Sorry, Charlie (2023) Ending Explained
Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are explaining the ending to Tubi horror movie Sorry, Charlie from 2023. My review of this movie has received quite a few visits despite being fairly low down there on Google. This usually means that people are looking for answers regarding the ending. Apparently, according to Google, if I have reviewed a movie I have probably explained the ending as well. That’s not accurate, strictly speaking, but if I see enough demand for it, I will do it. With that in mind, here we are. This article will obviously contain spoilers so be forewarned.
I suspect that the reason this movie has people looking for answers is due to the belief that it is based on a true story. We are going to kick things off here by summarising the movie before we address that subject. But, first, I’d like to take a minute to chuckle at the amount of times Director Colton Tran has managed to fit his name in the opening credits. The days of simply stating “Directed, written and edited by *person’s name*” are long gone. We now have to sit through opening credits that remind us no less than five times that this is a Colton Tran movie.
In fact, to be a bit more specific. This is a film by Colton Tran, in association with Colton Tran films, directed by Colton Tran, edited by Colton Tran and produced by Colton Tran as well. This is something you only really see on low budget horror. It’s like they think it is the only time they will ever see their name on the opening credits so double down on it. It wouldn’t be so bad if the movie wasn’t so middling and the credits weren’t so damn slow. They comprise 1% of the movie’s runtime which is far too much in my opinion. That time could have better been spent making the gentleman look a little more imposing. Anyways, let’s explain the ending to Sorry, Charlie.
What Happens in Sorry, Charlie
I’ll try and summarise this pretty quickly. Sorry, Charlie follows the story of a woman taking revenge on the person who attacked her. A sadistic maniac known as The Gentleman. Our protagonist, Charlie (Kathleen Kenny) is chilling at home drinking some wine on Halloween. Hearing the sound of a child crying, she decides to head outside to investigate rather than do the sensible thing and call the police. After leaving the safety of her home, she is attacked and assaulted. Fast forward to the present day and Charlie is now attempting to get her life back on track. She has started working from home on some sort of help line. A nice way to disguise the fact that we are about to spend nearly an hour watching someone work.
As Charlie works, she is afforded the opportunity to do things around the house and take care of garden work. The whole time rubbing on her heavily “pregnant” stomach. It’s almost as if she wants someone to see that she is heavily pregnant, right?
Somehow she manages to take a leak while talking to someone on the helpline. Something that I imagine would be pretty difficult to do without someone hearing. Especially when it comes to flushing the toilet. I wouldn’t want to have to explain to someone who was spilling their heart out to me that I was in the process of squeezing the lemon. Anyways, it is clear that Charlie is still haunted by visions of the man who attacked her – The Gentleman.
Who is The Gentleman?
We learn through some clumsy internet search based exposition that the person who attacked Charlie has been dubbed the Crying Baby Killer, otherwise known as The Gentleman. The Gentleman lures victims out of their homes using the sound of a crying baby. Only to attack them with the aim being to conceive a child with them. Naturally this is a bit of a leap because he is really hoping for the most right wing of Christian victims to guarantee that they won’t just abort the baby of the man who raped them. Rather than carrying to term and living with that the rest of their lives.
Either way, we can assume this is what happened to Charlie. She was attacked by The Gentleman and is now carrying his baby. Or, at least, that is what she wants you to think. Charlie reads a report on the arrest of a person considered to be The Gentleman, 36 year old Edward Reed. But Charlie knows full well that this isn’t the real killer and that he is actually still out there. Waiting for Charlie to give birth so he can take the baby for himself.
Charlie Has Been Isolating Herself
We learn that Charlie has been isolating herself from the people around her. She hasn’t seen her family, in person, in months and is now working from home. She is still paranoid about The Gentleman and believes she sees him around her all the time. As well as hearing the baby’s crying that lead to her being attacked in the first place. Naturally, there is a good reason for Charlie isolating herself from her family. We will go into that a little later.
