The Spanish Netflix movie Killer Book Club tells a horror tale with a predictable yet enjoyable ending. In the film, a book club full of horror enthusiasts decides to commit a prank against their professor who attempted to rape one of the students, Ángela. The killer clown prank ends in the accidental death of their professor. However, after they all agree to never speak of this to anyone, the news gets out about the death.
Someone who goes by the name the Mad Clown joins their group chat, makes it clear they know what happened, and begins picking off the people involved in the crime. With each death, the Mad Clown writes a chapter of a book about the murder and posts it online. People begin voting on what will happen in the next chapter, and the book club members must try to avoid their fate. Ángela works to discover the identity of the Mad Clown, culminating in a foreseeable ending.
Who Is The Mad Clown?
From the beginning, the book club members believe one of them acted as the killer. One by one, the killer takes out people, narrowing down the suspect pool. In the Killer Book Club ending, it comes down to either Nando or Sebas. In a fairly predictable reveal, Sebas is the Mad Clown who has killed the members of the book club. Besides the attack on Nando, he has the opportunity to kill his fellow book club members. Additionally, Sebas seems more invested in the disturbing plot of the Killer Clowns book they’re reading in book club than anyone else. This foreshadows the reveal.
After attacking Nando in front of Ángela, Sebas believes he’s taken out everyone in his group except Ángela. He spends time doing the classic horror villain move of explaining every part of his plan and motive. In a turn of events, though, Mando didn’t die when attacked. Instead, Ángela lures Sebas and his accomplice down the balcony walkway, keeping their attention on her until Nando hits Sebas in the head. The self-referential comment “You guys forgot something. The emo isn’t actually dead,” adds some comedy to an otherwise suspenseful ending to the Killer Book Club.
Does Anyone Survive The Killer Book Club Ending?
Though the Mad Clown picks off the book club members one by one, two members definitely survive the Killer Book Club ending. And a third person potentially survived. Ángela and Nando both survive through the ending. This subverts common horror tropes. In many horror movies, one female character classified as “The Final Girl” is left alive by the end of the movie to face off against the villain and tell the story. In recent years, an alternative version called “The Final Boy” has become more common.
This movie sways away from either option, including both a Final Girl and a Final Boy. This fits with the heart of Killer Book Club. The book club members are better and stronger when they work together instead of turning on each other. It’s also fitting that the person who ultimately takes down the Mad Clown isn’t the heroine but the emo. This matched up with the movie’s attempt to subvert expectations.
Virginia’s True Identity & Connection To The Killings Explained
In Killer Book Club, Virginia’s true identity is central to the entire plot of the movie. She reveals in one of the final scenes that she is Ángela’s internet best friend Alicia. Six years prior to the events of the movie, Ángela developed a friendship with a girl who experienced severe emotional abuse in her home at the hands of her mom. She wrote a horror book about Alicia’s home life without Alicia’s knowledge or permission. When Alicia found out, she felt betrayed and threatened to write a book that would make Ángela hurt the way Alicia did. This sets off the events of Killer Book Club.
Ángela spends most of the movie believing that Alicia killed herself and her mother in a fire shortly after the reveal of Ángela’s book. As she explains at the end of the movie, Alicia faked her death, planning with her internet boyfriend Sebas to orchestrate all the murders throughout Killer Book Club. Their end game was to blame Ángela for all the murders, claiming she developed a severe case of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and snapped.
How Sebas Orchestrated Ángela’s Sexual Assault
One of the most disturbing elements of Killer Book Club occurs when Professor Cruzado attempts to rape Ángela. Throughout the meeting, before the sexual assault, Professor Cruzado continually references an email he received from Ángela. This created confusion because Ángela deleted her email asking for help on her writing. She deletes the email onscreen, so this couldn’t be explained by her accidentally hitting send instead of delete.
As Sebas reveals in the ending, he was responsible for orchestrating the sexual assault. He doesn’t explain much out loud, yet the scene shows him writing an email to Professor Cruzado, pretending to be Ángela, telling him that she’s attracted to him. This shows Sebas’s inhumane and disturbing nature in Killer Book Club. While murder isn’t excusable, it’s entirely different to orchestrate a sexual assault upon anyone.
The Significance Of Killer Book Club’s Opening Scene
Though Killer Book Club seems to explain the opening scene halfway through, its full significance isn’t revealed until its ending. When Ángela tells Sebas about Alicia’s death, the scene looks slightly different from the opening. In this version, Alicia also goes up in flames after she sets her mother and house on fire. However, the Killer Book Club ending reveals Alicia faked her own death and took on the identity of Victoria. This information explains the discrepancy between the opening and retelling during the middle of the movie. The opening showed what really happened since Alicia didn’t die; whereas the mid-movie scene showed Ángela’s perception of the events.
Killer Book Club Sets Up Killer Book Club 2
Though Killer Book Club wrapped up the movie effectively, it also left room for a sequel. The very end shows a one-year time jump where Ángela and Sebas attend university together. Ángela is now a horror author who wrote a book about their experiences one year earlier. However, she walks into the university’s courtyard and sees a person dressed as the Mad Clown. The person takes their mask off to reveal Alicia.
While it’s implied that Alicia died before the time jump in Killer Book Club, it’s never confirmed. Additionally, audiences never see her dead body. In horror, it’s a rule of thumb that someone isn’t truly dead until it’s shown on screen. This factor leaves room for Alicia to return as the villain in Killer Book Club 2. There’s also the possibility that someone else related to the book club could take over the mantle.
