We can all agree that ‘random person doing terrible things in a small, picturesque town’ has become a prominent horror/thriller sub-genre by now. Sure, it started with Nordic noirs becoming a pop culture thing, but both South Korean and French cinema have contributed to that as well. The Soul Eater, directed by French duo Alexandre Bastillo and Julien Maury, falls into that category, and for the most part, it seems like a solidly made movie. It does falter with the big reveal though, the thing on which these movies hinge most times. Not that it does not go well with the story, but this is the kind of thing that has been done to death already. The Soul Eater doesn’t offer anything new in that context. It is still a decent watch that checks all the boxes (creepy characters, small town, cool mysteries, etc.), but it is not quite Twin Peaks or Les Revenants—both of these happen to be TV shows, though, but you get what I’m saying here. In this article, of course, we’re going to break down the story of v and explain the ending to you.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens in the Movie?
Terrible things are happening in the quiet mountain town of Roquenoir. A plane crashed into the wilderness near it two weeks ago. Children have been mysteriously disappearing for quite a while. And now there has been a brutal murder-suicide. Commander Elisabeth Guardiano arrives in town to investigate, as does Captain Franck De Rolan. Elisabeth is looking into the murder, while Franck is here for the missing children. He believes there might be a connection between the two. Franck does have a theory to back that up: a white van was sighted near all the disappearances, and the Vasseurs couple, who have brutally killed each other in an extremely nasty manner, just happen to own a van like that. But they are dead, and their young son, Evan, is missing. He is only hiding inside their house, though, and it does not take long for Elisabeth to find him. Strangely, the town police could not find the boy before, even though they looked through the house. Thanks to this, Elisabeth is understandably appalled by the incompetence of the local police. They don’t receive her that well either. An officer, Gonnet, doesn’t even hesitate to label her something derogatory, although behind her back. The town mayor tries to smooth it down with Elisabeth. From her, we get to know that once upon a time, the town used to be a tourist attraction. But after the Sanatorium, the town’s most popular hotel, closed down, everything was doomed. Now it stands as this ghost town, and people cannot wait to get out—not that that’s an option for everybody.
The movie kicks off with Franck running frantically to a meet-up with this man named Cortes, who hands him over an envelope and mentions he has some news. This scene actually happens much later in the movie, chronologically, but the directors obviously liked the idea of throwing something at the audience right away. Anyway, Franck and Elisabeth have a bit of difficulty initially when it comes to working together. Both seem like people who work better alone and also have their own issues. It is eventually revealed that Elisabeth had lost her daughter and also tried to take her own life right before coming to Roquenoir. Franck looks disturbed all the time, and we do find out the reason eventually (going to talk about it later, of course).
Who Is Behind The Murders and Kidnappings?
From the opening scene, the movie makes it abundantly clear that it is something called the soul eater. This is one of those old town stories where this evil entity (that’s what I’m saying for the time being) corrupts human minds and makes them do unimaginably cruel things. Evan claims that he has seen the soul eater when Frank questions him at the hospital. As Evan speaks, we do get to see the entity, with its devil’s horns and everything (Franck doesn’t, of course). Franck’s conversation with Evan is cut short thanks to therapist Carole, who seems very protective about the mental well-being of the boy.
As Elisabeth and Franck keep investigating, strangely shocking things start coming out. Semen is found in both the husband and wife’s bodies, which indicates that they were climaxing while brutally murdering each other. A neighbor of the Vasseurs’ tells Franck that the family had always seemed reserved and they never quite socialized. She also blamed Evan for the death of her dog. Franck and Elisabeth do find the carcass inside a plastic bag hidden outside the Vasseurs’ house. In the middle of all this chaos, a carpenter named Yanik is also found dead, with his body mutilated in a horrific manner—looking very similar to the Vasseurs. Henri, a customer of Yanik who just came to his house for some updates about work as Yanik was not picking up calls, is understandably very frightened. Elisabeth soon discovers Henri was lying about calling Yanik, and by the time she and Franck reach Henri’s house, he has already started attacking his wife. From the look of it, the man does appear to be clearly possessed by something. Despite all her best efforts, Elisabeth is unable to save Henri’s wife from bleeding out to death. She also has to shoot Henri, as the man was attacking Franck like a maniac. The police captain would have met his maker if Elisabeth hadn’t done that. Anyway, Henri’s daughter, Jeanne, is nowhere to be found after the massacre at home. However, we do see her hiding just outside the house. We also see a fully kitted-out biker looking at the scene from afar. In case you didn’t notice, when Elisabeth and Franck came to the Vasseurs’ crime scene for the first time, the same biker was outside as well.
