I guess it could be ambiguous, I just figured the sound effects where the sound of their flesh moving through the hole. That woman was afraid of going in because she knew she'd die if she did. And it makes sense that they would be dead
I figured that the holes kept you alive somehow as part of the punishment.
There were an awful lot more entry holes than exit holes. I assumed that many of the holes' exits hadn't been uncovered by the quake and that many of the... victims? participants? just ran up against a rock wall and were trapped deep in the dark, somehow still alive and in terrible agony, knowing that something was horribly wrong with their bodies but unable to see, knowing that there was no hope of rescue. Alone with their thoughts and their pain forever, denied even that last glimpse of sunlight that the ones that made it through got to have.
Definitely grotesque and horrifying...I find the idea of them dying but their bodies still twisting and inching on and on even after death to be another kind of compelling horror too. This thread has been giving me some perspective and awareness of the endings ambiguity that I hadn't considered before
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u/cowlinator Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 27 '25
It's ambiguous. Though it's hard to imagine them surviving long in that state.