‘A Cure For Wellness’ ending, explained

Bodies floating in tubes? People taking eel bathes? Just what in the name of alternative medicine is going on? Gore Verbinski’s psychological horror film A Cure For Wellness is about a Swiss Alps spa that is anything but relaxing. What’s up with the ending? All this, explained.

I’m feeling unwell…

There’s a cure for that! All you have to do is go to Dr. Volmer’s spa in the Swiss Alps and you’ll be feeling better in no time! At least, that’s the pitch, and the boss of Wall Street businessman Lockhart was all too happy to visit. Now Lockhart has to go to the freaky facility to get has boss back, but neither may come out alive.

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Unsurprisingly, the spa’s creator Dr. Volmer isn’t who he says he is. He’s not some kindly physician, he’s a Swiss Baron who became biologically immortal due to his dark experiments. Two hundred years ago, The Institute was once the Baron’s castle, and the Baron himself had certain Game of Thrones style feelings towards his beloved sister, but alas couldn’t have the children he desired with her because she was infertile. In order to “cure” his sister, the Baron tore a few pages out of Dr. Frankenstein’s book and began all sorts of dubious medical experiments on the local peasantry. The peasants, in Frankenstein style, decided enough was enough and stormed the castle, burning the place down with the Baron and his sister in it. They then captured the Baron’s sister, cut the baby she had made with the Baron from her womb, and tossed it into an aquifer. Needless to say, the Baron’s sister didn’t survive.

The baby, however, did.

How? Eels. The water of the aquifer is toxic to humans, but it allows the eels living in it to become effectively immortal. The Baron was able to figure out how to filter the water through the bodies of human beings in order to make it safe to consume, and Lockhart was almost one of them. After escaping confinement, Lockhart was able to figure out the truth of the Baron and his daughter Hannah after breaking into his office. He then confronts Volmer, who is about to violate his own daughter, and reveals the truth. Hannah pushes her father into the aquifer, and he’s eaten by the eels, and the pair escape.

So why did Volmer want to have children with his daughter? Volmer was a eugenicist, and wanted to create a “pure master race” of immortal humans. He believed that the only blood “pure” enough to use was… his own family’s. He intended to use his sister, and then his own daughter to “breed” this master race in order to serve his seriously messed up ideals. But now, he’s been served to his id-eels instead. *rimshot*