakens at the head of a large table during one of the cult's meals; her hands nailed to the arms of a wheelchair. They take her into a control room, where she discovers that everything she went through was recorded by hidden cameras and overseen by a production team. Fabrizio reveals that he is the director of an amateur snuff film, trying to make a classic horror story. Elisa frees herself and wanders through the camp of the film's production team.

She discovers that Chiara is an actress hired by Fabrizio and is still alive. Elisa catches the two discussing the next recording steps in a trailer. During their discussion, Elisa learns that the local mayor is part of the mafia and sponsoring the film. Elisa kills Chiara with a shotgun when she exits the vehicle. She shoots Fabrizio in the leg, kills him despite his begs for mercy, and records everything with a camera. She finds a fence bordering the forest that she crosses to escape, falsely labeling the forest as a restricted military zone. She leaves the forest and enters a beach, covered in blood, recorded by bathers on cell phones as she dives into the sea.

In a post-credits scene, a BloodFlix app user participates in a virtual chat about Fabrizio's movie that aired with the final footage of Elisa killing him. The user evaluates the film negatively.

A Classic Horror Story Ending Explained (Spoilers) - ALL HORROR Tweet it