Your Monster Ending Explained

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Your Monster.Your Monster is a horror rom-com with a dark ending, and Caroline Lindy’s directorial debut is now available to rent from home. The film follows struggling actor Laura (Melissa Barrera) as she recovers from cancer treatment. She’s also grappling with a broken heart after her writer-director boyfriend, Jacob (Edmund Donovan), dumps her while she’s sick. Upon arriving home, she is reunited with her Monster (Tommy Dewey) from childhood, and a romance sparks between them instead.

However, Your Monster is much more than just a romance narrative following the Monster and Laura. More notably, it’s a story about finding one’s self-worth that has both a twisted and empowering ending; it just depends on how you interpret it. It’s hard to say if the Monster killing Jacob is metaphorical or has darker implications for Laura. That’s probably the biggest question remaining after watching this modernized horror take on Beauty and the Beast.

Is The Monster Real Or In Laura’s Head In Your Monster?

Laura’s Relationship With Her Monster Is Complicated

As Melissa Barrera’s Laura tries to get her life under control in Your Monster, her biggest supporter is her Monster. While their relationship starts off rocky, the Monster is in her corner. However, after Laura kisses her ex while at a low point, the Monster and her get into a fight. Although he’s upset over Laura falling back into Jacob’s arms, the Monster is more unhappy with the way Laura is hurting herself by allowing Jacob back into her life. Not wanting to hear this hard truth, Laura pushes him away, and he vanishes until Laura accepts her worth and rage.

Thematically, it makes sense for the Monster to be a metaphor for Laura’s rage and her relationship with herself. The fact that he is primarily present when the film is fixed on her perspective supports this notion. There’s no definitive confirmation from others that he is real, and he appears and disappears from her life depending on her relationship with herself. However, this is a fairy tale romance, so lines are blurred when it comes to the logic, especially when it comes to Jacob’s death.

Who Killed Jacob in Your Monster?

Laura Takes Back Control From Jacob In A Violent Way

Laura’s terrible ex, Jacob, gives her plenty of reason to hate him throughout Your Monster‘s run. He dumps her and makes her the understudy for the production of a musical she was supposed to lead, then continues to treat her with disrespect. He even has an affair with Laura’s best friend, Mazie (Kayla Foster), so it’s no surprise she has a lot of pent-up rage towards him by the end of the film. This culminates in Jacob’s death, though how it plays out is a little confusing.

Jackie (Meghann Fahy), the new lead of the production, and Laura devise a plan to have Laura take her spot in the musical. This leads to a confrontation between Jacob and Laura during intermission, and Laura seems ready to snap throughout their argument. With a broken ruler in hand, Laura finally lets Jacob have it, telling him what a terrible boyfriend, director, and person he is. When he tries to push back, she threatens to rip his throat out. That’s when the Monster reappears and does precisely that.

Unfortunately, when the curtains go up, the Monster is nowhere in sight. All that remains is Laura with the bloody ruler in her hand, suggesting that the Monster is, in fact, a manifestation of her self-worth and anger. All signs point to Laura as the person who kills Jacob, though the consequences of her actions are not explored within the movie itself. Your Monster‘s ending is left up to viewers’ interpretation, but it certainly feels like the Monster is a metaphor for Laura’s inner darkness.

Jackie’s Confession To Laura In Your Monster Explained

Laura Learns Her Anger Was Misplaced

While Jacob is the antagonist of Your Monster, Laura also has a lot of resentment towards Jackie, a Broadway actor who Jacob sets his sights on. Throughout Your Monster, he flirts with Jackie, and Laura is convinced that they are sleeping together. However, after Laura’s frustrations come to a head near the end of Your Monster, Jackie learns about Jacob and Laura’s past.

Jackie checks in on Laura after this explosion, and she apologizes for taking the role meant for Laura. She also reveals Jacob’s feelings are one-sided, and she’s placating his feelings because of the power dynamic. Learning all of this is a wake-up call for Laura. She finally sees her ex’s bad behavior for what it is because he isn’t just targeting her.

Laura also sees how a real friend is supposed to support her, as her supposed best friend does much less for her than Jackie. Laura’s new friendship with Jackie is affirming on so many levels, and it also gives her an ally in the production, leading to their plan to have Laura replace Jackie on opening night. Although this plan ends in disaster, Laura and Jackie bonding is a bright spot of the film’s conclusion.

What Your Monster’s Director Has Said About the Ending

Caroline Lindy Confirms the Monster Is Real to Laura

While it is logical to see the Monster of Your Monster as a metaphor, this is also a modern fairy tale with a horror twist. He could be a metaphorical manifestation of Laura’s rage, but he could also be a literal one to an extent. For the director, though, the Monster is real to Laura (via Deadline):

This is a fairy tale, you know, I’m not advocating for people to go murder their ex-boyfriends. But in this fairy tale monster musical horror rom-com, we get to kill off the toxicity in our life and Laura has created this manifestation of her anger as this handsome, charming Monster who can do her bidding for her.

Laura’s relationship with the Monster and what she learns from him is real, regardless of if the Monster is literal. Additionally, Laura’s rage towards Jacob and his death are real, making the outcome of Your Monster‘s ending the same. Laura’s Monster — whether it’s her inner rage or a physical presence — is the one to kill Jacob. Everything she goes through up until this point is undeniably real, and it leads to the same place, regardless of the truth behind the Monster.

The Real Meaning Of Your Monster

The Monster Is Metaphor For Self-Love

By the end of Your Monster, which received solid reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, it is intentionally ambiguous whether the titular monster is literal, metaphorical, or a bit of both. It’s not uncommon for films like this to end on such a note, as The Shape of Water does something similar with its ambiguous ending about whether its protagonist dies or not. In both cases, because these are fairy tales, it’s okay to suspend disbelief and accept the impossible as possible. To Laura, the monster is real, as Lindy points out:

Monster is real to her. And I’ve always imagined Monster and Laura riding off into the sunset together. I don’t see Laura going to jail. That’s not this type of movie. Emotionally, she has said ‘I’m not gonna let people treat me this way anymore. So, ex-boyfriends, you’re dead to me. And you didn’t know that I have a sexy Monster who is going to rip your throat out.’”

The director’s words also speak to the real meaning of Your Monster‘s ending, which is that sometimes self-worth appears in the form of anger and rage. This is especially true for Laura’s character, who spends much of the film accepting less than she deserves from the people around her. So, while the Monster does seem like a violent force after killing Jacob, he also represents the love Laura knows she deserves — whether it’s from herself or a partner.

Laura goes through a lot throughout the movie’s run, but Jacob’s death also has a symbolic meaning for her. Metaphorically speaking, it means that the part of Laura that’s willing to prioritize others’ comfort and feelings at the cost of her own is dying. The Monster helps her embrace her worth, and she realizes she needs to love herself as much as he does. It’s a shame Your Monster‘s box office success wasn’t bigger, as the movie’s message is a powerful one.

Source: Deadline