Reanimal ending explained

What is the meaning of Reanimal's ending? The ending to Reanimal's story is largely up to interpretation, but there is fun to be had trawling through all the theories out there. The story toys with many themes, but it does revolve around the girl and the nightmarish creature we finally see at the end of the game: the sheep.

There's also a secret ending you can unlock by interacting with all five coffins found throughout the game. Here's what to expect from both endings, though only read on if you're happy to know what happens at the end of Reanimal, as this guide contains major story spoilers.

After saving all our friends on the island, the sheep creature that we've been seeing glimpses of throughout the game finally crawls out of the well it's trapped in and heads after the group of kids. It swallows them one by one, as the boy and girl make a break for it in a large tank, shooting the sheep as they go. Though it looks like the final blow does kill the sheep, as the boy and girl leave the tank, the sheep appears and swallows the boy, and chases after the girl.

After the final chase sequence, the girl is eventually captured and swallowed, heading into the stomach of the beast. Here, she is guided to a barn where her friends are waiting for her. We see a ritual taking place between the friends, with symbols on the floor and a dead rabbit lying nearby - this ties in with earlier scenes of the group sacrificing blood into a wooden chalice-type contraption - and finally, the girl is knocked out.

She's taken by her friends and dropped down a well, presumed dead, but eventually reanimating, as sheep chant around her. It's all very, very weird, but it does ultimately seem like a ritual gone wrong, or a timeloop the children are trying to correct, with the first image of the game being five faces staring down a well, and the last image being four. The post-credits scene also shows the well bubbling over with water, which could be what caused the flooding on the island.

That's the simplest explanation of what actually happens in Reanimal, though what it all means is up to you. There are three DLCs planned for Reanimal, which will hopefully shed more light on what the intent behind the ending is.

Reanimal's secret ending

There is also a secret ending if you manage to find all five coffins in the game. We thought this might be the case, as with Little Nightmares 2, in which interacting with shadows around the world unlocked a secret ending that did help tie the plot together. In the Reanimal secret ending, though, children wearing rabbit masks slowly creep up to the girl down the well and appear to comfort her whilst she is lying on the floor. This looks like it's before she reanimates, so there may be parts of the story we haven't yet seen.

Now you're caught up on the Reanimal endings, check out how long it'll take to beat Reanimal if you're playing for the first time. If you're still on the fence about whether to play this horror game, read our Reanimal review to see what we thought.