Warning! Spoilers for Into the Dark: Tentacles below.
Horror anthology series are common these days, but what sets Hulu's Into the Dark apart is its monthly holiday-themed installments; the latest one is Into the Dark: Tentacles and here's its ending explained. The series manages to find the dark and twisted elements of any holiday on the calendar and turn that message into a horror movie. This month, Into the Dark's Valentine's Day-themed film Tentacles explores the sometimes toxic nature of love.
The horror movie follows new couple Tara (Dana Drori) and Sam (Casey Deidrick). They meet and quickly fall head-over-heels for one another, diving quickly into an intense relationship. The pair moves in together and gets engaged in a matter of months. As their relationship continues to progress, Sam begins to fall ill. As he deals with the strange things happening to his body, Sam begins to dig up dark secrets from Tara's past.
By Tentacles' ending, Sam realizes how dangerous Tara is, discovering that she was previously engaged to another man, but she stole his money and ran off. Sam also discovers she was in a relationship with a woman named Alice. Sam goes to their old house to investigate but finds a rotting corpse in the wall that looks just like Tara. He returns home to confront her and finally learns the truth — Tara's body is actually host to a shapeshifting creature with tentacles. Her body splits open from a scar down her stomach, and tentacles emerge and constrict Sam. In the film's final moments, the creature has completely taken over Sam's body and his life, a metaphor for toxic, all-consuming love.
The effects of Tara's abilities creep up on Sam, seemingly during important milestones in their relationship. On the night of their four-month anniversary, Sam attempts to clean his ears with a Q-tip. When he pulls it out, it's covered in blood. Shortly after, he proposes to Tara. Almost immediately after she accepts, he doubles over because of the excruciating pain in his ear. After Sam gets checked out, the doctor says there was no real diagnosis in his bloodwork, but his white blood cells were incredibly low, as though his body were fighting off a foreign invader.
That's because his body is under attack. About midway through the Into the Dark film, Sam is shown sleeping in bed. A tentacle slowly inches toward his ear and inserts itself inside. Early in Tentacles, Sam comments on a long scar running down Tara's abdomen. She acts as though she's ashamed of it, but the scar eventually comes back into play. During Sam and Tara's confrontation in the film's finale, the audience learns the tentacle came from inside her; the creature stakes out its victims by entering into serious relationships with them and then taking them over.
By the horror movie's ending, it's assumed that Alice was the first host. She abruptly broke up with her boyfriend and entered into an intense relationship with Tara (then known as Lina) in order to gain her trust. When Lina was completely open and vulnerable with her, the creature struck and killed her. It's the same cycle that was repeated with Sam. It's a clear metaphor for a toxic relationship. Two parties fall deeply and quickly for one another — so smitten with each other that they are willing to overlook red flags. By the time those issues come to the surface, it's too late. For the victims in Hulu original film, that means death.
Tara is shown to have a high libido in the Hulu horror movie. She and Sam engage in sexual acts frequently, and they are typically initiated by her. Tara always seems to find a way to make the situation about sex. When Sam suffers a hallucination that completely terrifies him, Tara comforts him, but even that ends in sex. When she reveals her true nature in the movie's ending, she tells Sam she's been absorbing a bit of his being every night. She likely initiated sex with him so often because it was the easiest way to absorb him.
The only way the creature could successfully take hold of Sam's body was to form a seemingly deep and meaningful connection with him. Sex is often a way that people in a relationship deepen their bond with one another. But sometimes, that intimacy and vulnerability can be used as a weapon. Sam fell quickly for Tara, so sex was a meaningful act for him. But Tara just used it as a way to get what she wanted. It's a prime reflection of a toxic, emotionally abusive relationship. Sam opened himself up completely to Tara, but she betrayed that trust and just used him for sex.
Into the Dark takes its twisted holiday theme seriously with each movie it releases. Every installment of the horror franchise finds the darkness in every holiday it covers — even one as traditionally romantic and cheesy as Valentine's Day. Tentacles shows that not all love is healthy and positive. Some relationships are dangerous to one or both parties involved. Toxic love can grab ahold of one and squeeze tight, suffocating them in the process.
That's why the movie's use of a creature with tentacles is such a clever bit of symbolism. The creature uses its tentacles to capture victims and constrict them. Once those tentacles have a strong hold on the victim, there's no getting out. It's a reflection of how Tara uses her love and affection on Sam. She lures him in with the ruse of their deep and immediate connection. Once Tara has her hooks in him, she uses sex to ensure he stays. Before he knows it, her love literally consumes him. He saw the signs earlier that something wasn't right — his best friend Esther showed concern at how quickly their relationship moved and Sam quickly discovered that Tara kept secrets from him. But he ignored the signs, and it cost him his life.
The horror TV anthology series sends the message that love isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Movies released around Valentine's Day tend to show romanticized, glossed-over love stories. Tentacles urges its audience to be mindful of the dark kind of love that's dangerously abusive and manipulative. Horror lurks in every aspect of life, even something as sought after as love. Into the Dark won't let its viewers forget that, even on Valentine's Day.
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