There's Something Wrong with the Children (2023) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

The children are drawn to a mysterious glow emanating from a deep hole in the dilapidated building they discover while hiking. After being near the hole, they develop nosebleeds and begin exhibiting unsettling, otherworldly behavior. The exact nature of the force is never fully explained, but it clearly possesses or corrupts the children, turning them violent and making them kill their parents and others.

Foreshadowing: The mysterious glow from the hole and the children's nosebleeds right after discovering it establish early that something supernatural is happening.

• Lucy
• Spencer
• hole
• possession
• supernatural
• woods
• nosebleeds

Ben discovers Lucy and Spencer standing entranced at the edge of the hole. He witnesses them leap into the abyss, leading him to believe they have died. When he rushes back to tell the others, he is stunned to find the children playing innocently outside the cabin, seemingly unharmed.

• Ben
• hole
• children
• death
• vision

Margaret dismisses Ben's claims because he has mental health issues that he manages with lithium. When Ben insists he saw the children's lifeless bodies at the hole, she attributes his account to hallucinations caused by his condition rather than accepting that something supernatural is occurring.

• Margaret
• Ben
• mental health
• lithium
• belief

After Ben kills Spencer during a violent struggle in the cabin, Spencer suddenly revives on the couch while his mother Ellie mourns him. This revival demonstrates the supernatural nature of the children's transformation - they cannot be killed through normal means once possessed by whatever force inhabits them.

• Spencer
• revival
• possession
• death
• Ben

The hole is located in a dilapidated building deep within the woods and emits an otherworldly glow that attracts Lucy and Spencer. It appears to be the source of the supernatural force that possesses the children. When Ben and Margaret return to find the bodies, the hole is empty and later begins pulsating with an eerie glow, suggesting it serves as a portal or conduit for the entity.

• hole
• forest
• glow
• supernatural
• portal

Ben begins showing signs of transformation after being exposed to the same supernatural force that affected the children. This becomes apparent when Margaret notices his disturbing transformation and he becomes hostile toward her. The force appears to spread through proximity to the hole or the children, affecting adults as well.

• Ben
• transformation
• possession
• children

Margaret manages to trap Lucy and Spencer at the hole alongside the bodies of Ellie and the park ranger. When the children are discarding the corpses, Margaret shoves them into the hole. However, the ending is ambiguous - as Margaret drives away, she sees Ben, Lucy, and Spencer standing on the road together, suggesting the evil may have persisted despite this attempt to stop them.

• Lucy
• Spencer
• ending
• death
• hole
• escape

Lucy persistently attempts to lure Margaret into the forest, seemingly trying to bring her to the hole or the ruins where the supernatural activity is centered. This behavior mirrors how Lucy and Spencer were originally drawn to the glowing hole - the force inside them compels them to bring others to the source of their transformation.

Foreshadowing: The children's initial attraction to the hole establishes the pattern of them drawing others to that location.

• Lucy
• Margaret
• woods
• lure
• forest

The children become violent after being exposed to whatever supernatural force exists at the mysterious hole in the woods. After their encounter with the glowing abyss, they develop nosebleeds and undergo a transformation that makes them kill their own mother Ellie, attack a park ranger, and attempt to kill Margaret and Ben. The force corrupts their innocence and turns them into killers.

Foreshadowing: The nosebleeds and enchanted state when near the hole foreshadow their violent transformation.

• violence
• children
• possession
• killing
• motivation

Margaret abandons Ben at the hole after a heated confrontation where she insists he needs to face reality. She believes his claims about the children are delusional hallucinations stemming from his mental health issues. Her refusal to accept his warnings about the supernatural threat isolates Ben, and he later transforms, suggesting the force at the hole then affects him directly.

• Margaret
• Ben
• abandonment
• holes
• confrontation

Ellie is brutally murdered by Spencer in the neighboring cabin. Margaret discovers the horrific scene after Spencer's violent attack. This occurs after Spencer revives following his earlier confrontation with Ben, demonstrating that the possessed children have turned against their own family.

• Ellie
• Spencer
• murder
• death
• cabin

The ending is deliberately ambiguous. Margaret escapes by pushing the children into the hole and drives away with Thomas's help. However, she encounters Ben, Lucy, and Spencer standing together on the road - suggesting either the children survived or the evil has spread. The final shot shows Margaret accelerating toward them, leaving her fate uncertain.

• Margaret
• ending
• survival
• escape
• road
• ambiguous