The Surrender ending explained: Acceptance is the only way out of hell

Like the Void's shadow dimension in Jake Schreier's MCU movie Thunderbolts, there's a void in Julia Max's The Surrender too. However, this isn't like a shadow dimension but a pure hell. A mother and her daughter are dragged there and live their worst nightmares while in this dimension.

Colby Minifie plays Megan, the daughter of Barbara (Kate Burton) and Robert (Vaughn Armstrong). The film is about grief and the extent to which a person can cope with it, unbeknownst to the consequences. Robert is going through an illness and soon passes away, and that's when the film starts planting seeds for it to surround itself with horrors.

In a desperate attempt, Barbara tries to resurrect her husband through a ritual that goes wrong. Robert does return, but in an unexpected way: his body, more like a dead body, has become possessed by a demonic entity. Barbara and Megan sure don't want to get close to this hell of a creature. They need to get out of there; the only way is through acceptance.

Why did Robert return like this in The Surrender?

Barbara is introduced to this strange figure, who guides her to the ritual that will allegedly bring her husband back. So she does everything he says, more like whispers. She even gave Robert's entire life savings to this man. Basically, the family needs to get rid of everything associated with Robert, minus them.

Barbara chops off her finger. Then the strange man starts the ritual, and after a brief moment where everything goes dark, they are transported to a different place. The first thing they see is a man, now dead.

Robert returns, and the first thing he does is consume the strange man. Both the mother and the daughter deduce that something has gone terribly wrong because they are seeing the patriarch of their family behave unusually.

However, the truth soon appears. It turns out Megan is holding on to a photograph of her with Robert. As the ritual demands that everything associated with the spirit of a person they are trying to interact with be gone forever, this is a clear violation of the rules. This is why Robert has returned as this hellish creature.

Did mother and daughter escape from hell?

Sadly, only the daughter, Megan, returns. Barbara wants Robert so badly that she even cuts her hand and tries to lure this new Robert. This works, and Robert pulls her close to him, too close, and he eats her eventually.

However, Megan is terrified and needs to go back home. She also chops her finger off as part of the ritual, which, according to the rules, counts as the third sacrifice. Instead, she gets these visions from the past and learns some truth about her parents. It seems like Robert was somewhat more into maintaining his image in society.

But Megan accepts all of it, though it was hard, and is released from this nightmare she just lived with her now deceased mother.