“Amulet” is a gothic horror-thriller directed by Romola Garai, featuring Alec Secareanu as Tomaz, an ex-soldier who finds himself homeless in London after an accident. The film explores themes of gender and superficial norms, with the ending suggesting Magda is either a godly figure or a demonic entity punishing immoral men. The protagonist, Tomaz, falls in love with Magda and takes refuge in a decaying house inhabited by a young woman and her dying mother.
The film explores themes of loyalty, toxic relationships, and the sad co-dependent dynamic. As Tomaz becomes increasingly drawn to Magda, he becomes more concerned about his own actions and the lives of those around him. The film also serves as a supernatural horror film and a rape-revenge thriller, with a semi-divine female principle carrying out harsh justice on men.
The film is a satisfying blend of body horror, suspense, and revenge, making it a timely tale in the midst of the MeToo movement. The story revolves around Tomaz, a former soldier who finds himself haunted by his past and homeless in London. The film’s conclusion suggests that Magda may be a demon, as Claire claims in a scene where she claims to be a demon.
In summary, “Amulet” is a gripping gothic horror-thriller that explores themes of gender, superficial norms, and the consequences of one’s actions. The film features Alec Secareanu as Tomaz, a veteran of an unnamed foreign war, and is a testament to the power of female power and the power of storytelling.
📹 Amulet EXPLAINED
Were you confused by the ending of the atmospheric horror film ‘Amulet’? You’re probably not alone. Here are my thoughts and …
📹 Amulet – Ending Explained
Spoiler Warning***Spoiler Warning*** Follow Movie Emporium, as they take a deep dive what the ending, plus some of the …
No. The main character guy, raped the woman that he kept having flash backs of. He didnt kill her, hence why shes alive and shown at the end of the movie but what he did to her in the forest that made him feel so guilty, he raped her. The man in the attack disguised as the girls mom was also a bad man who did bad things to a woman. At the end, the girl whos true form is that amulets creature thing, give the amulet to the other girl who the guy raped at the end. She is a goddess that protects women and gets revenge for them. Lures bad men in and has them possessed so they suffer. Im guessing the reason they give birth to those things is because most of them are rapists so now they know the pain of being sexually assulted and being forced to give birth to something they did not ask for, by shoving those demons out of their penises. And the old “nun” is the goddess helper. She helps her lure the bad men in. They are not the bad guys. The men who are rapists are.
The films idol or amulet is a generic placeholder for a pre-Christian piece of Neolithic Art. Imelda is the handler of a pagan deity of sorts, a human intermediary. The film plays with the idea of who’s the villain and thematically circles back around to atonement. The amulet calls to him in the beginning because it sees his intentions it knows what tempts him. A symbolic sign of the silence of women often subject to a vicious cycle of never-ending violence perpetrated by men. The amulet never made him evil. He never faced the possibility of absolution as he never accepted what happened. His reckoning was always on the horizon.
I believe he was being fed the dead bat creatures from his first meeting with Magda. The nun says you have eaten well now it is time to pay when he is birthing his first one. Also, remember the intensity shown by them when he takes his first bite of her “cooking”. Also, we see her buying vegetables from the market but no meat.
My husband and I literally just finished perusal Amulet… It is the first movie I’ve ever finished and then directly looked up afterwards with no in-between time. It definitely holds one’s attention, although there is a good bit of it that we found confusing due to the movie jumping from flashbacks/dreamlike sequences etc, all of which without any real explanations. To anyone who hasn’t seen it, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It’s certainly worth perusal, although I’m not sure I’d watch again.
I think he was given a choice everytime after he got the amulet as a good luck. He then uses all of that good luck without repenting and thus choosing to be selfish by killing the old woman in the attic. Enraged the goddess of the charm curses Thomaz and gives the amulet to the person who deserves it who is the one who was raped by Thomaz. Magda is the goddess who has taken the human form to set things right. And it’s her own wrath that takes the form of this demon who punishes Thomaz.
