The Calendar Killer is not particularly clever, but that does not mean the ending is easily guessed. I did not work out the twist, which is that Jules is the Calendar Killer and that he coerces his victims on a telephone safety helpline for lonely women making their way home.
And yes, I was kicking myself somewhat for not predicting the twist because it was apparent when the final act came. But isn’t that what twists are meant to be for?
A Terrifying Predicament For Klara
When Martin finally finds his wife, Klara, they have a heated argument in the car. Klara, who has suffered domestic abuse from her husband, not only fears him, but she fears The Calendar Killer too, who has announced that either one of them will die by midnight. It’s a terrifying predicament as she’s fighting two evils at once.
Deciding that she’s done with her husband once and for all, Klara tasers Martin and locks him in the car. She heads up to their apartment to get her daughter, Amelie, presumably with the plan to run away with her.
However, when Klara gets to her apartment, she finds Jules singing to her sleeping daughter. Why would Jules, the man talking to her on the telephone safety helpline, be in her apartment with her daughter?
It turns out that Jules is The Calendar Killer. He was sitting in Klara’s apartment waiting for her while pretending to help her on the phone. This explains why, throughout the movie, Jules never looks utterly comfortable in the apartment and is reluctant to speak to his father (assumedly, a police detective by how he behaves).
This is why when a burglar came to the apartment, rather than helping him and his daughter to “safety,” he desperately fought the home invader so he could remain in the apartment.
Jules also has demons of his own due to tragedies with his own family that have shaped him into the serial killer he is now. He digresses his personal history on the phone with Klara and regularly ponders why she would stay with a man who regularly abused her.
With the twist of The Calendar Killer established Jules was now in control. He’s frustrated that Klara’s husband, Martin, is not with her, but she left him locked in the car after tasering him.
The Final Confrontation
Eventually, Martin gets out of the car and into the apartment. When he sees the commotion, he tries to attack Jules but fails miserably (unsurprising—he’s a terrible husband all around).
With Martin now tied up, Jules gives Klara a choice: either kill her abusive husband, or he’ll kill her. At this point, she has three minutes until midnight to decide (and he is the calendar killer, after all – dates are important).
Klara attacks Jules instead and stabs him through his foot with a knife. Jules is furious and tells Klara and Martin that they deserve each other. As he’s about to kill them both, his father, who was tracking down Klara after speaking to his son on the phone, enters the room and shoots Jules in the head. Jules is dead.
The father, who is understandably sad by what he has had to do, tells Klara and Martin that he is Jules’ father and that he is too late. He recognized his son’s handwriting on the news announcing The Calendar Killer and tried to help him before he hurt anyone else. He knew his son was a serial killer after what he saw in the media.
Themes Beyond the Thriller
At the end of The Calendar Killer, Martin is arrested and imprisoned for five years for domestic abuse he tormented his wife Klara with. Klara had recorded his tirade, where he admitted to abusing her before the serial killer confronted them. Klara leaked the recording to the public to bring him down. As he was a public figure, he had nowhere to hide.
The ending of The Calendar Killer wraps up a complex character in Klara – a woman terrified of her husband and terrified of a serial killer at the same time. It raises awareness of violence against women and the fear of speaking out. That’s the overall theme of the movie.