Charlie begins receiving malicious phone calls from a voice that seems to know a little too much about her. Including the fact that she works from home. Heading outside to put out the garbage, we see a figure watching Charlie. Could it be the person who was calling her? Probably, yes. But isn’t Charlie lacking in caution a little considering what happened to her? Heading out in the dead of night, heavily pregnant and wearing earphones that obstruct her hearing?
Moments later Charlie believes she hears a baby crying and calls her mum to tell her. Her mum convinces her that it is probably a cat. She tells her to type in “Cat cries like a human baby” on her search engine to prove it. Which Charlie does, giving up a little production goof as the search term has a clock icon next to it indicating that Charlie has already searched this term and visited the results page before. It might seem a little strange that Charlie is phoning her mother to tell her about this when you consider what happens later on. But given what she is planning. We can, perhaps, assume that Charlie is creating a witness to show that the Gentleman is still stalking her. Reinforcing that her actions later on in the movie were justified.
The Cat and Mouse Game Begins
Charlie, who has fallen asleep at her desk, is awoken with a start. We see the mask of the Gentleman at the window and Charlie hears crying. She grabs a gun that was taped to the underside of her desk. She heads outside and shouts into the darkness at the Gentleman before heading back inside looking decidedly rattled. When she gets back inside she notices her wine bottle has been knocked over. She puts her gun down to clean it up before realising that the gun has now gone. All of a sudden, Charlie’s record player starts playing some crappy rip off of the song Mockingbird. This song will play repeatedly, is really poorly recorded so doesn’t sound authentically old and isn’t at all unsettling so that’s cool.
Realising that someone must be in the house, Charlie runs to set her alarm only to realise that someone has changed the pin. Her phone line has been cut and Charlie no longer has contact to the outside world. She heads to her toilet and retrieves a pistol hidden in the cistern. Seemingly having been aware the entire time that the Gentleman was watching her and accessing her house. Charlie hears the sound of static coming from her nursery and heads there to investigate the source. She picks up a baby monitor and suddenly hears crying through it. The Gentleman begins tormenting her through the monitor. Pointing out that its range is 500-600 feet so he must be close by.
Charlie runs to the front door armed with her pistol. She heads outside where her vehicle lights suddenly turn on. The engine revs and the car lurches towards her. She runs back inside and attempts to set the alarm. We see the silhouette of The Gentleman on the front door indicating that he is indeed here. The Gentleman talks to her through the door telling her that he has changed the pin code. He has seen her enter it dozens of times, again, indicating that he has been watching her this whole time. She tells him that enough incorrect entries will notify the security company and begins wildly entering codes. The Gentleman activates the alarm using an app, effectively making Charlie’s plan useless. Side note, I am listening on decent headphones and the sound quality here is appallingly bad. I am sure movie makers don’t hire sound producers anymore.
Will Charlie Run?
By now, it is clear what the Gentleman wants. He is here to take Charlie’s baby and claims that he will leave when he has it. He tells Charlie not to run. She realises that she can’t leave via the back due to the motion detecting light that will alert the Gentleman to her presence. She attempts to leave via the side door but the Gentleman appears in front of her. He calls her over the monitor and warns her about running. Realising that her only way out is the back garden, Charlie disables the fuse for the motion detector light and heads out through the back door. About to jump over the fence, she suddenly has a change of heart and decides to head back into the house. Recalling a conversation she had with her mother where she wished the Gentleman would appear again.
She goes inside and locks the door before, apparently, experiencing cramps in her stomach. She talks to the Gentleman over the baby monitor who, once again, makes it clear that he can see her. She tells him to come in and face her. Charlie heads to the kitchen and the Gentleman suddenly appears at the back door. As he looks on, it appears Charlie’s waters break, meaning the delivery of her baby is imminent.
I’ll take a minute here to say how crappy the Gentleman looks, given that we will be seeing a lot of him now. Whoever is wearing the mask is extremely small in stature, at the very maximum only about 5 foot 8 and extremely slightly built. He isn’t intimidating at all. The outfit looks horrendously cheap, his slacks barely fit and the mask looks like a terrible creepy pasta drawing. Poor effort!