I love how Magda tells Miriam “Never forget” when she gives her the amulet… I saw that as a “forgive but don’t forget” metaphor… showing how Magda/Miriam may have forgiven Thomaz for what he has done, yet he has “never forgotten” or hasn’t admitted to it/asked for forgiveness…. and he’s turned into C.G. Jr. for it lol… Or it could just mean that Magda knows and she’s tryna let her know that she avenged her, but for some reason I think there is a “Forgive but never forget” metaphor tied to that scene, I just can’t put it into words.
I have a few questions. Why was there a bat baby in the toilet? Did she just flush it like a dead gold fish? Why are the bats killed immediately? Why was the bat in the toilet not already dead? How did the bat baby fit in the toilet pipe when both the toilet and bat were physical objects with no supernatural interaction?
I wondered if the meals he was eating was human or some sort of taboo meat because of the focus on him eating when she cooks for him. He was also very reluctant to eat the meal first presented to him until the num convinced him to eat. He obviously didn’t recognise what meat that was. And the Goddess only reply was that “it’s meat”. But then I saw her buy fish at the market and wondered is she really preparing acceptable meats. My conclusion is Tomaz was being fed bats the whole time. Sweet tasting gruesome looking bats.
This movie explores a lot of themes. Male dominance, womanhood, powerlessness, sin, and vice vs. virtue. The amulet along with the symbolism of the shell I think represent sexual love, beauty and womanhood. Aphrodite is often seen with shells as she arose from sea foam which sprang from Uranus’ genitals. Tomas had ruminating thoughts surrounding sexual abuse on woman. The amulet itself is just a symbol, the real catalyst for the things that played out was his act of evil and sin; gluttony (note both Tomas and the older woman indulged themselves in carnal pleasures; food, imbibing, smoking), greed, fornication, and of course rape being the major one – which resulted in the victim, a woman, earning vengeance thru the supernatural world. The irony is the pleasure he gained in his sin has very literally turned into torture in that biting bats crawl out his manhood.
I don’t think Magda is evil. I think she serves the goddess or whatever that white thing at the end was.. the nun later says that evil has to be contained.. the bad guy Thomas..has to pay for his sin and is guided to her and she contains him. I think she serves the goddess and bewitches the bad guy (evil) so she keep him from hurting others and makes sure he takes the steps to make sure he gets possessed. Just my opinion.. almost like justice in a warped sort of way. At the end she tells the woman to never forget.. meaning..don’t forget and she also leaves the amulet saying that she gave her a perverse justice. My opinion
Your opinions are spot on; I read an interview from the Director of the film. Thomas is made a slave to atone for the rape and give birth to pure evil over and over. I have another layer ( however minor ). Notice how food is portrayed in the film. Thomas is served food from Magda and he smells it, acts cautious as if it could be poison. Magda tosses the frozen food to him at the end. Watch again, and just notice the organic nature of cinematography and the sights and sounds of food portrayed. I’m not sure what it means, but it creates some interesting ideas.
The way I thought about the amulet scaring tomas was the warning about the future evil ahead of him. In the film the lady in the woods was telling tomas that it was for warning about evil so it just made sense in that way to me. I also think that the amulet was always meant for her not tomas because she was the victim. I could be completely wrong this movie was a doozy.
so from perusal the movie, I thought Imelda Staunton is like an order of guardians tasked with entrapping the evil in a way that it cannot harm anyone else. So she finds these demon incarnates, beckons them into the house and entraps them so their evil is contained. So I’m not sure how she is evil. She takes a certain perverse pleasure in carrying out her role, but I assumed she is not evil, but rather a necessary evil! But the review totally contradicts my original idea, so…… not sure.
As a possible hint as to whether or not he was always going to become the demon, Claire says while standing over him towards the end something like, “You had every chance, boy…” which to me seems to mean he had many chances to avoid his final fate. What was the significance of the exposed wires upstairs near her “mother” about halfway thru the film?
