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Netflix came out with Erax, a horror-fantasy film with comic undertones, on February 17, 2022. Hebru Brantley's directorial debut is a short film about a young girl and her aunt being trapped in a house when monsters from a book start coming to life.
Erax's premise is nothing new or fresh, but the film itself still has things to offer, especially in terms of underlying meanings. The ending sees the duo overcome the monsters from the fantasy book and fix things between themselves. But was there a bigger meaning to it?
*Warning- Spoilers ahead
Deciphering Erax's ending: The weight of guilt on Opal
The very first scene of the film starts with Opal (Jasmine Cephas Jones) randomly picking up a book from a roadside stand while running late for her young niece's birthday.
From the very beginning, her character gives out an impression of a person who does not care much about others. This is crucial to the bigger meaning in the end.
Erax's central crisis is monsters that come out of the book and start attacking Opal and Nina (Genesis White). Now there can be two meanings to the ending. Like every children's film, the crisis resolves at the end, and the duo grows closer. But how did this happen?
The straight explanation: The endings of fantasy cinema
The no-frills explanation is rather straightforward. The creatures came out of the books, and when Opal put the books on them, they naturally got sucked back into it. This makes the ending very simple as Opal puts the book over the last creature and forces it shut. The beast is sucked back into the book, saving the duo.
But something else happened at this juncture. Opal first confesses to being a terrible aunty to Nina and faces her guilt head-on. This is when the last creature arrives, and she manages to overpower it with the book. This confession leads to the second explanation for the ending.
The greater meaning: Opal facing her guilt
Opal is depicted as someone who does not care much about others, and she tells Nina the same. However, during the monster attack, she realizes, for the first time, that she may as well have been misdirected. A realization occurs, that she loves her niece and would protect her at all costs.
The moment Opal confesses to her niece and faces the guilt of letting her down multiple times, she manages to counter the final monster. These monsters may have just been a manifestation of her guilt. After all, they appear from a book Opal just grabbed off the rack because she forgot to get a birthday present for her niece.
By facing her guilt, Opal managed to conquer the monsters and realize more about herself and her relationships with others. This could be the true meaning behind Erax's ending.
The film is short and leaves a lot to subjective deciphering. The 15-minute flick is now streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned for more updates.
