Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Deffinition and this is the channel where we explain it so you don’t have to.
This episode we’re covering the recently released Netflix Blumhouse Horror Movie: Mercy Black.
The twisted tale is full of metaphors and double meanings and the film possesses an ending that has a lot to unpack from it.
Throughout this, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about Mercy Black as well as what we can take from the final few scenes.
This is full spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet then I highly recommend that you turn off now.
With that out the way, I hope you enjoy the video, sit back, relax and let’s get into my Ending Explained Breakdown of Mercy Black!
Mercy Black Plot Synopsis
The film opens with the ominous text:
‘Do you know Mercy? Do you know her name? She’ll take away your hurt, if you promise her your pain’
Instantly this sets the tone for what is to be one of Blumhouses’ creepiest projects to date.
The movie itself follows Marina Hess, who fifteen years after stabbing a classmate, is finally coming home. Marina apparently committed the crime in order to appease a phantom known as Mercy Black.
There are clear allusions to the real-life Slenderman Stabbing case that took place in 2014 in which 12-year-olds Anissa E. Weier and Morgan E. Geyser lured their friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times in the hopes of impressing Slenderman.
Similar to Anissa and Morgan, Marina’s crimes went viral and have inspired many internet rumours, stories and copycat crimes that have given her a level of noteriety in the area. Marina is obviously anxious at returning home as she is haunted by her crimes and the phantom Mercy Black. Upon learning that Mercy Black has become so famous she feels guilt for bringing the world a whole new nightmare that she believes has caused a lot of suffering.
Better Than Slenderman?
Marina desperately tries to convince herself that Mercy Black was a figment of her imagination, however, her nephew Bryce becomes increasingly more and more obsessed and interested in the legend which leads her to discovering that perhaps it wasn’t all in her head.
Now right off the bat this is a pretty heavily filled jumpscare movie, so if you don’t like them and let’s face it who does, then you’re probably not going to enjoy this as much as you should. To the film’s credit this is a far superior Slenderman film than the actual Slenderman film that was released last year and it deals with the humanity of a story like this with a lot more respect.
This is down a lot to the actress that plays Marina who manages to display the severity of mental health issues that can cause psychosis like this as well as convincing us that there could be some legitimacy to the legend.
Throughout the film we learn that there are conflicting reports over what Mercy Black actually is. Some regard her as a demon whilst others thing that she is a Guardian Angel.
When researching her with the help of Librarian Lily, Bryce discovers that she seeks out sad children and as long as they make her an offering of flesh and blood that she will take away their pain.
Dwight Power
Back home Will Nylund attempts to convince Marina that she should attempt to seel her story and make a profit from her and when trying to grope her she catches him with a sander which sends him into a rage. Stranger things start happening around the property and whilst Will initally get’s the blame, Bryce asks Marina about where she has actually been all these years.
Marina confesses that when she was younger she conjured Mercy Black as a way to try and make her mother better and with her friend Rebecca they created this form of escapism in their imagination to help and cope with the problems in their life.
In the mean time, Marina’s sister Alice goes to confront Will about him attempting to scare Marina and she discovers that Will has been writing a book on the story and is obssessed with the ins and outs of the tale. Will, like most journalists, believes that the story needs to be told no matter the reprocussions of it and that night he’s attacked and killed by Mercy Black in his own home.
Here we have it confirmed that Will has been using his friends in order to try and trick Marina into becoming interested in the story again, hey I guess it’s good to know that Dwight from The Walking Dead is two faced whether it’s the zombie apocalypse or not.
Have Mercy
From here on out Mercy Black comes out in full force and we learn more about the crimes that Marina and her friend Rebecca committed as kids. This involved cutting the finger off their victim and feeding it to a lake in the middle of the woods along with their blood soaked hands.
Back in the present, Marina goes back to visit Rebecca who was released earlier than she was and there’s hints that Rebecca was abused as a child which caused her to begin to reach out for help from Mercy Black. She learns that Rebecca attempted to kill herself by hanging from one of her father’s ties but her mother saved her and since she has turned into a vegetable.
