shadow on Karren's face at the very end

>>You see a large shadow come from the bottom of her face to the middle of her nose. She then has a more peaceful look on her face before the movie goes to credits. Theres seeral thing this could be, If you take the religous view it could possibly be jesus or something similiar. I tend to think it's her boyfriend come to rescue her.<<

I think you and many others on this board are forgetting an important conversation she had with Mike (who studies philosophy) earlier in the film. He said he wouldn't be scared of a ghost, regardless of whether it was nice or mean, because it would be proof of some sort of afterlife. He tells her that if she ever sees a ghost or a demon, that she should look it straight in the eye and be content instead of freaking out. When she sees the demons at the end, she freaks out. She closes her eyes, then re-opens them, looks the camera straight on as the shadow encloses, and has a more peaceful countenance.

So, regardless of whether the demons are real or a muffin-induced trip, that's how I took that scene. I don't think the shadow is anyone coming to rescue her or Jesus or whatever.

>>since she was already going to die and realised all the horrible things she did she took the pill.<<

It's pretty clear that she wanted Karen to finish her off because she was told by the leader via page that it was time and that they needed to feed each other the pills before it was too late to be saved. When she realizes that's not going to happen, she takes the pill herself, and begs forgiveness because she's killing herself--not because she realized all the horrible things she did. Remember, she doesn't think she's killing anyone, she's saving them. That's why the cult members fed each other the pills in pairs when they received their cue.


It will end again in bullets, friend

"If you notice after she "sees" the demons she closes her eyes and they seem to be gone. You see a large shadow come from the bottom of her face to the middle of her nose. She then has a more peaceful look on her face before the movie goes to credits. Theres seeral thing this could be, If you take the religous view it could possibly be jesus or something similiar. I tend to think it's her boyfriend come to rescue her."

I think its Mike's ghost as this would relate to the conversation she and Mike had about seeing ghosts and having proof of an afterlife. I don't think she was being rescued, although I do think all the demons were part of a nasty trip and weren't physically there, either.

The envelope on the train at the start of the film had, among other things, the word "ergot" written on it. Which I think is a giant clue from the director as to what's going on.

Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye, and can cause terrifying hallucinations. There have been outbreaks of ergotism in which large numbers of people have these hallucinations; some have even argued that the Salem Witch trials were caused, at least in part, by an outbreak of collective hysteria caused by ergotism.

This makes me think that the demons, etc are hallucinations caused by eating muffins or some other food contaminated with ergot.

(Although there's at least one time in the film when multiple people hear the same weird noise at the same time, which wouldn't be the case if the sounds were hallucinations.)

I actually used to take a migraine medicine with ergot in it. Thankfully, I never hallucinated demons (or anything else, for that matter).

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