The spelunking horror The Devil Below is currently in Netflix’s top 10 most-watched titles, but what happens in the movie’s strange, creepy ending, and what is it really about? Released on Netflix in June 2021, The Devil Below has become an unexpected viral hit for the streaming service. The little-seen horror movie received scant critical attention during its brief theatrical run in March.

However, since arriving on the streaming platform, The Devil Below’s fortunes have improved dramatically. It’s not hard to see why the movie, an Appalachia-set underground horror from Chernobyl Diaries director Bradley Parker, is doing so well. While The Devil Below is nothing to write home about according to reviews, the movie’s premise is a solid recipe for a tight, tense story, like 2021’s earlier Netflix breakout hit Below Zero.

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The Devil Below tells the story of Arianne, a scientist/adventurer haunted by an incident where she once had to cut a hiking partner loose to save her own life (this will become important later). Arianne is hired, alongside a group of fellow researchers, to explore the fictional town of Shookum Hills, a mining town that disappeared into a sinkhole in the 1970s and took its 1,000 inhabitants beneath the earth with it. What follows is a mash-up of elements borrowed from The Descent, 2005’s largely-forgotten The Cave, and Renny Harlin’s underrated found-footage flick Devil’s Pass. Soon, the team discovers there are subterranean monsters in the remnants of what was once Shookum Hills, and the locals of a nearby town trying to help them escape with their lives.

What Happens In The Devil Below’s Ending

In the last act of The Devil Below, the shocking ending explains how the monsters work. Arianne and her fellow researcher Darren are dragged down into the abandoned mines by the monsters, who bring them into a lair where their apparent leader lives. This massive monster is far larger than the bipedal drones that have been seen until this point, and the rest of the monsters work as a hive, bringing this huge mouth human victims to feast on. When it is Arianne’s turn to be fed to the beast, she tosses a live grenade into its mouth, killing the giant toothy maw as the monsters are distracted by Darren. However, Darren is torn apart by the remaining drones as Arianne escapes with her life and returns to the locals above ground. There, she promises local leader Schuttman that she will help the town kill these monsters off once and for all.

Where Did The Underground Monsters Come From

In this ambiguous twist ending, viewers never learn what happened to the people of Shookum Hills or where the monsters came from. However, guesswork can unknot some of this lingering mystery. The efficient operation of the monster hive’s feeding system, as well as their strength and agility, implies that the monsters likely made short work of anyone who survived the sinkhole. The initial collapse would have killed many of the locals, while the monsters lurking underground had an obvious advantage over any survivors as adept hunters. Interestingly, the fact that the monster’s leader is a giant fanged lamprey mouth like the Sarlacc can be seen to imply that the monsters are not the mutated remains of the Shookum Hills locals, but rather than unrelated species that presumably lived under the town before the mining activity disturbed their existence and set the horror story in motion, My Bloody Valentine-style.

Why The Locals Have Not Yet Defeated The Monsters

The question of why the locals have not defeated the monsters before Arianne and company’s arrival in Shookum Hills is a difficult one to answer, as they clearly know where the monsters are and were able to place an electrified cover over the only entrance into the abandoned mines. The likely reason is that no local has ever come closer enough to the main monster to aim an incendiary as Arianne does, since the character needed to be moments from certain death to drop the grenade into its mouth. Not only that, but the fact that the drone monsters continued to attack her and Darren on their way out, killing and eating Darren in the process, means they don’t all die the instant their leader is offed Night King-style. Between each individual monster being a powerful foe and their Alien Queen-esque leader being inaccessible, it makes sense that the locals had not yet been able to eradicate the monsters and had to settle for containing the problem.

Why Did Arianne Stay In Shookum Hills?

It may seem surprising to some viewers that Arianne opts to stay in Shookum Hills during the closing moments of The Devil Below. However, it is worth remembering that her character has now been through not one, but two, instances of a friend sacrificing their life to save hers, both of which have had a profound effect on her character. Where Arianne might have left the denizens of Shookum Hills to fend for themselves before, Darren’s willingness to sacrifice his life for her has given the character a new outlook on life and left her willing to work with the locals to kill off the underground monsters.

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What The Devil Belows’s Ending Really Means

With the monster movie ending explained, the question of The Devil Below’s metaphorical meaning has to come into play. The story of some subterranean monsters picking off a group of ill-fated characters one by one may not seem deep, but The Devil Below approaches this familiar plot in a manner that is vastly thematically different from the superficially similar The Descent. Where that earlier horror sees its central group break up and break down mentally as a result, The Devil Below illustrates that there is strength in numbers in the case of both the movie’s monsters and its heroes. The monsters are undoubtedly feral man-eaters, but their organized approach to hunting as a hive makes them lethally effective, high body count villains. In contrast, when Darren, Arianne, and company split off they are killed off one by one, whereas Darren opting sacrifice himself to Arianne leads Arianne to stay and help the locals kill the monsters for good, proving that collective action is effective action. Ultimately, The Devil Below tells viewers that there is strength in solidarity — and to steer clear of abandoned mines.

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About The Author


Cathal Gunning
(1432 Articles Published)

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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