In My Mother’s Skin is set in the Philippines at the end of World War II and follows the story of Tala, the 14-year-old daughter of a textile merchant, who is desperate to cure her dying mother. Seeking out a mysterious fairy who gives her a magical insect to help cure her mother, the fairy turns out to be seriously evil and changes Tala’s life forever. Allow us to walk you through the ending of his Filipino folk horror and explain what it all means.
Needless to say, there will be major spoilers ahead.
The film begins in a dark room with a person ravenously eating someone else. This possessed person is making unholy noises, has long fingernails, and vomits out a black bird as multiple females’ laughter can be heard in the distance. It’s a creepy and disturbing start to the film.
We quickly meet the family who are saddened and torn apart by the father having to leave his wife, two children, and housemaid in a mansion alone. The film shows how this family was torn apart and killed by both real and fantasy horrors.
In My Mother’s Skin Ending Explained
Roughly thirty minutes before the end, Tala’s younger brother Bayani is shot. Tala takes a gun to protect her possessed mother. Whilst in her room she finds the maid dead, and the mother eating the flesh of the man who shot Bayani. We see the mother vomit up a little black bird.
Tala goes back into the forest to find the fairy, begging for her family to get back to normal. When she returns to the house, her brother’s head is on the floor outside her mother’s bedroom.
There, the fairy is waiting. The mother is banging her head against the wall and then runs at Tala, who locks herself in the room, screaming. The fairy comes in, insisting that Tala needs her, and asks what she wants. A moment later the noises all stop. The bug Tala made her mother eat flies out of her back and after whispering her children’s names she passes away.
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Crying over her mother’s body, Tala is approached by the fairy, who offers her something to eat in order to make everything go away and set her free. It’s a glowing piece of fruit.
The father returns, screaming everyone’s name. He’s seen grabbing the head of his son. The driver goes into the cupboard and takes out a bag filled with gold bricks, and with a gun hidden behind his back, he kills the father. Tala comes from another room and from the balcony of the mansion watches the man drive away. There’s a clip of the fruit rotting away, and later that night, the film ends with Tala walking down a very long, dark path alone.
What is Ligaya ill with?
Their ailing mother Ligaya is brought down by a serious cough, and this gets worse as she begins coughing up blood. They all pray for her but we do not know what she actually has. From the symptoms and the time, it could have been tuberculosis.
However, once she eats the beetle given by the fairy, we would assume that she gets better. At first, she appears to be, but then we see the mother making strange noises, looking even more unwell, and see something growing and moving in her body — she has been possessed by something evil.
Her body then does actions that mimic someone possessed, like screaming from the bed, things crawling out of her mouth, and demonic noises. Eventually, once the bug tears itself out of Ligaya, she passes away.
Why does the father leave?
Due to the size of their estate, where the majority of the film takes place, and the fact they have a live-in maid/nanny, we can assume the family is wealthy. The father has been accused of stashing Japanese gold somewhere on the property and is forced to leave his wife and children behind to try to make amends.
He eventually does return and is killed by a man he is with, who steals the gold the father claimed not to have.
Do the children survive?
Towards the end, the true horrors are what a real human can do to you, not a mythical magical creature.
A friend of the maid, Antonio, wants the gold that everyone is saying is in the house — screaming for the key, he shoots Bayani to get it. Tala tries to save him, leaving his body outside as she goes to find the fairies. When she returns his head is inside the house with his body nowhere to be found.
What did the faeries want?
Chaos? Strife? We see the fairy eating a bird, and the sick, possessed people throw up little black birds, so it could be something to do with the fairies needing to eat the souls of humans to survive.
In some cultures, birds are seen as bad luck and in Filipino mythology, the Tigmamanukan (bird) was believed by the Tagalog people to be an omen or augural bird. The Tagalogs believed that the tigmamanukan was sent by Bathala to give hints to mankind about whether they needed to proceed on a journey or not. In the end, Tala is on a journey by herself, perhaps the bird is the symbol that she needs to go through life alone.
Fairies were seen as protectors of places such as forests, so it could be that when someone comes into the forest, the fairies must get them out by any means necessary. With the father having a target on his back, it feels as if the family’s deaths were inevitable.
There is a lot to read into this film, which is what makes it such a good horror to watch. It’s creepy and will catch you off guard, and it’ll make you be careful what you wish for.
What did you think of the ending of In My Mother’s Skin? Comment below.
