Warning: This article contains spoilers for the What Lies Below ending.
It may be spring, but Netflix knows it’s always a good time to watch a weird horror movie.
The 2020 horror sci-fi thriller What Lies Below recently began streaming on Netflix, and subscribers wasted no time in checking it out. Written and directed by Braden R. Duemmler, What Lies Below was one of the most popular films on Netflix over Easter weekend, and currently sits at No. 3 on Netflix’s “Top 10 in the U.S.” list. Sure! Happy Easter!
Originally released on-demand in December 2020, What Lies Below stars Ema Horvath as a teenage girl named Libby, who is growing more and more suspicious of her mom’s weird new boyfriend. Sure, he’s hot, but he’s also way too obsessed with fish.
For the first 80 minutes of this film, it seems like a perfectly normal horror film with a sci-fi, Lovecraftian monster vibe. But those last five minutes? All bets are off. It’s shocking, it’s disturbing, and honestly, it’s extremely confusing. Read on for Decider’s breakdown of the What Lies Below ending, explained.
What is the What Lies Below movie on Netflix about? What is the What Lies Below plot?
Liberty “Libby” Wells is a teenage girl coming home from her summer camp in the Adirondacks. When she gets back to her mom’s lake-house, she discovers that her mother, Michelle (Mena Suvari), has a surprise new hot boyfriend named John (Trey Tucker). John, in an effort to make Libby like him, gives Libby a bracelet with a Navajo “stone of life” on it, which represents the goddess of fertility, supposedly.
John is an “aquatics geneticist” who is trying to help fresh-water animals adapt to saltwater habitats. In a demonstration of his research, there’s an odd moment where John chokes on saltwater. Hmmm.
John has turned the basement of the lake-house into a weird lab for his experiments. He has a tank full of lampreys, which are those weird long fish with scary circular mouths that latch onto things. John takes Libby out on a boat to help him catch some more lampreys, but then apparently she gets her period, and John is super weird about it—he reaches toward her crotch and basically gropes her, then licks the blood. Then he is super weird about her being in the shower, too, and starts smelling her clothes. Yikes!
In the middle of the night, Libby sees John walking into the lake, which is glowing orange. She runs to wake up her mom but finds the bedroom door locked. When she goes out to investigate, John claims he was sleepwalking. Libby, freaked out, tries to call her BFF, but there’s something blocking the connection. Luckily, texts still go through, so she asks her BFF to come over ASAP.
Meanwhile, Michelle is getting sicker and thinks she might be pregnant. Libby goes to town for a pregnancy test and she sees someone who looks like John on a date with another woman.
Back at the house, Libby hangs out with her BFF Marley, while John takes care of Michelle. Marley decides to confront John and Michelle about John’s sexual misconduct. The next thing Libby knows, she wakes up in bed, and Marley is gone. Michelle doesn’t believe that John did anything wrong.
What is the What Lies Below ending? What is the What Lies Below plot twist?
Libby tells John that Michelle lied about his age, and John gets mad. Then Libby sees John and Michelle having sex, and sees some weird scales on John. It’s as if he’s some sort of demonic mermaid.
Later, Libby discovers her mom tied up in a water tank in the basement. Some kind of scaly water creature comes downstairs, but it seems like he can’t stand to touch the water that is on the ground. So, the creature turns into John the human. John seems to be coaching Michelle through the birth of a weird alien water creature baby, though we never see the birth.
John steps outside to retch up a blob of glowing light, and while he’s gone, Libby smashes the equipment that John was using to block the phone lines. She manages to call 911. She sees that John killed Marely and fed her body to the lampreys.
John grabs onto Libby, but she manages to throw a bucket of salt on him, causing him to retch in pain. Libby frees her mother, and the two of them start to escape down the road. It seems like they are going to get away… but then John catches up.
Here’s where the movie totally goes off the rails: Libby wakes up tied and gagged in the basement. A bunch of men who are like John punch holes in the walls, revealing dead bodies. Then he just spits up a glowing blue light into Libby’s mouth and it’s gross.
In the movie’s final scene, Libby wakes up in some sort of tank filled with water, pounding on the glass and screaming. The camera pulls back to reveal she is surrounded by other women who appear to be in chrysalises. Eventually, Libby stops struggling and seems to be able to breathe underwater. She smiles. With that, the movie ends. Uh… what?
What is the What Lies Below ending, explained?
John was a demonic freshwater creature trying to figure out how to survive in saltwater—this much I understand. What is less clear is the part where there is more than one of him, and the thing where Libby wakes up trapped in a nightmare aquarium. My best guess? John is just one of many aquatic demon creatures who is looking to impregnate women to help the spread of his species (hence the whole “fertility” bracelet thing).
The final shot of the film suggests that Libby is to became a water-breathing monster herself and that John succeeded.
I’m not saying it’s a good ending. Writer/director Braden R. Duemmler seems more concerned with achieving that final chilling shot than with trying to make the story make sense. My advice? Don’t read too much into it—it’s more about the nihilistic, creepy vibes than the narrative. That’s the way it goes with horror movies, sometimes.
Where to watch What Lies Below