The Gentleman follows Charlie around the house, stalking her through the windows. He was in the house earlier and voluntarily let himself out so I don’t know why he is struggling so much to get in at this point. He’s like a dumb cat that doesn’t know whether it wants to be in or out. Charlie continues to struggle with contractions. The Gentleman suddenly lets himself into the house. Tormenting Charlie while doing his best Sideshow Bob voice impression.
Does Charlie Get The Upper Hand?
As the Gentleman stalks the house, he hears a baby crying. Heading to the source of the noise, because he is apparently a complete idiot, he finds a doll in a cupboard that just so happens to be making the crying. Charlie appears behind him before making a quip and pulling the trigger. Only, Charlie is too dumb to realise that this dude who has been watching her this whole time and could access her house has already taken the bullets out of the gun.
The gun clicks before The Gentleman tells her that he did find that one after all. He hits Charlie who falls over. Charlie attempts to grab the scissors that fell under the crib earlier in the movie but can’t reach. The Gentleman goes to grab her leg but she kicks him. Because he weighs about 120lbs soaking wet, he flies back about 16 feet giving Charlie a chance to escape. Luckily for The Gentleman, however, she is a clumsy oaf who trips on an item laying out in the hallway and knocks herself unconscious.
Charlie wakes up tied to a chair with that annoying old fashioned song playing again. The Gentleman is tormenting her and gives her a kiss that is somehow moderately less awkward than most kisses you see in horror movies. She spits on him and, apparently, that isn’t his kink so he backhands her. Obviously not concerned about what massive trauma can do to a woman giving birth.
The Gentleman slowly heads out of the room so he can get something to clean Charlie up. Looking every bit like someone who has crapped himself and is trying not to let on by walking in very short strides and very deliberately. While the Gentleman is emptying his underpants and cleaning up. Charlie shuffles over to the record player on her chair. Grabs the record and breaks it. Keeping a piece of it to cut through her restraints.
Charlie Fights Back
As The Gentleman cleans Charlie up, she quietly cuts through her restraints using the record piece. He asks her why she changed her mind when she was about to jump the wall. As the Gentleman steps back, he steps on a broken piece of record. Realising what has happened, he looks down at Charlie who tells him she came back to stop him. She breaks free of her restraints and runs away. We get, what must be, the fifth or sixth close up on those damn scissors still stuck underneath the crib. Potentially hinting at what is yet to come. As The Gentleman pursues Charlie she suddenly appears and stabs him in the shoulder.
The Gentleman tells her to stop and that he doesn’t want to hurt her or the baby. A strange thing to say given that he isn’t exactly in an advantageous position with a brand new gaping scissor wound in his shoulder. Charlie tells him that she has felt him in her home since that night but hasn’t been able to prove it until now. She then stabs him again in the chest. He falls to the floor and begs her to stop. She tells him that she couldn’t end this until he knew he had failed. “This” meaning the pregnancy. She then stabs herself in the stomach. Naturally the Gentleman is in a bit of shock as he thinks she has just stabbed her own baby while it was still inside her. Something that seems quite shocking given the overall rather PG-13 nature of the movie so far.
It Was All An Elaborate Plan!
Charlie groans for a moment as if she actually stabbed herself, before revealing her stomach to be completely fake. She was never actually pregnant in the first place. It was all a trick. She rips open the padding of her stomach to reveal a pistol. The audio quality here is terrible. They have clearly done a really bad job with the recording and have had to boost it leaving Charlie’s voice full of artifacts and sounding generally awful. You can hear the hissing from the background where the mic is boosted. Nasty stuff but impressively common in Tubi movies for some reason.
