Grafted (2024) Ending Explained - Explaining This Watchable Body Horror
Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are going to be explaining the ending to Shudder horror movie Grafted from 2024. I say 2024 but this movie only really hit the streaming service in January of 2025. It’s still pretty fresh and we quite enjoyed it.
While the ending isn’t exactly complicated, we are going to take this opportunity to break things down piece by piece. This article is pretty wordy but that is, kind of, the nature of these types of features. I may have missed a few things here and there. This article is entirely written by me, a human, not by some automated process like most horror sites seem to be using nowadays. I can be a little bit scatter brained and do make mistakes so bear with me.
Obviously there will be spoilers in this article so if you haven’t seen the film yet, check out our review of Grafted first and come back later.
Meet Wei
Grafted opens by introducing us to young Chinese girl Wei (Joyena Sun) and her father. Both Wei and her father suffer from, what appears to be, a skin condition or birth mark. Wei’s father is a genius scientist and is attempting to invent a method for removing the birthmark and replacing it with healthy skin. In the pursuit of this, he miscalculates, resulting in the test he conducts on himself sealing his mouth shut. Wei furiously slashes at his mouth to allow him to breathe, killing him in the process.
Fast forwarding to the future, Wei is now a young adult, a brilliant student, and has been accepted into a University in New Zealand. She moves in with her Auntie and Cousin who just so happen to live there, already. The house Wei will be moving into is being renovated, hence why there are holes in the wall and sheets covering things. Hence, also, why her auntie is not at home, often. This factors into the story a lot, later on.
Wei is not accepted by her cousin, and her friends, despite her efforts. She is socially awkward and Angela (Jess Hong) feels embarrassed by her. Particularly her strong belief in Chinese spiritual traditions and enjoyment of traditional Chinese foods. Along with the slurping of noodles that some suggest is a sign of appreciation in Asian culture. Not only that but Angela’s mum praises Wei for her ability to speak Chinese and her good work ethic. Making Angela even more resentful of her.
Why Does Wei Want To Go To University?
Wei is a brilliant scientist and her aim is to continue her father’s research in the hope of healing her own skin. She believes that, then, she will be beautiful which will, in turn, make her popular, little realising that it is, in reality, her lack of developed social skills that make her unpopular, rather than her appearance. Still, many people who struggle with self image distance themselves from others. In turn leading to them developing issues with social skills through a lack of opportunities to interact with peers. A beauty obsessed society has many consequences for those that are treated differently or feel as though they don’t fit in.
Despite her many attempts to fit in, including practicing her interactions and inviting potential friends to spend time with her. Wei’s awkwardness makes it difficult for her to integrate herself into the already established friend group. Her only positive interactions are with a badly disfigured homeless person who Wei shows kindness to and appears to understand Wei’s struggles in life.
One of the friend group, Jasmine (Sepi To’a), understands Wei’s complications and likes her but the two never manage to progress past small conversations thanks to Wei’s exclusion from the group. Wei pushes making friends to one side and, instead, turns her focus to her studies. Where she has been accepted into a position as a lab assistant working with her professor.
Her professor, Dr Paul Featherstone, just so happens to be a narcissistic, self obsessed, sociopath who is conducting an affair with one of Angela’s friends, Eve (Eden Hart), in exchange for favourable grades. Formerly a young prodigy, he has fallen on hard times with no significant breakthroughs in the field of science. He has, also, just received a letter informing him that his research has not been approved by the funding board. He now has two weeks to submit a new research proposal or funding will be terminated. This sets up much of what happens later.
Wei Starts Her Research
Wei presents her father’s research, as well as her own, to Dr Featherstone in the hope that the two of them can work on it and come up with a solution. Correcting the mistakes her father made and creating a successful treatment for damaged skin. As the days go by and the work deepens, it starts to become clear that Dr Featherstone only has one reason for helping Wei. Realising that this could be his key to massive fame and immense riches. He wants to steal the treatment for himself. Passing it off as his own research.
