Alone In The Dark – Story Recap and Ending Explained
2024’s Alone In The Dark is a remake of the 1992 game of the same name. Its story revolves around Edward Carnby who travels to a psychiatric facility named Derceto Manor with Emily Hartwood, who is looking for her Uncle Jeremy who was a resident there. In our Alone in the Dark story recap and ending explained, you will discover the dark truth about Decerto and the nightmare that Jeremy has fallen into,
How does Alone in the Dark begin?
At the beginning of the game, we are introduced to Emily Hartwood and Edward Carnby.
Carnby is a private detective Emily hired to find her missing uncle, Jeremy Hartwood.
According to Emily, Jeremy thinks his life is being threatened by somebody called the Dark Man. Emily’s not sure this is true as madness runs in her family. Could Jeremy be having hallucinations?
After meeting with Dr. Gray at Derceto Manor, Jeremy went missing. Before he vanished, he wrote to Emily telling her the people at the facility were part of a cult that was out to get him.
What does Edward discover about Jeremy?
You have the choice to play as two characters in the game and for the sake of this playthrough, we chose Edward.
After gaining entry to the facility, Edward discovers it is completely deserted. He finds various documents written by staff and patients, including a note hidden in a Bible hinting that the people within the facility are in league with a Voodoo cult.
As Edward explores the manor, he encounters a housekeeper, a girl named Grace, a man named MacCarfey, and a woman named Ruth. Edward recognizes Grace from somewhere but can’t figure out where.
He learns from the housekeeper that Jeremy is lost. This is of no surprise, as his disappearance is why Edward and Emily came to Derceto Manor in the first place.
In Jeremy’s room, they find his journal. It contains information about a place called Taroella, which is a place Jeremy created as a safe haven for himself but where he was never able to reach.
Edward also finds a diagram of a talisman as well as a picture of Jeremy holding the talisman and a book named Reflection.
When Emily leaves to find Dr. Gray, Edward follows her. But as he exits Jeremy’s room, the layout of the mansion changes and Emily is nowhere to be seen.
Strangely, Edward finds himself in the French Quarter of New Orleans, in a reality that exists inside Jeremy’s imagination. Here, he discovers monsters that want to kill him and a man named Batist.
Batist tells Edward that Jeremy made a pact the Dark Man and that he is now hiding in a place that nobody can find. He’s doing this using a juju necklace – a magic item that he was given by Miss Jackson, a Voodoo Priestess. This necklace allows Jeremy to travel to other worlds.
Edward heads to Miss Jackson’s apartment and finds the talisman. He uses it to get back to Derceto.
Does Edward find Jeremy?
Back at the manor, Edward meets Dr Gray. Edward asks about Jeremy but the doctor gives nothing away, citing doctor-patient confidentiality. Instead, he tells Edward to speak to his orderlies for more information.
When Edward leaves the office, he meets Emily again. She thinks he is crazy when she hears him speak about the place he had been transported to.
After picking up some clues about Jeremy’s location, Edward uses the talisman to complete a clock puzzle and is transported back into another of Jeremy’s memories. Here he encounters a fierce monster and Lottie, Batist’s sister, who is also looking for Jeremy.
Edward finds a bag but before he opens it, he is attacked by the monster. He is saved after grabbing the bag which transports him back to Derceto.
Inside the bag is the book Jeremy was holding in the picture Edward found earlier. The book highlights a place called the Great Library.
After some puzzle-solving, Edward goes to the Hartwood family chapel and finds the body of a lady in a coffin. Her name is Elizabetha, another resident of Derceto, who was a friend of Jeremy’s.
At the chapel, Edward also meets Jeremy who tells him he is here to keep evil at bay for as long as he can. Jeremy is upset that Emily is at Derceto because he warned her to stay away.
Jeremy talks about the deal he made with the Dark Man and how this pact meant he would be trapped in the Dark Man’s Sunken Temple for an eternity. This is bad news for Jeremy but good news for the world, as it is a way of keeping the people at Derceto from unleashing evil into the world.
The Dark Man appears and Edward is thrown to the floor by Jeremy. Edward then returns to his reality but a little while later, he enters another realm through a door that takes him to a convent. Here, he meets a man named Juan who is the author of the book Edward found previously.
Juan explains he is a figment of Jeremy’s subconscious, as is Taroella, which was the safe haven Jeremy had created with Dr Gray.
Juan directs Edward to the Great Library but warns him that the Dark Man exists in the library’s texts.
What happens at the Great Library?
Edward heads to the library and as expected, the Dark Man turns up. After a tense chase, Edward escapes his clutches and finds a book that speaks of a sinister showman in New Orleans.
As he’s reading, the Dark Man appears and pulls the book from his hand. Before Edward is killed by this evil menace, Juan turns up and and blows a whistle to distract the Dark Man’s attention.
Edward escapes and meets with Ruth. She has heard that Jeremy is trying to break his promise with the Dark Man.
What does Jeremy tell Edward?
With Ruth’s help, Edward returns to a memory of Jeremy who he finds at an empty stage venue. Jeremy is in fear of the Black Pharoah, the sinister showman that was mentioned in the book. Jeremy had witnessed the Black Pharoah’s show as a child when he had been taken to the theatre by his father.
He talks about the pact he made with the Dark Man and how he will be freed from it if he makes a sacrifice at the sunken desert temple.
Edward uses the talisman to access the temple and finds an ancient dagger and a contract between the Dark Man and Jacob, who is somehow connected to Jeremy. He is then taken back to reality where he tells Emily about his experiences. He also tells her he knows how to break the contract between Jeremy and the Dark Man – something that can be done using the sacrificial dagger to “release the despair from Jacob’s eye.”
