There’s a common belief that mold and stale air in abandoned places can mess with your mind and make you see things that aren’t really there. It can invoke old traumas. That’s exactly what happens in John Pata’s psychological horror thriller film Black Mold. The story follows two photographers, Brooke and Tanner, who love exploring deserted places and researching haunted sites. Brooke and Tanner’s latest adventure leads them to a huge, abandoned research facility at Franklin Hill. And as soon as Brooke and Tanner step inside, they come across a squatter in the building, which scares them right away. From that point on, Brooke and Tanner experience disturbing hallucinations and feel like they’re being attacked by something unseen, and it puts their lives in danger. The big question is, do Brooke and Tanner survive the night or not? Black Mold explores how the mind can play tricks on you when exposed to fear and the unknown.
Spoilers Ahead
What did the squatter do to Brooke and Tanner?
Black Mold started when we met Brooke and Tanner, two photographers who frequently explored abandoned, supposedly haunted places. Brooke, in particular, was driven because she was preparing for an upcoming exhibition and wanted to capture these eerie locations as her subject. However, the beginning of the film made it abundantly clear that Brooke had some deep trauma from her past. Brooke had been blamed for her father’s suicide, and the townspeople had accused her of killing him. This terrible accusation forced Brooke to leave her hometown, cutting ties with her younger sister and mother. The guilt and blame over her father’s death weighed heavily on Brooke, and it continued to haunt her.
While Tanner was scared of things like scarecrows, Brooke’s fears ran much deeper. Sometimes, she even imagined her father crawling out of his coffin to come after her. She knew she didn’t cause his death, but the blame traumatized her deeply. Even simple things, like seeing a picture of a father and daughter, filled her with sadness and fear. As the movie progressed, Brooke and Tanner made their way to an old, abandoned research facility at Franklin Hill. Brooke felt like this place would reveal some truly haunting stories, and their friend and driver, CJ, dropped them off, promising to return once they were done. With trust in each other, Brooke and Tanner entered the abandoned building. As they started to explore, the building quickly began to give off an eerie, unsettling vibe. It was old, decaying, and filled with mold and stale air, which made their heads hurt and their eyes burn. But things still felt manageable—until they encountered a violent squatter living inside the building. The man, with his wild beard, unkempt hair, and terrifying face, was more frightening than any ghost they could have imagined. He screamed at them, believing they were “them”—some mysterious threat he thought was coming after him. Despite Brooke and Tanner’s attempts to calm him down and assure him they meant no harm, the squatter, clearly unhinged after spending so long trapped in the building, attacked them. He had lost his grip on reality. Though he initially promised not to hurt them, his paranoia got the better of him. He punched Brooke and hit Tanner, knocking them both out. It was clear that in his mind, attacking them was his way of protecting himself from “them.”
Why did Brooke want to be with that squatter?
Even though the squatter was very scary and shook both Brooke and Tanner deeply, there was something about him that reminded Brooke of her dead father, as his looks and his mannerisms were quite similar to his. Maybe it was just because he was around her father’s age, or maybe the rotten air in the abandoned building was messing with her mind. But for some reason, she started talking to him. She even asked for his help to wash her face and began sharing personal stuff. The squatter mentioned how he had abandoned his own two daughters and fled from home, which made Brooke think of her own father and how his actions led to her having to leave town. Despite that, it was time for them to find CJ, who was supposed to come back and take them home. They even spotted her car, but when they went to look for her, she was gone—no sign of CJ or the car. Both Brooke and Tanner were shocked and started to wonder what could have happened to her. As the night went on, Tanner grew restless. He was getting scared, his head was hurting, and he was losing his patience. He wanted to leave the building and take Brooke with him, but the problem was that Brooke didn’t want to go. Even though the squatter was creepy and definitely gave off killer vibes, Brooke still gave him the benefit of the doubt because she had started to see her father in him.
Did Brooke survive?
Tanner, on the other hand, was losing his patience and getting angry—not just because Brooke wouldn’t leave with him, but because his fear was taking over as the night drew near. He started to believe that the squatter might turn into some kind of scarecrow or even a werewolf, which were his worst fears. Despite his growing terror, Tanner decided to leave the building. As he walked away, he thought he heard CJ’s voice calling him, but when he found her, she was dead inside the car. Then, to his horror, he started seeing scarecrows following him. It was clear the mold and air in the building had messed with his mind as well, and he began hallucinating and losing his grip on reality. When Tanner returned and saw Brooke with the squatter, he snapped.
The squatter confessed that he had killed CJ as he thought she was one of “them” who had come to get him. This drove Tanner over the edge, and Brooke also lost her mind. She attacked the squatter, her eyes filled with anger and madness. It was clear she wanted to kill him, and her pent-up rage was coming out. But just as she was about to do it, something stopped her. Maybe it was because killing the squatter felt like she would be killing her father all over again, and that made her hesitate. But Tanner didn’t stop. He was fully consumed by his hallucinations and started seeing the squatter turning into a werewolf and believing they were in danger. Even though Brooke tried to stop him, he didn’t listen. In the end, Tanner killed the squatter by shoving him with a shovel. But the nightmare didn’t end there. Tanner, lost in his madness, came after Brooke next. In a desperate act to protect herself, Brooke killed Tanner. It wasn’t just self-defense; it felt like revenge for watching Tanner kill the version of her “father” she had imagined. She had lost that version too, and it devastated her.
In Black Mold’s ending, Brooke survived the awful night and managed to escape the abandoned building. At the end, we see that the photos Brooke had taken captured images of the abandoned building and Tanner. Maybe she would use them as the subject for her exhibition. Perhaps Tanner would become the real “father killer” in her story, not her. This might be Brooke’s chance to change the narrative people have been creating about her all along.
