Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are going to be explaining the ending to Shudder original horror movie You’ll Never Find Me from 2024. You can check out our review of You’ll Never Find Me right here. Keep in mind that I have to spoil the movie to explain the ending so be warned.
Something I have learned over time is that the vast majority of people don’t want to spend ten minutes staring at a page reading. So rather than roll out my typical epic, 4,000 word, ending explained articles. I am going to try to summarise in under 1,500. That’s five minutes of reading so let’s give it a go.
What Happened in You’ll Never Find Me?
So we will start with a quick summary. An old man, Patrick (Brendan Rock) sits alone in his dingy trailer with a vial of clear liquid, a bottle of whisky, and a pained look on his face. His silence is broken by a knock at the door. Opening it, he sees a young woman (Jordan Cowan) standing in the doorway, soaked by the rain. She isn’t wearing shoes and her feet are covered in mud and sand.
Patrick invites her in. Eventually remarking on how familiar the woman is to him. The pair chat for a little and the woman asks to use the phone. Patrick says that he will take her back to her home shortly and asks how she came to be in this situation. She claims her home isn’t far from here and that she has been at the beach where she fell asleep. The old man appears to act rather strangely, perhaps not used to visitors. The woman examines some of the man’s personal effects, much of which appears to be women’s jewellery.
Both Patrick and The Woman are Liars
Eventually, the woman becomes spooked by Patrick’s behaviour and asks to leave. He claims that he isn’t keeping her there and she is free to go. The woman opens the door and, rather than head out into the raging storm, she chooses to stay and play cards with Patrick. Patrick tells the story of how he met his late wife outside of a gas station while she was drunk. The woman tells of how she drank too much at the bar and found herself lost in the middle of the storm. Contradicting her earlier story about the beach.
It soon becomes clear to the woman that Patrick is a capable and enthusiastic liar when she notices lipstick on the glass he has given her. Suggesting that a woman has been in the trailer in the recent past. A noise from outside prompts Patrick to suddenly head out into the storm. While he is outside, the woman notices the sound of a phone vibrating. Following the noise, the woman discovers the dead body of a young woman. Obviously a victim of Patrick.
Patrick is a Serial Killer
Startled, she attempts to escape, hammering on a skylight in the utility room, inadvertently striking her own head with the hammer. Patrick returns and wrestles her to the ground, forcing her to drink the vial of clear liquid. Patrick explains that the vial contains gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB). A depressant drug that, in small doses, has useful medical applications as a sedative among other things. But can also lead to paralysis and death in higher doses. Patrick informs the woman that he has given her a more than lethal dose.
Before the woman dies, Patrick monologues about his history as a serial killer. Claiming that the first woman he murdered was a young lady with a heart rhythm tattoo he met at a beach and he has been killing ever since. In fact, the story about his wife was actually about the woman whose body is in the trailer currently. He claims he will never be caught because nobody knows who or where he is. Slowly losing consciousness, the GHB becomes too much for the woman. As she dies, Patrick suddenly realises where he saw the woman’s face in the past. He checks her body and sees the very heart rhythm tattoo from the woman he killed first all those years ago.
Patrick’s Past Comes Back to Haunt Him
Patrick begins panicking and suddenly starts to see the women he has murdered over the years appearing in various parts of his trailer. They are all laughing and mocking him. Hiding in the trailer as police lights flash outside, Patrick heads to the table. The mysterious woman who he supposedly just murdered forces the bottle of whisky to Patricks mouth forcing him to drink. Suddenly, the visions dissipate, the lights stop flashing outside and Patrick is sat at his table as he was during the first few minutes of the movie.
There is a bang at the door. Patrick opens it to realise it is the kids playing pranks on him, just as he complained about earlier in the movie. He looks at the vial of GHB that he uses to incapacitate and murder women. It is empty, suggesting that the liquid he was drinking in his paranoid state was not alcohol but the GHB. A more than lethal dose. He heads inside laughing before we hear him cough and drop to the floor.
Who Was Patrick in You’ll Never Find Me?
Patrick was a serial killer who had been travelling around claiming victims for a number of years. He preyed on young, vulnerable, women. Some who needed a lift while trapped in storms, some who were inebriated and wanted food. Some who were drunk at bars and made the unfortunate decision to go home with him. And others who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Patrick used GHB to kill the women. A drug commonly used for this type of crime. The recent case of English serial killer Stephen Port is a good example. Port was a recreational user of GHB but also used it to murder each of his victims. Patrick kept personal effects of the women as mementos of his crimes. A common trait of serial killers and something frequently used to link killers to their victims. The locket that the woman picks up early in the movie being one example. He has a shrine to these mementos on his wall.
Patrick has been able to evade capture for so long by living a relatively anonymous existence. He owns a trailer, does not work and has limited social connections making it easy for him to just disappear. The random nature of his victims also helped him to go under the radar.
Who Was The Woman in You’ll Never Find Me?
The woman in You’ll Never Find Me was the very first victim of Patrick. She was actually dead the whole time. She was the woman with the tattoo he found at the beach who needed shelter due to the storm. It can be assumed that the woman was the owner of the heart shaped locket hanging from the bottle on Patrick’s memento shelf. Patrick had, obviously, taken some of her hair before disposing of her body and placed it into the locket.
That’s not all that she is, though. She is also a representation of all of Patrick’s victims. This is why she confuses her background story so much. One minute she was at the beach, the next she was drinking tequila at the bar. One second she is going to her home, the next to a hotel. She represents all of the identities of the women he has killed and all of their back stories.
Was The Woman Real?
The woman was a metaphorical manifestation of Patrick’s guilt. He was hallucinating everything. The way I see it, You’ll Never Find Me is a metaphorical ghost story. All of the guilt he feels from killing so many women has finally caught up to him. The ghosts of the women he sees in his trailer are a metaphor for how each murder haunts him more and more. Remember the literal blood on his hands? The flashing police lights are representative of his paranoia. Always looking over his shoulder for police. Always wondering just when it will all be over and he will be caught.
He can’t stop killing and the victims haunt him every day. He lives a miserable life without purpose and killing is all he has but it brings him guilt. In a drunken state, he consumed the GHB to end his life. In a way, the woman was responsible as it was her, and the other victims, haunting him that made him commit suicide. Somewhat acting as a form of revenge manifesting in his ultimate sense of guilt and paranoia.
What Happened to Patrick?
Patrick consumed a huge amount of GHB. Enough to kill a human many times over. After he answered the door to the kids banging, he realised this. He stumbles back into the trailer and dies immediately. The police will likely find the mementos and put two and two together. Realising that he was a serial killer with many victims who killed himself from the guilt.
Thanks for Reading
Alright, so ignoring this part and the intro, that is You’ll Never Find Me’s ending explained in under 1500 words. Once again, be sure to check out our review of this movie, we really enjoyed it but felt the ending was somewhat disappointing. As I always say, you can stick around and take a look at some horror movie lists or some more reviews if you like. It’s tough sledding as a small horror content creator so I appreciate every one of you for spending your time on Knockout Horror. It means the world to me as all I want to do is chat horror. Take care and I will, hopefully, see you soon.