While in the lab, Wei reaches a breakthrough. She cuts her inner thigh before testing the experimental treatment on herself. It works, healing her skin immediately. In the adjoining room, Dr Featherstone and Eve are making the beast with two backs. They hear a noise and Eve notices Wei through the window. She instructs Dr Featherstone to get rid of her. He goes into the room with Wei where she demonstrates the cut on her leg healing. This leaves Wei in a rather provocative position with her leg spread in front of the Doctor. Prompting Eve to take a picture.
Everything Goes Wrong
Eve sends the provocative photo of Wei to Angela. Incriminating Wei, in the process as it looks as though she is being sexual with the doctor. Angela is, naturally, stunned at the implication and tells Eve she will handle Wei. Meanwhile, Eve offers Wei a lift home, with bad intentions, of course. Eve takes Wei to a cliff edge and threatens her, accusing Wei of the very thing Eve has been doing the whole time. Eventually leaving her alone at the cliff to walk home.
When Angela gets home, she smashes up Wei’s alter. Ancestor worship is an extremely important part of Chinese culture. Alters devoted to deceased loved ones are personal places of worship so that the living can still venerate, and revere, the people who came before them. Wei frequently prayed to her father’s spirit, requesting his guidance. It is a firmly held belief, in Chinese spiritual tradition, that the dead continue to lead their loved ones from the spirit world and protect them. Smashing up this alter would be considered, not only, a terrible omen and a provocation to the spirits but, also, an insult to Wei and her ancestors.
When Wei finally makes it home, she notices that Angela has smashed her alter. She is furious and also terrified that the family will be cursed by the spirits. A fight breaks out with the larger Angela mounting Wei. Wei stabs her through the eye in self defence, claiming victim number one. Naturally, Wei doesn’t phone an ambulance. Instead, she hatches a cunning plan and peels Angela’s face off. Placing it over her own and using the treatment she created to, basically, heal the skin. Turning Wei into, essentially, Angela.
This Is Where It Gets Silly
Let’s take a little break from the plot to talk about the silliness here. I am sure this confused a few people because it doesn’t make any sense but here’s what is supposed to be happening. Wei is, simply, stealing the girl’s faces and wearing them. Using her magical skin healing medicine to make the faces seamless.
Wei has improved on her father’s research. Overcoming the issue that lead to his face becoming completely covered by skin. She will quickly learn that she hasn’t perfected it, though, and that the effects are only temporary. The faces start peeling off after a period of time. Resulting in a few gory moments that are going to scare some of the cast members, shortly.
This, obviously, doesn’t make any sense and there is no way to explain it. She takes the character’s faces but, also, seemingly, their build, skin colour, gait and body proportions. It’s kind of ridiculous. Wearing someone else’s skin over your own face would not make you look like that person. Bone structure, muscle placement, and fat deposits are responsible for the way you look. There would be no way, as well, for her to take the other parts of what makes a person look a certain way. Including their voices.
It’s bad enough when she steal her Chinese cousin’s face but it becomes utterly ridiculous when she steals, the very white, Eve’s face. They attempt to explain it away with makeup etc but it makes no sense. The writers don’t even try to make this logical. It’s just one of those silly horror things we are supposed to accept because this genre is, let’s be real, a bit crappy and doesn’t require too much in the way of reason.
Wei Steal’s Angela’s Life… Briefly
We can assume that Wei’s motive, here, is to experience life as a beautiful and popular girl. Something she has been denied her entire life and something that is her ultimate goal. Wei slices into her own face to make a nice joining seam. Before stealing Angela’s face, using her skin healing treatment and, somehow, ending up looking exactly like her. Face, height, bone structure, boob size.. Everything. This is because, in reality, Wei is now being played by Angela’s actor Jess Hong. The only thing that is still Wei about her is the crooked tooth which is a very obvious prosthetic and looks quite shit. But the tooth is a visual indicator that this is still Wei.
