SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.I absolutely love the ending. The idea of Russell being a modern day Faust, as he tells the story of Faust, shows that it’s been on his mind since the day he came back. It’s a nice thematic backdrop to the horrors of Tully and his dreams of sacrificing a massive amount of cells to open a portal to Hell. Maybe in his videos/messages to Russell he mentioned that if the souls were delivered , rewards would be given. In this way Russell’s decision would be the equivalent of selling his soul. My only gripe with this is I wish that the divine aspect of Russell was more developed and that the nature of the reward Tully promised was made explicit. The former is semi-justified via the Father and his revelations to Vanessa at the end, but I can’t help but feel the themes would have been stronger with a more prominent divine showing. Granted, bringing everyone back to life is pretty divine so I don’t really know what I wanted. Maybe something more directly spectacular, but that’s why I consider this more of a nitpick. The reward with Tully similarly isn’t important, but it’s something that could’ve made the stakes of Russell’s decision more important.

The important thing here is the fact that they’re all dead and in the afterlife. Getting to see all the old members of the original Hell House again is nice and then immediately sad when Alex (Danny Bellinini) realizes they’re all trapped in. It’s nice seeing the rest of his friend group embrace their fate and just make the best of it, but you can’t help but feeling melancholy over the whole situation. It’s what makes the restoration of everyone else feel earned and not like a cheap cop out. In spite of everything else, there’s still stakes and that’s important in horror.