‘Nocturne’ Ending Explained: Sydney Sweeney’s Horror Movie Ends on a Gross, Ambiguous Note

Warning: This article contains major Nocturne spoilers. Surely you knew that when you clicked on it.

If looking for something to distract you from, well, everything, Nocturne on Amazon Prime is a decent 90-minute escape—especially if you like unsettling psychological thrillers with a dash of satanic rituals sprinkled in.

Written and directed by Zu Quirke in her directorial debut, Nocturne stars Sydney Sweeney as a teen pianist who attends a fancy arts boarding school with her slightly more talented twin sister Vivian (Madison Iseman). Juliet dreams of nothing less than the best, and only applies to one college: Julliard. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get in. Even worse, her sister does get in.

Both sisters return from spring break to complete their final semester. The school is reeling from the recent death of a student named Moira, who allegedly etched strange drawings into her bedroom wall, before jumping off of the roof of a building. Juliet stumbles across Moira’s old notebook, which is filled with sheet music and scary satanic drawings about things like “invocation,” “consummation,” and “purification.” She becomes convinced that the drawings are happening to her in real life—and helping her become a better musician than her sister—but the final page has been torn out. One night, in a trance, Juliet draws the final drawing: “Sacrifice.”

You know, just casual sister rivalry stuff. There’s a bunch of other stuff in there involving stealing boyfriends and sleeping with music teachers, but none of that matters much in the end. Let’s get into the Nocturne ending, explained.

HOW DOES NOCTURNE END?

Just before Juliet’s big performance, Vivian visits her sister in her dressing room. She drops a bombshell: There probably won’t be a scout from Julliard in the crowd, as Juliet had thought, because Julliard doesn’t send scouts. Juliet’s hopes of getting a last-minute acceptance to the music school of her dreams are shredded.

She takes the stage to play her piece, but—just as she did as a child in her first solo performance—she freezes. She runs off the stage and hides in a closet. Then, almost in a trance, she follows a glowing exit sign to the roof of the building. She deliberates on the edge, gazing down at a statue below, and once again sees a light, which takes the form of the sun on the front of Moira’s notebook. Juliet smiles, steps of the ledge, and then abruptly comes to in the concert hall. She realizes she didn’t run off stage after all. She played her piece magnificently, earning a standing ovation. She accepts a bouquet of roses and smiles, fulfilling the vision she saw earlier in the film.

Except, wait, no, that’s not actually what happened. The final shot of the film is Juliet’s mutilated body impaled on the statue, using the last of her strength to smile as she lives her last moments in a fantasy of fame and success. It’s a gnarly, gruesome shot that is not for the faint of heart.

WHAT IS THE NOCTURNE ENDING, EXPLAINED?

Perhaps there is an argument to be made that the final shot of Juliet’s dead body is more of a symbolic death of the “old” Juliet. (Sorry, the old Juliet can’t come to the phone right now. She’s dead!) As the camera pulls back, students mill around on campus, and no one seems to notice the bloodied corpse in the middle of the quad, which could suggest it’s not real.

However, I’m inclined to believe that Juliet really did jump off of that ledge and die. We already know that the image of her holding a bouquet of roses in front of a standing ovation is a fantasy that Juliet has, as we saw earlier in the film. While Juliet is haunted by seemingly supernatural occurrences throughout the film, no one else confirms those occurrences are real. Max didn’t see the light before Vivian fell off the cliff, and no one sees the blood on her hands, either. The blood on her bed, which Vivian sees, really was from her period. Finally, as is an unfortunately common trope in movies like this, Juliet takes medication for her anxiety, suggesting she may not be in her right mind.

Basically, the Nocturne ending is ambiguous, but most signs point to Juliet driving herself crazy with her dream to become a successful musician. Deep down, she knew she would never achieve that dream. The moral of the story? Maybe we should stop pressuring kids to “follow their dreams,” and start encouraging them to live their lives.

Watch Nocturne on Amazon Prime