Charlie relates to The Gentleman that this was the only way for her to find out what happened to the women he got pregnant. This was the only way she could find out for sure what he would do. Charlie knew that he would be watching her and that he would come back for her so that he could take the baby. Hence why she isolated herself from her family and the people around her. She didn’t want them believing that she was actually pregnant. She knew that he had access to the house so hid the gun in the padding of her stomach and continued the façade of being pregnant the entire time. Placing herself in vulnerable positions so that he would get close to her. Luring him in so he would think she was about to give birth. Prompting him to come back and take the baby.
The entire thing was an elaborate plan so that she could kill the Gentleman. The Gentleman, being a bit of an idiot, fell for it entirely. She shoots him in the nards before explaining that she was faking the whole thing. Naturally leaving him a little bit upset. Before shooting him in the head in a move that might make her self defence case a little complicated. A cool ending to what was a rather milquetoast cat and mouse horror movie.
Is Sorry, Charlie Based on a True Story?
Right, I promised to talk about this and this is probably why most people will arrive at this article. Let’s be honest for a minute, this is a “fact” that has been pushed heavily to promote the movie. I have seen other reviewers talking about this as if it is some wonderous point that makes the story oh so much more chilling. The truth is, like so many of these Tubi movies that are supposedly based on true stories, that Sorry, Charlie is only kinda grounded in reality. You know, in as much as Psycho is because some people suffer from psychosis and delusions that lead them to commit violent crimes. Or as much as Misery is because some obsessed fans have harmed the people they are obsessed with.
Sorry, Charlie features a killer who lures his victims out of their house into his grasp using a recording of a young baby crying. The movie opens up citing dubious studies attesting to the sound of a baby triggering a protective instinct in humans that will lead them to cast all sense aside and rush into danger to protect it. Providing potential predators an opportunity to exploit the nurturing nature of vulnerable women.
And this is the part of the story that is, supposedly, true. And, to give the writer his due, it’s a good concept. It’s a chilling thought; especially where lone women are concerned. The problem is, Colton Tran and Luke Genton didn’t really think the reality of this through. Imagine hearing a baby’s cries echoing through your window in the dead of night while you are all alone. What would you do? Would you head outside to investigate or would you simply call the police and let them deal with it? I am going to assume that most people would go with the latter option and that is where the major flaw in this story is.
The Baton Rouge “Serial Killer”
There are reports of this very thing happening but it may not have played out how you might think. In fact, it would take several gigantic leaps of logic to turn it into the story we see here. In all reported cases of a person hearing a baby crying outside of their window, the police were called and absolutely nothing came of it. Nobody was hurt, no playback equipment was ever recovered, nobody was caught and literally nothing at all happened. It would actually be fair to say that this is one of the least interesting and least eventful “internet rumours” to ever do the rounds.
This whole thing started as a supposed Facebook post from a woman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who claimed to have been leaving a mall when she and her boyfriend heard crying coming from a car. They walked over to the car and looked through the rolled down window, entirely expecting to see a young infant in distress. Inside was a device playing the sound of a baby crying. Confused and extremely concerned, the couple surveyed the scene. They spotted a blacked out vehicle not too far away. Assuming that there was a person in the car attempting to lure unsuspecting victims using the sound of an upset youngster. The pair informed security and made a bulletin post about it to warn others.
In addition to this was another email following on from the above that claimed a woman heard crying coming from her porch. Worried that a baby may have found its way into her garden and may end up crawling into the road, she called police. The police told her to NOT open her door under any circumstances and that they had a police car on the way. The police, apparently, told her that they believed a serial killer was luring women out of their homes using the sound of a baby crying and that a number of women had called the police reporting the same. But is it true? Was there really a serial killer stalking Baton Rouge and luring unsuspecting women out of their homes using a recording of a baby crying?
Not Really
Now there was a serial killer operating in Baton Rouge during this period. Derrick Todd Lee was active between 1992 and 2003. Lee claimed at least 7 victims including Eugenie Boisfontaine, Gina Wilson Green, Geralyn DeSoto, Charlotte Murray Pace, Pam Kinamore, Trineisha Dene Colomb, and Carrie Lynn Yoder with at least four others suspected. Lee was captured in 2004 and convicted for the murders of DeSoto and Pace, later dying in prison at the age of 47.