From Doctor Carole, Elisabeth and Frank get to know that Jeanne was obsessed with the soul eater. A carved statue of something with horns (which has to be the entity) is found at both Yanik’s and the Vasseurs’, although they look different from each other. Meanwhile, we see Evan is walking out of the hospital with someone who looks exactly like the entity he saw earlier. The good doctor also confirms that the Vasseurs used to abuse the kid, and she felt helpless about not being able to do anything.
What does the plane crash have to do with anything?
This is where things get crazy. I knew for a fact that the plane crash was not thrown into the equation for no reason. Turns out, the plane was carrying some unique, black-market drug to Eastern Europe. The biker is here to retrieve that only. Following a car chase and a violent confrontation where he, Franck, and Elisabeth all get hurt (she ends up in the hospital, actually), the biker does spill everything to Franck. All he intends to do is find the drug and get out of the town. He also claims to have no connection with the murders or the disappearances of the children. However, there is one very important aspect about that drug. A little of it gives you a great high. But a lot of it can prove to be fatal and make you act like a maniac. It becomes quite evident to Franck that the Vasseurs, Henri, and Yanik are all victims of the drug. But there has to be somebody who made them take it, knowingly or unknowingly, right?
What does Franck really want?
Let us take a pause and focus on Franck for a while. Among the many twists and turns this story has, Franck turning out not to be who he claims to be is probably the most shocking one. Because if you are familiar with movies like The Soul Eater, you know for a fact that someone you know is going to turn out to be the one behind everything—unless it’s something fully supernatural, of course. But the one person investigating the case is usually untouchable. Well, not in this movie, I suppose. Franck is not a police captain. He is faking that part. But he is investigating the disappearances because he has a personal stake. His own kid is missing, and he knows for a fact that the good-for-nothing local police of Roquenoir are not going to be able to do anything about it. Well, considering they take so much time to figure out their captain is not quite a police officer, Frank is right, I would say. Although it doesn’t quite make sense that an outsider would just be able to walk into the police station and start to call the shots, logic isn’t a strong suit in this script anyway.
In what I thought to be a very important scene of the movie, Franck and Elisabeth go to the Vasseurs’ house to get their computer, but someone else beats them to it. Franck chases him and does manage to get the computer back, but the guy gets away. Then we see Franck taking the hard drive out and contacting Cortes about cracking it. The first scene of the movie is actually Cortes handing over whatever he has been able to retrieve from it. Franck understandably hides all this from Elisabeth, and he tries his best to not take her to the old Sanatorium hotel, which is basically the evil headquarters. From the computer found at the Vasseurs’ residence, it becomes very clear that the couple, along with Yanik and Henry, were all part of something sinister, and the children were indeed abducted by them. Needless to say, the Vasseurs’ white van was used for it.
Who is The Soul Eater?
That’s obviously the biggest question, and since you already know (unless you are reading this without watching the whole film), no point in me not putting it out in the open. Our good doctor, Carole, is the soul eater. There’s nothing supernatural out there. It’s Carole and a group of deranged people—the Vasseurs, Yanik, Henry, and police officer Gonnet (had to be this guy, of course)—who abducted the kids and then abused them in a shocking manner while filming it. There are a lot of people in the world who would pay to see such things happening to little kids, as told by Carole to Franck during the climax. Franck’s kid, along with the other missing kid, are already dead. It is only human for Franck to have the urge to punish Carole as terribly as possible, given what she has done. And given the woman doesn’t seem to have any remorse, I would say she totally deserved being burned to death at the place where she used to run this whole operation—the Sanatorium, where else?
As far as the deaths of Carole’s associates go, Evan and Jeanne are the ones who orchestrated that. They were both obsessed with the soul eater myth, especially the part that says men need to be perished in order to kill the evil. The kids believed that was the only way to save their parents and themselves. The Vasseurs were obviously terrible parents, and so were Henri and his wife (she for not doing anything about the whole thing), who were all pedophiles. They certainly deserve worse than death. The plane crash came as a blessing for Evan and Jeanne, as they found the drug and thought this was the magical thing that would take care of the soul eater. The neighbor’s dog was killed by Evan, who was experimenting with the drug before trying it out on his parents. Figuring out the rest is not quite difficult. Elisabeth is shocked after finding out about everything, but I don’t think she is going to let Evan and Jeanne suffer anymore. They are also not going to end up in juvenile detention centers, hopefully. But proper psychological counseling and guidance is a must for the two kinds, and Elisabeth is probably going to look after that.