Hallow Road ending explained: What really happened to Alice?

That call is from their only child Alice, who tearfully tells them that – after she left their house following an argument earlier in the night – she has now hit a girl with her car and is panicking about what to do.

From there, the bulk of the action takes place inside Maddie and Frank's car as they race to the scene to try and intervene before the police arrive, with Alice on speaker phone throughout.

As they get closer, the situation becomes increasingly sinister – especially when a stranger arrives on the scene – leading up to a memorable, enigmatic climax.

Seen the film and need those final sections unpacked? Read on to have the Hallow Road ending explained.

Hallow Road ending explained: What really happened to Alice?

As Maddie and Frank gets closer to Alice's whereabouts, their call with the passerby (who is referred to in the credits only as Kind Woman) becomes increasingly bizarre – especially when she reveals that contrary to all prior evidence, the girl Alice had hit is still alive.

She then asks Maddie and Frank to explain themselves, which they attempt to do, and it appears that she agrees to their plan to cover up the incident based on her own parental experience.

However, when Alice comes back on the line, Maddie gives her one last chance to take responsibility for the crash – and even divulges for the first time that she recently quit her paramedic job after a patient died in her care and she couldn't bring herself to tell the family.

She thinks Alice will now have the same burden of guilt if she does not come clean.

Finally, the car arrives at Hallow Road and it soon becomes clear that the Kind Woman had been lying: the girl is clearly dead. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the situation is even more bleak than that: the dead girl is Alice herself...

Frank is immediately overcome with grief, while Maddie goes into a state of denial and continues driving – trying to find the Kind Woman. She also calls Alice again, but only hears the Kind Woman scolding Alice, telling he she wasted her potential.

At this point, something which some very astute viewers might have previously noted becomes more apparent: the Kind Woman has also been voiced by Rosamund Pike. She and Maddie are one and the same, and Alice has been dead this whole time.

With this revelation, we come to see that the whole film has been a ghost story of sorts. Alice died shortly after she crashed the car and Maddie and Frank have essentially been hallucinating based on their grief and guilt.

The next morning, the police investigation confirms this: after the crash, Alice had stepped out of her car and was hit and killed by a passing vehicle.

Maddie and Frank continue to exist in a state of denial over the situation, but it is clear that this is what happened.

Hallow Road is now showing in UK cinemas.

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