But did Lee lure women out of their homes using the sound of a baby’s crying? No he didn’t! There is absolutely no evidence of this despite his name being connected to the rumours mentioned above. Police completely denied any potential possibility of this as well as debunking the above claim that they warned a woman to not leave her house due to the sound of a crying baby. Stating that this never happened. They further added that if this was a known threat they would have gone public with it on a grand scale to inform potential victims.
Experts on the case of Derrick Todd Lee have found no indication of him ever using the sound of a baby crying to lure women, either. And in discussions with investigators there was never even the rumour or possibility of this being true. Baton Rouge police even went as far as to post a denial on their webpage due to the prevalence of the rumours. On top of this, Lee’s sub-70 IQ would suggest that it is unlikely that he would even have the foresight or capability of pulling this off effectively.
An Enduring Urban Legend
So where does the story come from? Well, there was a tremendous amount of tension in Baton Rouge at the time. The area had been bombarded by a number of serial killers for over ten years with Derrick Todd Lee, Jeffery Lee Guillory and Sean Vincent Gillis terrorising the area. Killing 36 women that we know about and many more that may have gone unidentified. The post shared above was likely a result of this paranoia and used as something of a cautionary tale. Reminding people that they lived in a dangerous area and lone women were at a significant amount of risk. This is a common phenomenon in areas where killers are active and is seen time and time again.
Everything about the story from the setup to the police dispatcher telling the woman to “NOT go outside!!” is reminiscent of traditional urban legends. And just like the legend of the babysitter being called by a person who tells her to check on the children. Only for her to be told by police that the calls are coming from inside the house. It makes for fairly easy and by the numbers horror fodder.
It should be pointed out that this urban legend has appeared in the news a couple of times over the past ten years or so. With a woman from North Carolina claiming in 2010 that someone had tried to lure her outside of her house with a recording of a baby crying. Only for her to call the police and inform them. And four separate Pittsburgh students calling the police to inform them of the sound of a baby crying outside of their accommodation. Only for nothing to come of it and no threat to be found. Pittsburgh police issued a warning to people to call them if they heard anything suspicious. But the reports vanished as soon as they appeared. Suggesting the source as being a prankster or someone who didn’t realise how unlikely this plan is to work.
So Vaguely Inspired By True Events
So, in summary, the movie is inspired by true events in the most vague sense of the term. There was never a person who lured people out of their homes using the sound of a baby crying before murdering them. There was a rumour that a serial killer did this but this was proven to be patently false. There was a well known urban legend from 2003 that followed this basic outline. And a few people reported the sound of a baby’s crying outside of student accommodation a few years back. But in all cases the police were called and nothing came of it. Making it most likely a prank or something equally as innocuous. Nobody has ever fallen victim to this and, if anyone has ever tried to use this tactic, they were never successful.
The funny thing is, the writers know that this story is unlikely. They reference the very urban legend itself in the movie. They even attempt to challenge the fact that most people would call the cops by claiming that people would do the opposite and would go outside to help the baby. The truth is, however, this is not what happened in reality. People didn’t go outside, they called the police. Just like I assume most people would do and just like you should do if this situation ever occurs.
It is worth noting, however, that criminals have been using vulnerable people to facilitate robberies and burglaries as of late. With young children being used as distractions in store robberies or to keep a person’s attention while their pockets are picked. In some cases, perpetrators are sending young kids to people’s doors late at night to bring the homeowners out so burglars can gain entry. It’s a frightening world we live in so always follow your instincts if you feel that something isn’t quite right.
Thanks for Reading
So that is Sorry, Charlie ending explained. Thank you so much for spending some of your day reading this article. I do really appreciate it and I love talking about horror. I try to do things a little bit different here from most horror sites and I aim to write as if we are two friends chatting it up over a coffee. Why not stick around and check out some Horror Movie Reviews, some Horror Movie Lists or some Horror Movie Ending Explained articles? Catch you later!
