There's Something Wrong with the Children (2023) Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Accompanied by their children, Lucy and Spencer, Ellie and Thomas Huerta join their friends, fellow couple Ben and Margaret Winslow, for a serene getaway in the woods, staying in neighboring cabins. The adventure takes a dark turn when, during a hike, the group stumbles upon a dilapidated building nestled within the forest. Captivated by a mysterious glow emanating from a deep hole, Lucy and Spencer find themselves enchanted and soon develop nosebleeds.

Later, Ellie confides in Margaret about the awkwardness in her marriage, which has arisen since an inebriated night involving a foursome with another couple. Meanwhile, Ben and Thomas engage in a conversation regarding their hopes of starting a family. In a generous gesture, Margaret offers to entertain Lucy and Spencer for the night, hoping to give Ellie and Thomas a chance for intimacy while allowing Ben to gain some experience in child care. However, this kind act spirals into distress as the next morning reveals the children to be missing.

Ben soon discovers Lucy and Spencer entranced at the edge of the hole. Shockingly, he witnesses the siblings leaping into the abyss. When he rushes back to report their apparent deaths, he is bewildered to find the children playing innocently outside. Confronted by Ben, Lucy gives a cryptic response that leaves him puzzled.

Ben shares his account with Margaret, asserting he saw Lucy and Spencer's lifeless bodies, but she dismisses his claims as mere hallucinations linked to his mental health issues, which he manages with lithium. As strange behaviors manifest in the children, only Ben seems aware of their menacing antics. Tensions rise as a confrontation ensues between him and Spencer, leading to an unfortunate accident where Ben fatally injures Spencer during a struggle. Lucy, with an eerie smirk, implicates Ben when questioned by her grief-stricken parents.

Convinced that something supernatural has taken over the children, Ben insists on taking Margaret to see the bodies. To his shock, the hole is empty when they arrive. After a heated exchange where Margaret urges him to confront reality, she abandons him at the site, which soon pulsates with an unearthly glow.

Back at the cabin, Lucy persistently tries to entice Margaret into the forest. In an escalating conflict, Thomas intervenes, while Spencer unexpectedly revives on the couch just as his mother mourns. In a frantic search inside the other couple’s cabin, Margaret discovers a horrific scene where she finds Ellie brutally murdered by Spencer. In a desperate bid for survival, she barricades herself from the boy and soon glimpses Lucy morphing into a grotesque insect creature.

As the chaos unfolds, a park ranger arrives in response to the shocking murders, only to be attacked by the children. Margaret manages to conceal herself beneath a car and cleverly calls Thomas's discarded cellphone to distract the children long enough to escape. However, she soon realizes that Ben has not escaped unscathed either, as he too shows signs of a disturbing transformation.

A struggle ensues between them, culminating in Margaret sticking a machete blade into Ben's shoulder. Trying to flee, she is captured by Lucy and Spencer, who drag her to the ruins alongside the slain bodies of Ellie and the park ranger. Seizing a moment of opportunity as they discard the corpses into the hole, Margaret retaliates and pushes the children in as well.

Finally, Margaret races back to the cabins, where she faces Ben once more. Having survived the attack from Lucy, Thomas suddenly intervenes, tackling Ben to allow Margaret the chance to escape. After what seems like a nail-biting conclusion, she halts her vehicle to regain composure, only to find Ben standing in the middle of the road, flanked by Lucy and Spencer. Desperate and resolute, she slams on the gas, barreling toward the trio.

In the final moments of "There’s Something Wrong with the Children," Margaret faces a terrifying choice. After discovering that the children—possessed by a sinister, supernatural force—have been reanimated and are part of an alien entity feeding on human souls, she confronts her own fears of losing her independence and sanity. The "bright place" was revealed to be the alien's lair, a place where they trap and duplicate human bodies before sending them back to Earth to multiply their presence and dominate humanity. This creature, fed by human life and souls, had effectively infiltrated the children, turning them into agents of its horrifying plan.

As Margaret fights to escape, she encounters her own husband, Ben, who is no longer the man she knew but possessed by the same spirit controlling the children. The alien has its grotesque grip on him, and he, too, desires Margaret to join their dark family. But she refuses to succumb, fighting off Ben and the children in a desperate bid to free herself. In a tense, final act of defiance, Margaret manages to push the possessed children into the abyss of the hole, which glows with an eerie green light — symbolizing the alien’s energy source. Her act of rebellion halts their plans temporarily, allowing her to escape in her car.