Silent Night ending explained: What happens to Art in the end?

Silent Night is a new black comedy/horror movie streaming on AMC+ and playing in select theaters. With an all-star cast including Keira Knightley, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Roman Griffin Davis, Matthew Goode, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-Rose Depp, Sope Dirisu, Lucy Punch and Rufus Jones, the movie seemed destined to be excellent.

Unfortunately, as you can read in my review, I felt that the movie missed the mark in many ways. But this article is about how the film actually ended. We see how this family opts to spend what they believe is their last night on earth throughout the film. Clouds of poisonous gas are scheduled to arrive at midnight, and scientists claim that humans cannot survive the impact.

Instead of letting citizens die a slow, agonizing death (unless you’re living in poverty or homeless, of course), the UK government gives everyone an “exit pill” devised to let everyone die on their own terms before the environmental apocalypse arrives.

Silent Night ending explained: Does everyone die?

The main question is whether or not any from the main cast survives the movie. The truth is everyone dies, except Art. All of the characters decide to take the pill, even Sophie, who had contemplated not taking it because she is pregnant and didn’t want to kill her baby that way.

Alex, who got incredibly drunk earlier in the night, is passed out cold when it comes time to take the pill. Bella tries to wake her up so they can say goodbye, but nothing works, so Bella just forces Alex to take the pill while she’s asleep before taking her own.

Unfortunately, a drunken Alex later wakes up and immediately throws up, resulting in her mistakenly regurgitating the pill. Realizing this, Bella stabs Alex to death when she least expects it, so she doesn’t fall victim to the poison.

Silent Night ending explained: What happens to Art?

After arguing with his parents in the car, Art takes off down the road and discovers a grisly sight: a family, including an infant, dead in their car after ingesting their exit pills. Distracted by the discovery, Art doesn’t notice the nearby poisonous funnel clouds and gets infected. By the time Simon catches up to his son, the poison has dissipated, and he takes Art home without realizing the full extent of what happened.

At first, it looks like the scientists were right when they said the gas would kill everyone. Art has a seizure and then passes out in his mother’s arms. When she looks at him again, he’s unconscious, and there is blood all over his face. But then, in the film’s final seconds, Art suddenly opens his eyes, the only one alive in a house full of dead people.

So does that mean the people in the car later woke up too? Maybe the poison makes you appear dead before its effects fade. Or perhaps Art is a zombie now. What do you think?