Among all the horror sub-genres, found footage is probably the most exciting one, given how real it feels like for the audience. It is also a genre that is filled with tropes, but that doesn’t have to be an issue if the other things are handled well. We’re talking about Paraguayan-Argentine horror Do Not Enter (No Entres in original language), which is directed by Hugo Cardozo. For a found-footage horror, it has an extremely generic plot, but the thrills and chills are well earned. I had a fairly decent experience, and I guess it was the same for you. In this article, we’re going to talk about Do Not Enter’s ending, of course, and what it means for the characters.
Spoilers Ahead
What is the movie about?
In what I thought to be a stroke of random luck, goofy Youtubers Aldo and Christian come across a deserted mansion with high walls one day. Had their basketball not accidentally gone over that wall, Aldo wouldn’t have had to climb up and go inside. Little did they know such a random occurrence would change their lives, but not for the better. After realizing Aldo has been inside for quite some time, Christian also climbs up the wall and gets inside. He’s the one with the camera, so we see most of the story from his perspective. Upon entering, Christian finds himself standing on a huge estate, with lush green all around him. He has to walk quite a bit to reach the mansion,where he finds a well. It turns out Aldo was only playing a prank on him by luring him inside. Suddenly, they see one of the doors of the mansion opening, but no one is behind it. Before they even start contemplating what’s going on, the door closes and a shutter falls down on it right after. That’s enough to freak out the Youtubers who get out of there immediately.
Later, Christian edits the video with a ghostly figure standing behind the door. He just does it for fun without the intention of posting it online, but thanks to Aldo’s insistence, he does it anyway. Overnight, they go viral, with both the number of views on their video and subscribers to their channel increasing exponentially. Pumped with their success, Aldo declares they’re going to venture into that house again if the video reaches five million views. Christian is skeptical about the idea but Aldo convinces him for the sake of the channel and their future. These are not rich people; they are in desperate need for both money and fame, and this seems to be a golden opportunity after all. Needless to say, the five million views were achieved in no time.
What happens inside the house?
I really wish Do Not Enter had tried to be a little creative, but all it gives is pretty basic stuff. Aldo and Christian sneak into the house again, this time in the middle of the night. Christian accidentally breaks his mobile phone while climbing down the high wall, despite being the cautious one amongst the two. It does not seem like anything sinister is going to happen initially, like always. All they find is a photograph on the wall of a man who looks like a sailor, a kids’ tricycle, a harp, and a huge deserted Jacuzzi in the middle of the room that puts Aldo in a bit of an existential crisis regarding his own life situation. He even ends up saying that he would even live in this abandoned house with ghosts if he got to. This only shows how miserable Aldo is with his life and justifies the desperation he feels.
Sadly for Aldo and Christian, this is not a normal house. They soon realize that when a chair—that Aldo was going to use as a spooky prop for the video—is thrown against the wall by the mysterious forces. Christian immediately suggests they leave, but Aldo still wants to continue. That proves to be a very bad decision as the movie continues to unleash the terror upon its two unfortunate lead characters. A cupboard randomly opens with cracking sound, and a piano starts playing ominously, but the strangest of all has to be Aldo and Christian noticing a little kid named Lucas being force-fed some sort of medicine by his mother. That is soon topped as we see a man dragging a dead body and also a vicious monster in a blink-and-you-miss-it scene. When Aldo finally decides to make a run for his life, they find out all the doors are locked from outside, meaning they’re now trapped inside the haunted house. However, they still find a way when Aldo breaks a window, and even with torrential rain outside, the duo get out. The small victory is only short-lived as Christian is dragged back inside by a sinister force. Aldo, being a true friend, gets back inside again to free Christian.
Are Aldo and Christian dead?
One interesting creative decision Do Not Enter makes is not properly telling its audience the story behind the house. Clearly something terrible happened in the past, and vengeful spirits are roaming around the house, which you can figure out from the fragments you receive. However, the movie’s climax only confirms that the story of the haunted house hardly matters. Once inside, Aldo searches for Christian everywhere, and he finally finds him in the basement, chained to the wall. But Christian seems to be not himself at all, with bloody eyes and a demonic voice that warns Aldo to run away. He listens to his friend and does just that, and this time around, he finds his way out of the house, probably because it’s morning finally. That doesn’t mean the vengeful man is not going to come after Aldo. Thankfully, he does reach the wall and climb out of it to safety. He screams with joy for being alive, and his happiness further grows when he sees Christian is being taken out of the house on a stretcher and put on an ambulance, which only means Christian is alive as well.
However, Do Not Enter is not kind to its main characters at all. So Aldo soon receives the biggest twist of life when he sees his own dead body being carried out. His wish of staying inside the house has now been fulfilled after all. But how did he die, and when did that happen? We get the answer to that as well when the police break it to Christian by showing what the camera recorded—a bloodthirsty Christian coming after Aldo outside the house and killing him. Clearly he was possessed and had no idea what he was doing, but unless he manages to contact Ed and Lorraine Warren from America, no one is going to believe that. Aldo is dead, and Christian is doomed. If there’s any message to take away from here, then that would be not to run after fame and money, while putting your life at risk.
