After Midnight (2019) Ending Explained – The Monster & The Metaphor

Movie Details: Directors: Jeremy Gardner, Christian Stella | Runtime: 1h 23m | Release Date: 2019 | Star Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Welcome to Knockout Horror and to another Horror Movie Ending Explained. Today we are taking a look at the genre-bending horror romance, After Midnight. This is a pretty straightforward movie, but there are a few intriguing plot elements worth exploring deeper, specifically regarding the metaphor of the monster.

Naturally, this article contains spoilers. If you haven’t watched the movie yet, stop reading right now. Check out our review of After Midnight first; we enjoyed the movie a fair bit. Now, on with the explanation.

⚠️ Warning: Major spoilers follow below.

After Midnight Ending Explained

No plot recap here, we don’t need to go through all that again. Let’s get to the explaining. To understand the ending of After Midnight, you have to look past the creature feature elements and view it as a relationship drama. The horror is secondary to the romance but the horror is most definitely real.

The Conflict: Stagnation vs. Growth

Hank (Jeremy Gardner) is a rural hunter who is obviously very comfortable in his ways. Abby (Brea Grant) is a city girl who loves wine, art, and culture. The central conflict isn’t the monster; it is the fact that Abby has compromised her entire identity to live in Hank’s rather dull world, while Hank has refused to compromise at all.

When Abby disappears, Hank spirals into a depression. He drinks heavily and becomes convinced a monster is attacking his house every night. His friends, including Abby’s brother Shane (Justin Benson), believe the monster is a hallucination caused by stress and alcohol. This sets up the central question: Is Hank crazy, or is the threat real?

Why Did Abby Leave?

Abby left because she was feeling trapped and unhappy in both her relationship and her living situation.

When Abby returns, the film shifts massively from a horror to a full blown domestic drama. She reveals she didn’t leave for another man; she left because she felt trapped. She wants marriage and shared experiences, but Hank is content with the status quo… He’s a bit of a dullard, to be honest. She spent her time away in Florida experiencing the things she missed – museums, sushi, and city life.

She challenges Hank: would he live in a cramped city apartment for her the way she has been living in a drafty old house for him? This conversation forces Hank to realise that his fear of change is driving away the only person he loves. To be perfectly honest, these two people seem way too different to actually spend their entire lives together without conflict, but whatever.

Why does Hank sing that song?

The climax of the film occurs at Abby’s birthday party. In a moment of extreme vulnerability (and horrible awkwardness), Hank sings Lisa Loeb’s “Stay (I Missed You)” to Abby on a karaoke machine. It is a gesture of trying to bridge the gap and reconnect on a base level.

Using a song from a mixtape he made years ago, he is trying to remind her of when their love was fresh and not centred around anything other than pure affection. He’s also making something of a grand gesture about how he is willing to make himself uncomfortable to prove his love to her. Could they not have thought of another way to do it, though? This scene sucks!

Was the monster real and the symbolism of the kill?

Immediately after the song, the monster crashes through the window. This is the vindication Hank needs – the monster is physically real. It attacks the group, proving to Shane and Abby that Hank wasn’t losing his mind.

Hank kills the monster in a very specific way. He rips a mounted buck head off the wall – a trophy Abby hated and wanted him to remove – and uses the antlers to gore the creature to death.

This is heavy and extremely on the nose symbolism. By destroying the trophy to kill the monster, Hank is symbolically destroying his stubbornness. He is sacrificing the part of his life that was keeping them apart (his refusal to change his home environment) to save their relationship. He kills the “fear of commitment” (the monster) using the symbol of his “bachelor lifestyle” (the trophy).

The Proposal

With the monster dead and covered in its blood, Hank picks up a bottle of “Peanut Noir” (a running joke in the film about his mispronunciation of Pinot Noir). He flips the bottle over to reveal an engagement ring sinking to the bottom.

He asks Abby if she wants to “drink another case of this shit” with him. It is a proposal and he is finally committing which Abby accepts. The film ends not with a scare, but with the couple united, having conquered both the physical threat and the emotional distance between them. Was that gooey enough for you?

Final Thoughts

After Midnight is a unique blend of mumblecore romance and creature feature. While the horror elements are sparse, the ending delivers a fairly satisfying punch of gore and emotion. It suggests that the scariest thing isn’t a monster in the woods; it’s the realisation that you might lose the person you love because you were too stubborn to change. The monster is still pretty scary, though… As is that awful karaoke scene.

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