'The Butterfly House' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Are Salim And Tasya Dead Or Alive?

Directed by Paul Agusta, The Butterfly House introduces us to a couple, Tasya and Salim, who were just about to get married. They adored one another, and they knew that they were lucky to have found each other. But their marriage plans were hampered after Salim decided to go back to his village, as his only blood relative had passed away. So let’s find out what happened once Salim moved back to his village, and why the vengeful spirits were after his and Tasya’s lives.

Spoiler Alert

What happened to Salim’s aunt? 

Salim was about to get married to the love of his life, Tasya, and they were excited for their wedding. They were about to get a pre-wedding photoshoot done when Salim got a call from a man named Koh Chung Chung, who lived in the former’s village. Koh Chung Chung informed Salim that his aunt had passed away, and since he was the only family member she had, he was told to come to his village to carry out the last rites. Salim’s parents had passed away when he was just a child, and he had been brought up by his adoptive parents, Linda and Chandra. He didn’t talk to his aunt that frequently, but obviously, since they were blood related, he felt obliged to go to the village and do his duty. Tasya didn’t want Salim to go, firstly because their wedding photoshoot was supposed to happen in the next couple of days, and also because she had this very weird feeling that if he went there, something bad would happen to him. There were a lot of strange things that both Tasya and Salim experienced in their respective lives. Tasya often had these visions where she saw a red butterfly coming out of the mouth of an old woman whose face was so distorted that she seemed like a supernatural entity. She didn’t know what to make of those visions, but they did bother her to an extent. Salim started experiencing frequent nosebleeds, and he intuitively felt that it had something to do with his aunt’s death. Also, a very eerie thing happened with him just after he got to know that his aunt had passed away: he got a call from his aunt, who asked him to come see her, and he couldn’t understand how that could have happened. Salim decided that he needed to go to Lasem, his village, and put an end to everything once and for all. He asked Tasya to accompany him and told her that they could have their pre-wedding photoshoot at his aunt’s house itself, as it was quite aesthetically built. So Tasya, together with her three friends, Febri, the photographer; Harja, Febri’s assistant; and Arin, the makeup stylist, packed her bags and reached Lasem. 

What did Salim find at his aunt’s house? 

The moment Tasya reached Salim’s ancestral house, she started having these visions where she saw a woman in wedding attire, wearing a red veil. She didn’t know who she was and what she wanted from her. Tasya felt connected to the place, and it felt as if the vengeful spirits were trying to communicate through her. There was a grave in the front yard, which Salim believed to be of Mei Hwa, the younger sister of his great-grandfather. But little did Salim know that the coffin in the grave was empty, and Mei Hwa’s dead body had been lying in a secret room that was hidden behind one of the walls. Salim felt that there could be something behind the wall, as Tasya was standing in front of it and looking at it. There were moments when I felt that Tasya got possessed by the spirits of the house and did what they made her do. Salim found the rotten dead body of Mei Hwa and decided to give her a proper burial. He felt that by doing so he would get rid of all the negative energy that surrounded them. But that didn’t happen, and Tasya and Salim both kept seeing visions of the ghosts. During all the chaos, it came to be known that Febri had some ulterior motives behind agreeing to be Tasya’s wedding photographer. He liked her, and seeing her with Salim made him very jealous and insecure. Tasya had made it pretty clear to him that she wasn’t attracted to him and that he should stop pursuing her and trying to win her over. But Febri, being the man that he was, seeked opportunities to make a move on her and somehow convince her to not get married to Salim. 

What had happened to Mei Hwa?

Tasya experienced a very strong hallucinatory episode where she found herself transported back to the early 1940s, when Mei Hwa was about to get married to a man named Bhanu. Mei Hwa had a very successful music career, and she happened to be one of the most popular singers of her time. It is to be noted that Indonesia was under Japanese occupation during World War II. Mei Hwa and her entire family, even Bhanu for that matter, had sworn their allegiance to the resistance movement. They were patriots before anything else, and they knew that even if they would have to sacrifice their own lives, they would do so for the honor of their country. Bhanu had gifted Mei Hwa a very elegant hairpin that had a butterfly engraved on it. Bhanu told her that butterflies symbolized hope and were a reminder of the fact that no matter what the circumstances might be, love would prevail over everything else. Butterflies could also be seen as a symbol of freedom and rebirth. Probably Bhanu felt that, one day, they would be free from tyrannical rule and be able to exercise their rights in an independent nation. On Bhanu and Mei Hwa’s wedding day, Japanese soldiers broke into their house and wreaked havoc. Maybe because they were all of Chinese descent, or maybe because of their active participation in the resistance movement, the Japanese soldiers entered with the intention of killing anybody who did not serve their cause. Bhanu was shot dead right in front of Mei Hwa’s eyes, and she just couldn’t bear the loss of her loved one. Mei Hwa took that same hairpin and stabbed herself to death. The hairpin, which was supposed to be a symbol of hope and eternal love, became a tool that Mei Hwa used to kill herself. Since Mei Hwa didn’t even get a proper burial, her spirit wandered in the mortal realm, troubling those who were about to get married. She had never been able to unite with her lover, which was probably why she made sure that nobody else who walked into that house did.

