Something very sinister is going on in The Sleeping Woman, and the new Spanish horror thriller makes a creative choice to not tell us what it really is until the end. But the reveal is still quite unsatisfactory. And the ending is kind of confusing. I put the blame for that on the film’s clunky screenplay. In this article, I’m going to take a swing at explaining the whole thing and decode the ending of The Sleeping Woman.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
In the middle of the night, a kid sees a woman from behind, wearing a long white dress, walking down the middle of a road. When she turns around, the kid screams in horror. That’s all the tease you get, and let me just tell you right away that it was quite pointless. I mean, there’s this lore of ‘The Sleeping Woman’ going around in the Spanish town where the story is set, but the movie never makes an attempt to explore it much.
In the same town, auxiliary nurse Ana is hired by a wealthy sculptor, Augustin, to take care of his wife Sara, who’s in a completely vegetative state. Augustin’s house is actually out of town, and he has to come and pick up Ana once the bus drops her. The man appears to be genuinely warm and quite friendly, and despite him being her employer, Ana gets smitten by his charm. Augustin also seems to be quite taken by Ana. While the potential romance slowly brews, Ana starts to experience sleepwalking. Strangely enough, this happens only when she’s around Sara. She starts losing track of time, as she randomly wakes up at places without having any idea about how she came there. Meanwhile, Sara’s mother appears out of the blue and forcefully tries to take her daughter away, but Augustin is hellbent on preventing that from happening. Ana finds out there is a legal battle going on regarding Sara’s custody, and Augustin is keen to prove that it should be him who should take care of Sara. Thanks to Ana’s presence, he doesn’t have much problem establishing that. All this while, Ana’s sleepwalking episodes keep worsening, and she slowly starts to believe that Sara might have something to do with that, even though that is not possible, at least logically. From the townsfolk, she also gets to know how Sara used to be very mean to Augustin all the time and how he had to isolate himself from everyone after getting married.
The romance between Ana and Augustin was a given from the start. That finally happens, but in a rather dramatic manner. After winning custody of Sara, the two of them celebrate, and all thanks to the influence of alcohol, Ana finds the courage to make a move. Augustin pulls back, though, and things get quite awkward. The next morning, Ana leaves, but while going to drop her off, Augustin realizes that he doesn’t want to let her go and gives in to his urges.
What really happened to Sara?
I don’t understand the point of tricking the audience into thinking that Sara might be the evil one who is trying to get Ana out because she’s simply jealous. Of course, there’s the tried and tested template for this kind of movie, which deliberately makes you believe things are a certain way, only to surprise you by the end with some earth-shattering twist. However, for this movie it doesn’t work. Especially the part where the people of the town portray Augustin as a victim (of Sara). Do we have to assume that they were also charmed so hard by the man that they refused to see otherwise?
Ana finding out the truth was a matter of time. The sudden pregnancy complicates things for her, and while she tries to leave (for the sake of her child), Augustin convinces her to stay by putting Sara away. He is lying, though, as you realize by the end that Sara is not actually in a nice hospital but in the outhouse (where Augustin works). Thanks to contacting the former housekeeper who used to work at the house, Ana realizes that her sleepwalking may have been Sara’s doing, but it was actually a call for help. Why else would Ana find herself in front of a tree, with a phone carefully hidden at the bottom of it? The phone is, of course, evidence of Augustin hurting Sara, and her trying to get away. Ana finds further confirmation of that after meeting with Sara’s mother. She does get caught by Augustin and has to pretend everything is alright for some more time. In the end, though, it comes down to Ana escaping but then returning to save Sara, only to find Augustin blocking her path. Something strange happens then—Sara, who definitely has some kind of supernatural abilities, sort of swaps her body with Ana’s and kills Augustin. Only a moment later, Ana finds herself back, though, and then she kisses Sara’s head.
What does the ending mean?
The Sleeping Woman could have just ended with Augustin getting what he deserved and Ana leaving, but then the director decides to throw a curveball at us. We see Ana giving birth and telling the nurses she’s going to name the baby Sophia. This is the name Sara wanted to give to her unborn baby, after her mother. Ana wanting to name her baby Sophia is understandable—as a token of gratitude to Sara—but then she adds, ‘after her grandmother,’ which makes you think, What if this is actually Sara, in Ana’s body? Well, I would say it is actually possible, even though the movie never hinted at something as freaky as body swapping. Sara using Ana’s body as a vessel to live a full life, now that there’s no Augustin to bother her, is an ending that is baffling but also acceptable. We never knew about Augustin’s deal, though. Was it just anger issues? Were his feelings for either Ana or Sara ever real? The movie never bothered to tell us any of that, so we have no choice but to read between the lines and conclude he was a terrible man who was never fit to be in any sort of relationship.