Your take is interesting and I agree with much of it. A couple things don’t seem to match up, though. Towards the end, Thomas is told to choose his companion and when he chooses Magda, the “nun” says she (Magda) has done her time. But then it doesn’t make sense that Magda is inside the shell. Confusing. Also, yes, Thomas committed a truly evil act. But to call him pure evil seems a bit much because he was obviously tortured by it. Someone pure evil would probably not even think about it or, if they did, would not be bothered by it. But, like you said, maybe because he didn’t actually verbally repent. All in all, for me, an interesting but confusing movie with the makings of what could have been a really good fright flick.
Hi sir can you help me with this. 1. he lied about the tape in his hands in the hospital saying that it is a prank from friends. not sure if it has anything to do with the story. 2. why the fake nun asked thomas about what he wants? Is she making him chose between magda and meriam. 3. Not sure if he is suffering from PTSD, for me its more of a guilt from what he did to meriam. perusal the movie for a 2nd time gives more questions than answer.😅
I don’t think it’s a ‘good guy/bad guy’ type situation. However, I do think there is a definite female subplot going on here. When you were talking about the shell symbology, I remembered the painting of The Birth of Venus, where Venus arrives on the scallop shell. I did a bit of research and discovered that: “since ancient Greece the shell has been a symbol for female genitals, and it brings to mind the idea of birth. Over time, the shell has also become one of the symbols of the Virgin Mary”. This seems to explain a few things. Finally, I don’t think Tomas gets turned into a demon. I think he gets poisoned with the food he’s fed which transforms him into a birthing machine for biting and clawing bat babies as a female-inspired punishment for being a defiler of women. They just tell him he’s a demon, because that’s how they see him. By this point, Tomas has no idea what is going on anyway. Magda could be the Goddess of Fertility- or possibly even the apostle Mary Magdalene – taking revenge on men. And I don’t believe there were any other people in the old woman’s diary, I believe all the defilers request Magda.
I just saw it. It could have been a masterpiece, the story is completely genius. The execution of the first act is passable, in the second act is phenomenal, the third act sort of ruined it for me (it went for cheap exposition and clichés, I guess is the screenwriter’s fault in adapting the novel). But still a very unique experience.
I think that Tomas died in the fire and the nun is death itself that leads Tomas into purgatory which the Amulet is a demon utilized to purify Tomas from his sins. Though as any theologian would a Say purgatory may extend to the end of time itself until the final judgment. The bat babies is the very sins that exist within Tomas that is being extracted from within him and how many exist could be a thousand. A legion
Okay! Woah woah woah! We had completely different ideas about this movie. I believe that Magda was a slave who was taken advantage by her father and her father was the demon that was actually living in the attic. She uses Tomas, who has been abusive towards another woman, just like what Magda went through and uses him to kill her demon Father. To me the amulet is grief, but also a sign of hope and she gives it to the woman Tomas hurt to help give her strength to move on. Wow. I just realized from your article how different every person could actually take it!!! Loving your website <3
Revenge demon Magda is a familiar to the demon The human body dies and the demon needs another one so the old lady finds one and it’s a very feminine demon and only wants evil men! The amulet found Thomas and because he is an evil man he must suffer for the rest of his human life feeling feminine pain and that’s childbirth! And he gives birth to evil thus the evil bat babies over an over till he expires! This one is 5 outta 5! Go watch this now!!!
Well, didn’t you think that the house could be the man’s personal hell, the Amulet (young woman) could be some kind of a supernatural creature what could be seen when she’s saying to the man to leave standing between him and “the mother”, and this feministic horror is about men’s ring of hell, of those who hurt women and now they had to live and feel the pain a woman feels when she’s pregnant and going to give birth? And this supernatural creature is neutral as angel or Justice or smth like this, giving it’s victim a chance to change himself, but the old woman is evil like demon or some other dark spirit leading the bad guy/victim to the court. The movie is nasty, actually. Just finished perusal 20 minute ago it and wanna go to bathroom and wash this dirt away.
