‘You Should Have Left’ Ending Explained: Will There Be a Sequel?

You Should Have Left is the latest feature film to eschew a traditional, theatrical release in favor of a debut directly on VOD, and the film promises to fill your living room with lots of dread and paranoia. The film stars Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried as a couple whose marriage is on the rocks (and yes, their very noticeable age difference is key to the plot). They try to reconnect by checking into a seemingly harmless house—but as you can guess, the home is far from harmless.

If you’re looking for new things to watch, especially movies that will send a shiver down your spine, then you’ll probably want to check out You Should Have Left. But as with plenty of psychological horror films, the ending may leave you with questions. Here’s what you need to know about You Should Have Left.

What is You Should Have Left about?

Kevin Bacon stars as Theo Conroy, a wealthy banker who can’t shake one incredibly traumatic—and incredibly public—event in his past. He’s trying, though; he has a much younger wife named Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) and they have a daughter, Ella (Avery Essex). But as his paranoia escalates (who is Susanna always texting?!) and his jealousy increases (why is Susanna such a successful actress?!), the couple decide to take a break from Susanna’s film shoot by renting a very remote and seemingly quaint old house in the outskirts of Wales.

That was a bad idea.

The house, it turns out, has a few demons of its own, and those demons like to play with the demons of its inhabitants. Not only is it bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside, but it has disappearing doors, mysterious Polaroids appear on the wall, there are too many light switches, and food rots quickly and mysteriously. Even dangerous phrases start appearing in his journal, like “you should leave—go now” and “you should have left.”

Theo’s hallucinations get worse and worse as he’s tormented by his past. That big, traumatic event that everyone knows about? It turns out Theo’s first wife died after taking too many sleeping pills and drowning in the tub. Theo was the primary suspect in a very public murder trial, and suspicion still hangs over his head even though he was acquitted.

You Should Have Left ending explained

Considering how upside down and topsy-turvy everything involving the Welsh house is, Theo comes up with one backwards solution: he walks backwards. He picks up his daughter and exits the house, keeping the macabre manor in his eyesight as he gets further and further away from it. They hit the road and start walking to safety only to see a light in the distance: it belongs to the house. They can’t escape—or rather Theo can’t escape.

Theo confesses something to his wife: he didn’t kill his first wife, no, but he also didn’t save her either. “You should have left” isn’t just a message about how Theo should’ve hightailed it from the property; he also should’ve left his marriage before it got to the point where he would watch his wife die. Theo realizes there’s no hope for him. He’s trapped in the house, trapped by the demons of his past, and he has to give his wife and daughter a chance to escape. He gives Ella to Susanna and tells them to leave—and they do. Theo is left trapped in the house; the house of demons has added one more to its collection.

How does You Should Have Left differ from the book?

You Should Have Left is based on Daniel Kehlmann’s 2017 German novella Du hättest gehen sollen, which translates to You Should Have Left. The main difference between the novella and the film regards Theo; in the original story, he’s a screenwriter struggling to come up with the screenplay for the sequel to his hit film. The novel also digs into the hellish origins of the house, offering up a few explanations for why it’s so evil. A local clerk tells the screenwriter a local legend stating that long before the house was built, a tower sat on its spot. The tower was constructed by the devil himself, and it was ultimately destroyed by a wizard working with God. Or, as the clerk backtracks, maybe it was built by a wizard and destroyed by God. The movie makes a passing mention to this plot point.

Will there be a You Should Have Left sequel?

A chiller like You Should Have Left seems ripe with sequel potential, especially since you could theoretically drop any number of individuals into the house’s four/million walls and watch them lose their mind. However, if a sequel does happen, it’ll have to be a completely original tale as Daniel Kehlmann hasn’t produced a sequel to his 2017 novella.

You can rent You Should Have Left right now on VOD.

Where to watch You Should Have Left