Was the couple able to get rid of the ghost of Mei Hwa? 

It was Arin who realized that if they wanted to get rid of the vengeful spirit of Mei Hwa, they needed to find an expert in the field who knew how to deal with such supernatural beings. Arin found out that Koh Chung Chung, the one who had informed Salim about his aunt’s death, knew how to conduct such rituals. Koh Chung Chung told Salim and Tasya that he would have to get Mei Hwa and Bhanu married, basically conduct a spiritual marriage, in order to get rid of the ghost. But the problem was that nobody knew where Bhanu was buried, or if he even got a proper burial or not. So a decision was made that somebody would have to go into the supernatural realm and find Bhanu. Since only Tasya had seen what the man looked like in one of her visions, she was the only one who could have found him. 

Though Tasya was able to locate Bhanu, the spiritual wedding couldn’t happen because Febri decided to take charge of things and get what he always wanted through force. So after Tasya told Febri that nothing could happen between them, he became even more adamant. He tried to forcefully get intimate with her once before, but Tasya was able to defend herself and push him off. Febri didn’t care what happened to Salim, he just wanted Tasya to be with him, even if it meant killing everybody else and taking her hostage. Salim and Febri were digging Mei Hwa’s grave, as they wanted her wedding ring for the ceremony to be consecrated. Meanwhile, Tasya was in a subconscious state, and Koh Chung Chung was sitting beside her, making sure that everything went as per the plan. Febri turned on Salim, and he attacked him. He dealt a deadly blow to Koh Chung Chung, and I believe the latter succumbed to his injuries. Febri was about to take Tasya with him when Salim arrived at the scene and retaliated in full force. Salim had realized that without Koh Chung Chung they wouldn’t be able to complete the ritual, but he also knew that he could get rid of the ghost even if he got her married to somebody other than Bhanu. So Salim made preparations to get the ghost of Mei Hwa and Febri, who was in an unconscious state, married to each other. Before that could happen, Tasya came back to her senses, and she didn’t understand what Salim was up to. She tried to stop him, and they both didn’t realize that, while they were quarreling, Febri came back to his senses. 

Were Salim And Tasya Dead Or Alive? 

The Butterfly House’s ending was open-ended, and though I think there could be multiple explanations as to what exactly happened, I would like to stick to one specific possibility. So we saw that Salim made an unconscious Febri wear Bhanu’s wedding ring, and he made the corpse of Mei Hwa wear hers. He then started the ritual when Tasya came back to her senses and told him that they shouldn’t be getting her married to Febri since that was not what she wanted. Just at that moment, Tasya saw a butterfly on the ceiling, and then Febri came back to his senses and attacked Salim. He would have killed Salim, but suddenly somebody shouted at him and the lights went out. Febri moved out of the room to find Tasya, in an upside-down position, moving towards him. Before he could do anything else, Salim also got up and stopped him from escaping. I think that Bhanu had found a way to enter the mortal realm and reunite with his lover, i.e., the ghost of Mei Hwa. Both the spirits entered inside Salim and Tasya’s bodies, respectively, and it could be said they made them their vessels. So I don’t think that Salim and Tasya died, but they got possessed, and in a way their souls got trapped. 

In The Butterfly House’s ending, Arin came with the police, and she saw that Febri had been killed, and both Tasya and Salim were nowhere to be found. What I could ascertain, looking at the two butterflies, was that the ritual had gone wrong, and it had freed both Bhanu and Mei Hwa. The lovers got reunited, but not in the manner that Tasya and Salim would have wanted. It was them who we saw walking at the end, but they were not in a conscious state, as the spirits had taken over their body. I believe that though Mei Hwa and Bhanu were good people, they would potentially be a threat to others, as ideally they should have rested in peace and not come back to the mortal realm.

...