Plot Summary
Thine Ears Shall Bleed is a new religious horror movie set in 1860s America. It tells the story of the Thatcher family, led by Reverend Ezekiel Thatcher who is travelling with his wife Sarah and two children, Abigail and Luke, to a place where they hope to open a new church.
When they get to a crossroads in their wagon, they have the choice of turning left or right. They take the right path, which ironically turns out to be the wrong path when they find themselves lost in the woods with no means of escape.
Ezekiel is content to be lost as he thinks he has stumbled upon a holy place where God wants him to build a church.
However, there is something evil at work in the woods, as each member of the family discovers. At the end of the movie, Luke has a terrible choice to make – a choice that has grave consequences for him and possibly the world.
In this ending explained article for Thine Ears Shall Bleed, we briefly recap the plot of the film and ask the question: What happens to Luke?
Why does Ezekiel think the woods are holy?
After the Thatcher family set up camp in the woods, they begin to hear angelic-sounding noises, which Ezekiel thinks are from God.
When Ezekiel follows the sounds, he arrives at the edge of a cliff. He is then hit with another sound – one that isn’t as gentle or as godly as the one he was listening to previously. This deafening sound causes his ears to bleed and makes him lose his hearing. Regardless of this, he still thinks this terrifying noise was also God speaking to him.
After returning to his family, the pain in Ezekiel’s ears causes him to faint. During his unconsciousness, he has a dream wherein he is holding Luke’s eyes in his hands.
The next day, when Ezekiel awakens, his hearing is restored. He isn’t the only person to have one of his senses returned to him. Luke, who was blind, suddenly gains the ability to see. Ezekiel thinks this is a miracle from God and that the dream he had was a prophetic vision.
In the days that follow, Ezekiel begins to transcribe the godly sounds he hears in words and pictures. He thinks these are messages from God, but later on in the film, we discover one of his sketches is of a pentagram. This suggests it’s not God who is making the sounds he hears, but the devil!
What happens to the family?
As Ezekiel becomes increasingly obsessed with his belief that God is speaking to him, the rest of the family find themselves in peril.
For one thing, their food supply is running out, which is of major concern to Sarah. Her fears are dismissed by Ezekiel, who tells her the Lord will provide.
When Ezekiel fails to hunt for food, Sarah does so instead and then gets lost in the woods when the fork in the path that they had taken earlier disappears. This causes Sarah to wander around in circles for a bit until she makes her way back to her family.
Meanwhile, Abigail goes searching for berries and discovers a tree with strange markings. When she touches it, she severely burns her hand.
Luke goes wandering too. On his travels, he meets a man who goes by the name of Woodrow Booker. He claims to be a botanist who has fallen ill from eating poisonous mushrooms.
However, there is more to Woodrow than meets the eye.
Who is Woodrow Booker?
Ezekiel is quite taken with Woodrow because he thinks this stranger is part of God’s plan for him. He even calls Woodrow his disciple. These beliefs come after Woodrow heals Abigail’s hand.
But Woodrow is not a man of God. In fact, he’s not even a man at all.
At one point in the film, Woodrow tells the family of the Blackfoot tribe who used to live in the woods. He tells them of the tribe’s belief that a demon can lure people into the woods by mimicking voices. According to him, the demon does this because it is looking for a pure and perfect vessel.
It turns out that Woodrow is very familiar with this demon. This is because he is a demon himself. He has been trapped in the woods for some time and the only way he can escape is by finding the pure vessel that he spoke of previously.
It’s Abigail who discovers Woodrow’s identity first. She shows him a simple card trick and he shows her a trick in return, one in which he turns all of her cards into the Queen of Hearts.
This is alarming enough for Abigail but she is even more alarmed when he reveals something about her that she hadn’t previously mentioned.
Woodrow emits an unearthly scream that causes her ears to bleed. She’s able to return to her mother but a short while later, when she is alone in the woods again, she is attacked by something that eats her. We don’t see what it is but we later discover it was Woodrow, who was disappointed that she wasn’t the pure vessel that he needed.
Does Woodrow find a pure vessel?
Woodrow initially thought Ezekiel might be a pure vessel because of the man’s devotion to God. But on closer inspection of Ezekiel’s soul, he decides that Ezekiel lacks purity because of his pridefulness.
Because Ezekiel is a sinner, despite the Reverend’s protestations that he isn’t, Woodrow is able to possess him. While possessed, Ezekiel follows Woodrow’s commands and kills Sarah.
After committing this dreadful act, Ezekiel comes to his senses. He is aghast at what he has done, as is Luke, who is horrified to see his mother’s bloody body.
Woodrow then gives Luke a choice. He can kill his father and keep his sight or he can lose his vision.
Luke ultimately decides to kill his father. Despite committing an act of murder, Woodrow considers Luke to be a pure and perfect vessel (this part of the plot is baffling). As a consequence, Woodrow is able to escape the woods, with Luke riding beside him.
What happens to Luke?
Upon leaving the woods, Luke’s sight starts to fade. He realizes that Woodrow lied to him to ensure safe passage out of the woods where he had been trapped for so long.
As the film draws to a close, Luke asks Woodrow: “Am I filled with evil?”
Woodrow then delivers a monologue about how the world needs evil to give them hope for a better life in Heaven.
At the film’s end, Luke emits the same disturbing sound that Woodrow made earlier. From this, we can gather that he is now under the devil’s control.
We don’t know what happens to Luke next but it can be assumed that he and Woodrow partnered up to spread the devil’s influence around the world.
Sorry if you expected a happy ending!
Read More: Thine Ears Shall Bleed Review
I think by pure, Woodrow was looking for someone who could be turned “purely” evil. This play on meaning helps the ending.