Seance movie ending explained: Who is the killer in Seance?

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Shudder’s new Seance movie.

Sometimes it’s too hard to wait until the end of the movie to find out what the mystery is, or you don’t end up liking a film and can’t bring yourself to keep watching but are interested to know what happens in the end. Personally, I liked Shudder’s new Seance movie a lot, but if you didn’t, or you’re confused by the ending, we’re breaking it all down for you.

Seance, directed and written by Simon Barett, is a new boarding school horror film and teen slasher starring Suki Waterhouse as a newcomer to a prestigious academy called Edelvine. Camille arrives shortly after the death of another student under mysterious circumstances and soon finds herself in danger.

Throughout the film, we see this group of girls become terrorized and killed off one by one after they try summoning the Edelvine ghost. But is it the ghost behind these slayings? Or someone else entirely?

Apart from Waterhouse, Seance stars Madisen Beaty, Ella-Rae Smith, Inanna Sarkis, Seamus Patterson and Marina Stephenson-Kerr.

Seance movie ending explained: Who is the killer?

Are you sure you want to know? This is your final warning that there are spoilers galore to the film’s ending below. Turn back now if you don’t want to be spoiled!

In the film’s climactic third act, we find out that the killer is not the Edelvine ghost, after all. In fact, the killer(s) are completely human and people we’ve come to know throughout the course of the film.

The brainy Bethany (Beaty), winner of a significant scholarship award, and her secret boyfriend Trevor (Patterson) are the murderers. Bethany and Trevor kill all of the main cast except Helina, Alice and Camille. The duo kidnaps Alice and Camille, intending to kill them both and frame Camille, so it looks like she was the real killer all along. They also plan to kill Helina later by staging her suicide.

Bethany explains that to win the scholarship, she stole her essay from Kary (the girl who died initially). She feared that once her essay was published and all of their mutual friends read it, they would immediately know that Bethany had plagiarized Kary’s essay and cost her the scholarship, hence why she murdered everyone.

Trevor is just equally psychotic and has no problem going along with it. We also find out that Trevor is the one who killed the girl believed to be the Edelvine ghost years ago.

Camille foils their plan with assistance from Helina, who wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes that Camille is gone. She tracks her down to the storage room where Trevor and Bethany are holding their captives.

They overpower Trevor, and then Camille fights with Bethany, ultimately killing her. After ensuring that Helina and Alice are safe and out of the room, Camille sets her sights on Trevor, finishing him off. We learn that Camille has been using an alias and only came to Edelvine to investigate Kary’s death. It turns out that Camille only ever had one friend: Kary. So her intention at the academy was always to find out why and how Kary died.

With Kary’s killers dead, Camille flees the premises and intends to escape Edelvine for good and go somewhere new. But Helina stops her before she can leave. If you picked up on the romantic tension between them throughout the film, then you were 100% correct as the two share a big kiss before going their separate ways. Camille promises to get in touch with Helina when she’s ready.

Seance movie ending explained: Is there a ghost?

Bethany explains how she tricked the girls into believing they were communicating with the Edelvine ghost by using a magnet under the table during their seances to control their makeshift planchette.

But there is actually a ghost at the school. It’s just not who everyone thought. The film heavily implies that Kary’s ghost is now haunting the school, though she isn’t evil.

What did you think of the Seance movie ending? Did you expect those twists? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Seance is now streaming exclusively on Shudder.