Netflix’s Hellhole (Ostatnia Wieczerza in Polish) is a horror thriller set in 1987 and follows a man named Marek as he joins an old monastery in Poland. He soon realises that there is something wrong with the people there and begins investigating, eventually discovering something horrifying.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Hellhole opens in 1957 and we see a priest trying to kill a baby boy inside a church. He prays to God to vanquish this evil seed but before he can commit the murder, he is shot down by officers of the militia.
The plot skips forward 30 years and a man named Marek travels to join a secluded monastery that is also a sanatarium for possessed people. It is revealed to be the same place from the first scene.
Marek is met by the institution’s head, Prior Andrzej, who explains to him that the place is old and filled with ill people who have no one to call family. Marek’s bags are inspected by another monk named Dawid and he confiscates his cigarettes.
The new priest is also told to stay inside his room after dark as there are no lights or phones in the building as well. Furthermore, Andrzej tells him that dark powers have a hold over this place.
After making sure he is alone in his room, Marek opens a secret compartment within his suitcase, revealing a gun, a newspaper cutting about missing women, a flashlight and a tiny crucifix that also acts as a lock pick.
When he changes his clothes, it is revealed that Marek is the same baby from the beginning of the film as he has the same mysterious mark on his chest. He also seems to have an agenda for coming here.
Life begins for him at the monastery. The priests do everything together but aren’t allowed to leave the property. During mealtime, they all eat a weird looking concoction which seems to be a soup of human remains.
Soon, Marek joins his new brethren in an exorcism of a young girl and astonishing things happen. As the Prior recites prayers over the tied up woman, she starts moving violently, her bed starts to shake, furious winds start blowing, and the crucifix in the Prior’s hand catches fire.
Hellhole ending explained in detail:
What does Marek discover?
After the exorcism, Marek witnesses a mirror crack in his bathroom and later, one of his tooth falls out. He sneaks out of his room at night and breaks into the Prior’s office. He finds pictures of women, bottles of alcohol, and a secret room with a television and tapes of all previous exorcisms performed.
He then investigates the exorcism chamber and finds that everything was a ruse. He notices that the bed moves due to stepping on loose flooring next to it, the winds are the result of a hidden fan and the cross has a switch on it to set it ablaze. He even finds a needle which is probably used to drug patients.
The next day, he is unable to recite a prayer in latin which creates slight suspicion among his peers. To avoid being caught, he sets fire to the newspaper article and tries to escape, but fails.
To make things worse, he notices a group of priests digging a new grave in the small cemetery on the property. Fearing for the woman who had the exorcism, he goes to check on her in her cell but finds it empty.
There is fresh blood next to her bed but before he can investigate further, a monk named Piotr arrives and asks him to wait for him inside the confession booth.
What does Piotr reveal?
Inside the confessional, Piotr warns Marek that everyone has got their eyes on him and they know he is looking for something. Piotr further mentions that there is no getting out as he tried to escape, got caught, and was punished severely.
He adds that the Prior uses different techniques to fake possessions and milk the Vatican for money. Therefore, the more the exorcisms, the better the revenue. In reality, he drugs the women to claim that they went insane and died. He then buries them in the cemetery.
Marek comes clean as well and explains that he is an officer of the militia who is handling the case of eight missing women. The authorities could not interfere with the monastery directly and sent him undercover to investigate.
Piotr requests him to find a way to get them out.
How does Marek get caught?
That night, he investigates his own room and discovers a weird black growth on his wall, behind the cupboard. There is a hole in the middle of the black patch and Marek puts his hand inside it, only to pull out a talisman with a moving human eye on it.
He gags and throws up black goop mixed with live flies. Terrified for his life, he goes to the graveyard to gather more proof and digs out the freshly buried coffin. To his shock, it turns out to be empty.
Before he has time to react, Dawid arrives, puts a cloth over his head and knocks him out. Marek is tied to his bed and fed four portions of mysterious food (which also looks like human remains) by Prior Andrzej.
Dawid stays back in the room to watch over the prisoner but soon falls asleep. Marek unties himself but the guard awakens. There is a tussle which ends with Marek grabbing his gun and shooting Dawid in the head.
What is the monastery’s secret?
Marek investigates the kitchen and finds a stinky big pot of the food they all eat. Inside another room, he discovers decapitated bodies of all the missing women, proving that he has indeed been eating human remains. Piotr arrives on the scene and leads Marek to the library.
There, he reveals a dangerous legend from an ancient book that talks about the arrival of the Chosen One. According to the story, the Chosen One will be born on an eclipse and needs to be slain after birth (Just what the priest was about to do in the beginning of the film).
However, if he isn’t killed, the Chosen One will eat seven sinners, drink the blood of an innocent and transform into a demon, ending the world as they know it. Marek is shocked to see the same symbol in the book as he has on his body.
Piotr mentions that everyone in the monastery thinks that he is indeed the one mentioned in the book. Not convinced by the story, Marek just wants to escape and Piotr talks about a secret passage underneath the property.
Unfortunately, Piotr betrays Marek and ties him up next to a well under the building. The clergymen gather around him and the Prior reveals that it was him, who sent the anonymous tip about missing girls to the militia and brought Marek here.
After eating the remains of seven sinners, all he needs to do is drink the blood of an innocent to transform. Andrzej also reveals that the well is a gateway to hell which is why the monastery has been built over it. Their brotherhood has been waiting for the Chosen One for centuries and aims to raise the devil to be his apostles as he reforms the world.
Does Marek escape?
The same girl from the exorcism is brought in front of them and killed. Everyone drinks her blood, including the militia officer, but nothing happens to him.
Saddened by the outcome, Piotr stabs Marek and has him thrown into the well so that the authorities don’t come looking for him. Prior Andrzej is seen smoking and dancing to music as he drinks himself silly.
Piotr uses this opportunity to choke him with his own pillow to become the new Prior. The next day, all the decapitated bodies are burnt in the graveyard as Piotr addresses his brethren.
Suddenly, Marek wakes up inside the well and transforms into a demon. Piotr freezes while speaking and disintegrates as the monster makes its way up. The monks try to escape but the demon freezes them, makes them levitate and turns them upside down like an inverted crucifix.
He then stares at the statue of Jesus Christ which moves its head to look back at him. Suddenly, the sky explodes and a portal from hell appears in it.
Also Read: The Good Nurse ending explained: Does Charlie confess to his crimes?