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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Spoilers for the full film. Gladys causes the children’s disappearance by using personal objects to target them with spells, then keeps them under control in her basement. Alex eventually turns her own spell-casting method against her, and the children kill her. The film identifies Gladys as a witch but does not explain her origin or fully resolve her supposed family connection. The deaths below are those confirmed in the reported climax; the available sources do not establish a complete film-wide count.
Why did the 17 children disappear at 2:17 a.m.?
In Maybrook, Illinois, all 17 third-graders in Mrs. Gandy’s class leave their homes at 2:17 a.m. and vanish. Alex is the only child from the class who remains. The Associated Press identifies the number and time as part of the film’s central mystery (AP review).
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Gladys arrives at Alex’s home posing as a relative of his mother. She has Alex collect a personal item from each classmate, including things such as hair, clothing, and the children’s hand-drawn name tags. Gladys uses those objects and a small tree as part of her spellwork, drawing the children to the Lilly home and keeping them in the basement. She appears to drain their vitality while Alex remains outwardly functional, helping her maintain the appearance of a normal household. Variety’s ending explanation and Vanity Fair’s interview with director Zach Cregger describe these mechanics.
How does the investigation lead to Gladys?
Justine and Archer follow the children’s trail toward Alex’s home. Gladys turns adults under her control into attackers, escalating the search into a violent confrontation. Alex is not spared because he is immune: Gladys needs him to help preserve the appearance that everything at home is ordinary.
#1 Best Overall
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Which deaths are confirmed in the climax?
Variety’s climax account names these deaths. They should not be mistaken for a verified list of every death in the entire film: the cited sources do not establish a complete body count.
- Andrew, the principal: Gladys controls him and sends him after Justine. He dies when a speeding car hits him.
- Paul and Anthony: Under Gladys’s control, they attack Justine and Archer. The pair overpower and kill them.
- Gladys: Alex uses the spell-casting tree against her and directs the children to attack. They chase and tear her apart. Her death breaks her control over the people she has bewitched.
The AP review describes the film as containing numerous violent deaths, but does not provide a scene-by-scene accounting (AP review). A definitive total would require checking the film itself.
Who was Gladys, really?
The film’s plot explainers identify Gladys as a witch. Her tree and the children’s personal tokens let her immobilize or drain people and make victims attack others. The movie presents her as a relative of Alex’s mother, but does not settle what that relationship truly is or explain where Gladys came from. Vanity Fair’s interview notes that the answers about her deeper nature are destroyed with her body. The clearest answer is that the film reveals what Gladys does, not a complete origin story.
Why does Alex survive, and what happens to the children?
Gladys needs Alex to keep up the appearance of normal family life, so she leaves him functional while using his collection of classmates’ belongings to target the other children. When Alex turns the tree’s spell against Gladys, the children are able to attack her; once she dies, her control breaks.
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The closing narration says the children return home, but it does not present their rescue as a clean recovery. Some have not recovered, and some only begin speaking again later. Alex’s parents are institutionalized, Alex lives with an aunt, and Archer returns to normal after the spells end (Variety; Vanity Fair).
Is the timeline meant to fit together exactly?
Not necessarily. Cregger told CinemaBlend that he tried to make a calendar of events but could not reconcile everything, describing the narrators as unreliable and the events as subjective: “They’re unreliable narrators. It’s all, yes, subjective.” That makes the broad cause-and-effect chain clear—Gladys’s spells, the disappearances, Alex’s intervention—without requiring every chapter’s timing to align perfectly. CinemaBlend’s interview covers his explanation.
Rank #4
What does the witch story mean to Cregger?
Cregger has described the film’s final chapter as autobiographical, connecting it to his childhood experience with an alcoholic parent and the reversal in which a child becomes a caregiver. He has also cautioned against treating the film as a sermon about children of addicts. His comments describe an inspiration for the story, not a claim that Gladys’s supernatural plot is literal autobiography. In Vanity Fair, he said: “The last chapter of this movie is straight-up autobiographical. That was my childhood.” He also compared addiction’s destructive effect to an outside force that changes behavior: “This foreign substance comes in and it changes everyone’s behavior.” (Vanity Fair interview.)
Is a Gladys prequel planned?
TheWrap reported on July 23, 2026, that a Gladys prequel script was in progress and that a theatrical release was planned for September 8, 2028. That is a reported plan, not a guaranteed release date; schedules can change. TheWrap had previously reported Cregger’s development of a standalone Gladys film (2026 report; 2025 interview).
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