In her room, Marina discovers a map but she’s attacked by Rebecca who has to be covered by a blanket in order to settle down. Marina flees the house and back home Bryce ties up his friend and sets a trap that will kill him upon his mother attempting to help. It’s pretty messed up and there are hints that Bryce is struggling with his father leaving which people in the town gossip about openly.
Bryce states that Mercy told him to do it as Marina travels back to the woods located on Rebecca’s map and she slowly unearths the past and remembers the original crime which is when she discovers a fallout shelter in the forest which is where we learn the truth behind the movie.
Lily’s True Identity
So the first big twist comes with the fact that the girl that Rebecca and Marina sacrificed is alive and well as masquerading as Librarian Lily. Lily has been grooming Bryce for Mercy the entire time which is why she stated the creature was a Guardian Angel and even encouraged his research into her.
This set off a chain of events in which he attempted to murder his friend and believe that Mercy appeared in the air vent above his bed.
Dr. Ward in the film explains that as an adult, Lily changed her name and dropped off the grid so that she would be able to reinfilatrate society and groom new children. We learn that Lily wasn’t even really a victim in the original crime and was infact a willing participant. Lily, similar to Marina and Rebecca, made a promise to Mercy and throughout the film has been trying to manipulate Marina into completing her sacrifce by making it seem that Mercy exists.
In the end, Lily takes Bryce back to the Shelter and resorts to threatning Bryce in the hopes that Marina will kill her, however, Marina refuses and unfortunately Bryce carries out the killing himself.
Is Mercy Black Real?
Another big question that many will have over the film’s ending is, ‘Is Mercy Black Real?’ Well, this is a bit difficult to answer but I actually believe that she is. Whilst alot of the strange occurences can be chalked up to Lily or Marina’s psychosis, there are a few things that she could not have done and unfortunately, there is no way to explain them beyond the antagonist being a reality.
So how exactly has this happened?
Well the best explanation is that Mercy was created through witchcraft, which the children were clearly practicing due to the reference to a book of Spells. Either the characters believed in Mercy strongly enough that it willed her into existence or their belief invited a dark spirit into their life that took on the identity of Mercy in order to have people carry out it’s dark desires.
The whole point of Mercy Black is that people must make sacrifices in order to offer up body parts to the character so that it can take them. For example, it gains a finger and eye through Lily losing hers and this ritual completes it’s body.
So, the demon will finally come to life through these sacrifices and be able to torment more people which is ultimately what will happen should more sacrifices take place.
In the end, Mercy ends up taking Bryce and thus becoming whole, able to wreck havoc on the world once more and I took the ending as showcasing that the nightmare had truly began due to the sacrifice being completed.
Mercy Black Ending Explained
The main theme that can be taken from the film is that Ideas can become very dangerous if they are shaped in the wrong way. Mercy Black started out as an imaginary being but due to the publicity garnered by the original crimes, Mercy went viral and inspired a nightmare that spanned the world.
Just as Will had the idea for a book on the crimes, this eventually lead to his downfall and it shows that if we do things with negative ideologies then negativity is all that can come from them.
Just as the idea of Slenderman was originally created as an internet meme, this eventually spread to the point that it created real world crimes that horrified the world.
This showcases the power that ideas have and Mercy Black itself is a metaphor for the notion that ideas, if strong enough can change the world in more ways than one.
My Thoughts
Overall, whilst Mercy Black starts off rather by the numbers I actually think the film picks up a lot in the third act. It ends with a lot of questions and this is always something that I look for in a horror movie. It’s a fun ride and definitely stands as a good mental health case study of why the Slenderman Stabbings may have happened.
So if you’re interested in that then I definitely recommend that you seek it out when you next get a chance.
Your Thoughts
Obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the film and if you enjoyed this video then please like it and make sure you leave your review of the movie in the comments below. Make sure you check out my breakdown of Pet Sematary which will be linked at the end as I’m sure you’ll enjoy it and it massively helps my content to grow.
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