Wei practices Angela’s mannerisms by watching videos of her but can’t quite nail it. People at school notice something is off about her and it becomes a real problem when she realises that Angela was quite sporty. Resulting in Wei being forced to break her own fingers to avoid having to compete on the University team. It’s not just sports that Wei is lacking experience in, however. She, also, has no experience with bumping uglies. Something she is about to have to do with Angela’s boyfriend, Josh.
Heading to the cliffside that we saw earlier in the movie. Wei, remember, still wearing Angela’s face, has an uncomfortable make out session with Josh. He is thoroughly convinced this is still Angela and not Wei. That is until Wei’s Angela mask starts to fall off and blood pours over the dude’s face, quickly followed by the skin itself falling onto him, pancake style. He backs away and, apparently, like some sort of remote control car has no concept of edges so falls over the cliff. Killing him instantly. Victim number two for Wei, she is doing pretty well.
Dr Featherstone is Up To No Good
Meanwhile, Dr Featherstone has cracked the code of the treatment via a translation app and a lot of studying of Wei’s father’s papers. It turns out that the important ingredient in the skin restoring treatment is a plant that smells like rotting flesh. This is a corpse flower and there just so happens to be one that recently bloomed at a local garden centre. These things only bloom once every decade, or so, so that is a handy coincidence. Dr Featherstone pays a visit and takes some of the important ingredient for himself.
While that was going on, Wei reattached Angela’s face before heading to the lab to retrieve her research. After all, we can’t have faces falling off when trying to make out. The treatment needs some refinement. When she gets there, however, she can’t find anything. She contacts the doctor who tells her that he has taken the papers to carry on the research in her absence. Also claiming that it is not her work anymore and that, as lead scientist on the project, it belongs to him.
Wei Needs Another Face
Okay, remember that Wei is wearing Angela’s face. On the way out of the lab, Eve just so happens to be waiting, probably for the doctor. Wei invites her to come over to her place. Eve, feeling suspicious but believing that this is Angela, her friend, agrees. When they get there, Wei murders Eve, claiming victim number three. This scene kind of reminded me, a little, of the brilliant J-Horror Audition and I can’t help but feel like the director was paying homage to a few horror classics right here.
This is part of an elaborate plan. Wei is aware that Eve and Dr Featherstone are liaising so thinks she can infiltrate his home and retrieve her father’s papers while masquerading as Eve. She cuts off Eve’s face, places it on her own and begins watching Eve’s videos to practice her mannerisms. Again, don’t ask about how she matches skin tone, height, weight etc. It’s really hinted at, here, that Wei is starting to lose her mind. She is, almost, enjoying the process of murdering Eve and indulging in her more barbaric nature. While praying to her father, she makes it clear that she plans to make the doctor pay, not just get the notes back from him.
The police show up looking for Angela in regards to the disappearance of Angela’s boyfriend, Josh, who has been missing for days now. They come in through the hole in the wall where renovations are taking place. Obviously breaking police protocol, as well, but are, apparently, not alarmed by the very distinctive smell of rotting flesh coming from Angela’s days old corpse. Instead finding themselves charmed by Wei’s new appearance as the more attractive (subjectively, I guess) Eve. The cops leave because they are obviously quite dumb. Wei dumps the collection of cadavers in the pond and sets about getting her father’s papers back.
Wei’s Elaborate Plan
Things are starting to get a bit crazy for Wei. Angela and Eve’s phones are blowing up with people worrying about them. People are now aware that Angela and Josh are both missing. Wei sets her plan in motion, first using Eve’s phone to send a police report about the doctor. Claiming that he has been having sexual relationships with students and sending the picture of him looking at Wei’s inner thigh, the one that Eve took earlier, as evidence. This gets the Doctor removed from his position on campus. Not that it matters as he has had a breakthrough and completed his research. He has developed a treatment that can repair flesh.
He contacts Eve, telling her to come over and celebrate. Little does he realise that Eve is actually Wei, wearing a fancy Eve skin mask. Wei heads over and, while the doctor is celebrating and ranting narcissistically about being a wonder boy, Wei finds the vial of skin healing medicine, that he has created, in a hidden compartment. She doesn’t have her father’s papers, though, and Eve’s face is starting to blister and peel so she leaves.
