Netflix's The Wasteland Ending Explained

screenrant.com:

Here’s the ending of the Spanish-language Netflix movie The Wasteland explained. Barcelona-born director David Casademunt made his feature film debut with 2021's psychological horror The Wasteland. Set in conflict-torn 19th century Spain, it’s a slow-burn drama that focuses on a family of three – Salvador (Roberto Alamo), his wife Lucia (Inma Cuesta) and their young son Diego (Asier Flores) – who live an isolated existence on a remote homestead where they’ve taken refuge from the horrors of war.

Despite Lucia and Salvador’s best attempts, the horrors of war soon come to them in The Wasteland when a wounded soldier washes up in a boat on a nearby river. Though they try to save him, the man dies by suicide and Salvador insists on venturing beyond the relative safety of their homestead to deliver the man’s body to his family. Before Salvador leaves, however, he tells Diego a rather ominous tale of an entity — not to be confused with It Follows' entity — he refers to as “The Beast” that feeds on a person’s fear and drove Salvador’s sister to die by suicide when they were children.

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Lucia initially dismisses The Beast as make-believe but as she and Diego wait for Salvador to return, she soon becomes convinced the monster is really stalking their homestead. Lucia’s isolation and paranoia mount as The Wasteland progresses and her declining mental state is made worse when Salvador’s horse returns alone and it becomes clear that he’s died. Young Diego – who has only caught possible glimpses of The Beast – realizes he must protect his mother from herself, rather than the monster she insists is stalking them. In the closing scenes of the Netflix horror