When persons can to find true forgiveness confessing and be sorry accepting their wrong know that all man or woman are falable there for we have to go to God the lord jesus christ forgiveness and go and sin no more we can embrace true for hive ness and stop self atoning so that demons and gain power over us .
If you’re pause the scene where the newspaper falls off the roof in the attic, it’s an article about a man who actually kills his wife (who is the mother of his 6 children) in order to marry one of his daughters. This man is the old woman/man that lives in the attic giving birth to the rat bat babies continually. Thomaz is the rapist, not the dude in the ceiling. The writer/director has given many interviews explaining the the amulet doesn’t make people do evil, it’s meant to be a totem to protect weaker women, and when magdas character gives it to the women who lived in the woods with thomaz during the war in the end sequence. It’s meant to symbolise that what happened to her did not go unseen, and has been atoned for, to give her some kind of closure on the rape. It’s a bit unclear, I think, whether the girl is a rape baby or whether it’s her daughter she was originally looking for when she was telling thomaz she was planning to cross the border
Listening to your theories caused me to rethink the entire movie. As the storyline(s) began making sense towards the end, I took Magda to be the evil and both the old woman and Tomas to be her servants. If we think of it as a feminist movie where females win (the only two males are Tomas and the father/old “woman” -and we know the fate of both men. I mean, they eventually become female – but the most painful aspect of being female.), we realize Magda is not a servant to some evil creature . . . but Magda is the powerful evil who keeps men as her servants (men who give birth to more evil). At the end, it isn’t that Magda has been freed; rather, Magda is driving (in control) while Tomas is kept in the back seat and fed meat – like a pet (or something dependent upon Magda). She gives Miriam (who first appears wearing red in the woods – a Little Red Riding Hood character who is betrayed by the wolf) the amulet as a means of letting her know the wolf (men) has been slain. But that’s just my interpretation. The greatest aspect of storytelling is allowing for thousands of interpretations.
So, I would be curious to hear your theories when you have more context. **SPOILERS** You seem to have brought a Christian filter to the interpretation that doesn’t fit this movie’s mythology. There is no Satan or satanic elements here. Additionally, I don’t believe that you can clearly identify either Magda or Sister Claire as “evil”. The true evil in the mythology of this movie is the violent acts of men against women. In the woods, Miriam identifies the amulet by saying it must have been an ancient diety, since it was a woman god, implying that such a thing was no longer possible in their time. This is also emphasized when Sister Claire reveals that she is not a nun, implying that the situation Tomas finds himself in is not actually related to the traditional Christian/Catholic mythology at all. The nun habit was a guise to gain his trust. The amulet represents the deity that cares for the demons of pure evil (the men who commit atrocities towards women). I am personally uncertain if this process is purely punishment, or a way for these demons/men to pay penence (as Tomas implies in the film that he is not sure if he can forgive himself, and theorizes that forgiveness for such an act was once thought in ancient times to be only something that the gods could bestow.) But the punishment is fitting, since these men are made to birth evil. They must endure the ultimate pain that their sins can afflict on their victims/survivors, again and again. Because they themselves are pure evil, their bodies can only create pure evil in this process.
My theory was initially that he was being directly punished for his sex addiciton which they briefly talked about. But as i listen to your explanation i think it was just a case of wrong place/wrong time. I feel like he wa a definitely lured in in some way because they clearly knew he was a “sinner”. Ive watched it twice now and i still dont feel like ive caught every detail. Its one of those movies that i think they put so many details in but never finished explaining things for example the amulet, what actually is it, whats its power, where did it come from etc.
I just got to see this movie and it was a shocker. She please the victim and who ever was the poor lady in the attic God help her. It seems who she mate with they become like a bee 🐝 or a ant 🐜 constantly giving birth to monsters. But for Thomas he did something very bad in his pass so he got his comeuppance. It was a good movie with amazing casts too 👍👍👍👍