For some reason, likely due to Eve’s (Wei) bizarre behaviour, the doctor becomes suspicious and checks the secret compartment. Noticing the medicine is gone, it appears to dawn on him that that wasn’t Eve at all. It was actually Wei. He has realised that she has the ability to steal people’s faces, I suppose. Either that or he suspects that Wei enlisted the help of Eve. He still has the papers, though, and the upper hand.
Poor Jasmine
We have a few body horror scenes as Wei tears at her skin, ripping off Eve’s face. Jasmine comes over, kind of randomly, looking for Angela and sees Wei wearing Eve’s outfit and with her hair dyed blonde. Thinking that she is just trying to fit in by changing her appearance, and not being at all alarmed by her blood red face. The sympathetic Jasmine comforts Wei and offers to cook for her. Heading to the fridge, she notices Wei’s fancy face collection and freaks out, only to be dragged to the floor and suffocated by Wei. Victim number four.
Later, the doctor heads over to Wei’s house to retrieve his medicine, entering through one of the renovation holes in the wall. He hits us with some exposition in a super villain monologue before heading to the fridge… for some reason. Surprised to see Eve’s skinned head in there, Wei stabs him with a needle while he is distracted. Rendering him unconscious. When he wakes, he is tied to a bed.
The Doctor’s Fate
Wei’s madness has taken over and she hits us with a monologue of her own. She is going to use her treatment to make herself beautiful so she will be loved by everyone. Again, reflecting on the beauty obsessed nature of society and the difficulties women face to fit in if they don’t look the way they feel as though they should.
Having already mutilated the doctor’s neck, she then uses the skin medicine on his face. Only, there is a catch. We can assume this is the medicine made by the doctor himself and he has made a crucial mistake. The same mistake Wei’s father made when he developed the medicine and tested it on himself. The doctor is about to experience the same fate as Wei’s dad.
The medicine makes the doctor’s skin heals over his entire face. Closing up his mouth and covering his eyes. Wei shoves a straw through his mouth, enabling him to breathe, barely, so that she can torture him and make him suffer. All the while leaving him completely unable to scream. She begins to cut him only to be interrupted by the neighbour who quickly runs away when she spots the carnage. Calling the police who, in a very unlikely scenario, arrive almost immediately. Wei packs up a few things, grabs the vial of medicine and runs.
A Not So Grand Escape
Wei runs from the police, eventually making it into a subway. There she sees the disfigured homeless man that she has been giving food to frequently throughout the movie. She asks him to hide her under his coat. He obliges, covering her up as the police run past. Little does the man realise that Wei just made a huge mistake. She accidentally crushed the vial of medicine while hiding. Spilling it against her own face and the man’s body. The medicine does what it is supposed to do. Stitching the skin together and melding Wei’s body into that of the homeless man’s. Grafting the two of them together into one person.
We later see Wei’s auntie looking for her in the streets. She sees a woman with long black hair but, when she turns around, it isn’t Wei. She spots a horribly disfigured man under a bridge and screams in terror, running away. The camera zooms in to show us that it is, indeed, the homeless man and Wei, grafted together. Wei now leads a life of roaming the streets as a hideous, mutated, grafted together, combination of two people. Rejected by society and repulsing passers-by. Always suffering and never able to attain the beauty and love she so desired.
Thanks for Reading
In summary, this is a movie about the beauty standards placed on women by society and the way this can impact them both mentally and socially. As well as how those standards play into female relationships. I wouldn’t say it is revolutionary in its concept but the movie has some degree of message. It does kind of shit down its own leg a little bit, though, turning its likable, relatable, and sympathetic protagonist into a raving psychopath but that’s horror for you. It’s not the correct genre to look for inspiring messages of positivity.
Thanks so much for reading. Be sure to take a look at some Horror Movie Reviews and check out our horror lists. We also explain endings every now and then so check back frequently. Take care and see you again soon.