However, if the contract is broken, Derceto will be doomed.
What does Edward discover?
Edward hears Batist and Lottie speaking. It’s apparent that they’re up to no good and not on his side. He hears them mention the Black Goat and the coming arrival of “the Mother.”
We later discover the Mother and the Black Goat are one and the same, after Edward hears a recording of Jeremy speaking to the manor’s staff and residents, who want him to tell them what to speak at an upcoming ceremony.
Edward then enters Dr Gray’s office and finds a note from the doctor that references a lobotomy he wants to perform on Jeremy. The doctor mentions in the note dark blotches on Jeremy’s brain scans, which Jeremy referred to as the “the shadow of the worm” that is eating him from inside.
Edward enters another memory where he finds himself on a boat, which is one of Jeremy’s safe havens. He sees Jeremy and Dr Gray speaking to one another but they can’t hear him.
Back at Derceto, he meets MacCarfey who tells Edward that he and the other residents are going to pay tribute to the Whispering Tree in the conservatory. Edward also speaks to Grace who tells Edward she is going to turn the world inside out so that things will begin again.
The next memory Edward enters is one of his own. He’s in his office where he is looking into the case of a girl who has been abducted by her father Theodore, who is trying to ditch his old life. The mother has tasked Edward with finding her.
In the memory, Edward catches up with them at Pearl River Bridge. Here, he sees Grace, the girl from the manor. She’s the girl who was abducted by her father. We learn that Theodore drove his car off the bridge and drowned. We also learn that Edward handed Grace back to her mother, who it turns out was abusive. Theodore was actually trying to protect his daughter from her.
After falling into the water, Edward wakes up in a bath at Derceto. He meets with Emily again who believes Derceto has an effect on those staying there and makes them deranged.
What happens in Dr Gray’s room?
Emily knows Dr Gray is hiding something so she and Edward go to his office where they find a hidden room.
The phone rings. Edward picks up the call and a man on the other end tells him Jeremy is with the Dark Man and that Edward can’t save him.
Edward uses the talisman to open a doorway to a snowy realm. Here, he finds a diary belonging to Jacob and learns that the man has discovered an ancient Stellarium. Shortly after, he meets Jacob who tells Edward that he isn’t wanted there. Jacob attacks him but Edward manages to get the better of him.
Using the talisman, Edward aligns the Stellarium with the Taurus constellation and opens up a hole into the cosmos.
At this point, Jacob is resurrected and he becomes a monster. The two of them fight, resulting in Edward stabbing him in the eye with the dagger – an event that was alluded to in Jeremy’s contract.
Edward wakes up in reality and discovers he has stabbed Jeremy in the eye. When the Dark Man appears, Edward attacks him but he is then pulled away by Batist. Edward then passes out.
When he comes to, he is in a room with Batist and Grace. Batist tells Edward he had a psychological breakdown and that he had been hitting Dr Gray and not the Dark Man.
How does Alone in the Dark end?
In the final chapter, Edward meets with Jeremy and Dr Gray. Gray tells Edward that he had to lobotomise Jeremy to remove his delusions and mania.
It’s then time for the ceremony. Grace tells Edward that she is the “goat without horns” and that only she can “settle our debt” to the Mother.
Dr Gray is concerned about using the new words Jeremy gave them for the ceremony but they continue to chant them anyway.
Grace puts a noose around her neck and MacCarfey proceeds to hang her. She is the sacrifice for this deranged cult. Edward tries to save her but Batist stops him.
Emily arrives and shoots Batist, giving Edward the chance to shoot MacCarfey and save Grace. When he goes to help her, the tree comes alive and becomes a monstrous creature called the Black Goat Monster. This is what the group at Derceto had been worshipping.
The creature kills the cult members but not Edward, who is able to dispose of it. In the process, Derceto starts to crumble and burn but Edward is able to get outside and meet with Emily, Grace, and Jeremy.
Jeremy tells Edward that everything is out of order and that he shouldn’t be alive. But Jeremy is alive and so too is Grace, who tells Edward that he ruined everything! Despite this, she’s not mad at him and joins Edward and the others as they leave the area and head to New Orleans.
Who was the Dark Man?
The Dark Man is an evil God who travelled to New Orleans under the name of the Black Pharoah – the sinister magician that Jeremy witnessed as a child. Jeremy’s father died at the stage show, a result of a curse passed by the Dark Man. This curse then transferred to Jeremy who had been possessed ever since.
The only way Jeremy could break the curse was to end himself or break the terms of the contract that he made with the Dark Man.
What was the contract?
While at Decerto, Jeremy became away of the cult that was forming in its grounds. He also learned of their intention to make a sacrifice to the tree – something that would unleash evil into the world.
To stop this from happening, Jeremy made a pact with the Dark Man. In that pact, Jeremy handed himself over to the Dark Man in exchange for the Dark Man containing the madness of the cult within the walls of Derceto.
The terms of the contract were to ‘acknowledge the psychological trauma,’ ‘break through the barriers of self-deceit,’ and ‘temper manic behaviour.’ These were terms set by the Dark Man as they were things Jeremy would be unable to do, given his already fractured mind.
The terms of the contract were broken when Edward stabbed Jacob in the eye and consequently, Jeremy, who was freed from his mania after being lobotomized. Now free of his manic behaviour, the Dark Man was no longer able to contain the evil within Derceto. Thankfully, Edward managed to kill the creature that the cult had been worshipping and was able to save the world.
Read More: How to unlock every ending in Alone in the Dark