Dream Eater Movie Ending Explained And Full Story: Does Phobetor Possess Alex? 

Sleepwalking is never a welcome guest in anyone’s life, whether you’re the one drifting through the night or you’re living with someone who does. Personally, I’ve always found it unnerving; I’d probably disown anyone who tried to pass it off as “normal.” Jokes aside, countless people deal with the strain of a loved one’s nocturnal wanderings, and if that isn’t disturbing enough on its own, imagine adding a supernatural twist to that. “Dream Eater” takes that fear and runs with it. It leans into the found-footage format, not in the usual shaky-cam, horror-cliché way, but with a surprisingly fresh angle that I genuinely enjoyed.

At its core is a couple who clearly fell out of love long before the cameras started rolling, now trapped in a situation that’s spiraling into something truly nightmarish. Parasomnia becomes more than a medical term; it’s a slow-burn threat that chips away at their sanity. And honestly, if you can’t stand your partner when they’re awake and you’re just waiting for them to fall asleep, well—good luck once their dreams stop belonging to them. Drawing cleverly from Greek mythology to fuel its horror, Mallory Drumm, Alex Lee Williams (who also stars as the lead), and Justin Hewitt-Drakulic craft a tense, unsettling tale of a sleepwalker slipping into the grasp of an ancient god.

Spoilers Ahead

The film opens with Mallory calling 911, asking for help, while her boyfriend, Alex, is sleepwalking and his behavior is out of control. Cut to a few days later, we get to know that Alex woke up in a pool of his own urine and blood and probably tried to kill himself in his sleep while mumbling, “He’s trying to get inside the house.” According to Alex’s therapist, Dr. Snape, he suffers from parasomnia, a terrible sleep disorder. Mallory is a documentary filmmaker, and Alex currently doesn’t work anymore. For his birthday, Mallory decides to take him on a holiday in a cabin deep in the snowy woods. Dr. Snape has also instructed Mallory to record Alex’s sleepwalking episodes, so she figures it’d be best if she records their whole trip. Even though they’re not doing well financially, and Alex seems pretty reluctant about spending money on a holiday, Mallory decides it’d be nice to take a break from everything else. The cabin they rent is on the cheaper side, and it’s full of cameras recording the guests, which I find weird, but I’m not sure if that’s even a common practice. However, on the first night in the cabin, Alex has an episode, where he once again feels like someone is trying to get inside the house. 

After researching for a while, Mallory finds the deity that Alex sees in his dreams, the same one who wants to come inside the house all the time. Apparently many people who suffer from parasomnia have seen the same figure, and there’s a sleep therapist, Dr. Armitage, who has written a book about this topic. Alex outright rejects any thoughts Mallory had about contacting Armitage, as he thinks his condition is not that serious. He completely stays in denial about the fact that Dr. Snape told him that people with this condition have even killed their partners. Soon after, in a haze, Alex calls Mallory and tries to put his hand right into the garbage disposal, and guess what, he’s sleepwalking again. The same night, he goes outside in his sleep, and he can now communicate with the voice inside his head. The roundabout outside the cottage spins on its own, and the same voice asks Alex to come inside the crawl space under the cabin. Mallory decides to talk to Armitage secretly, and he describes the deity to be Phobetor, the ancient Greek god of nightmares. Armitage explains to Mallory that Phobetor possesses people in their sleep, and he often targets members of the same bloodline. Mallory feels that Armitage is a nutjob, and she doesn’t believe him at all. However, the very same night, she’s proven wrong. Alex gets very agitated when he finds out that Mallory went behind his back and talked to another doctor, and he stays out all day long. In the nighttime, Mallory opens his eyes to find Alex sleepwalking again, but his actions are much more solid now. Alex has torn the kitchen apart, and Mallory finds him eating his birthday cake like a beast, and she confronts him; he crawls away. When Mallory contacts Alex’s foster sister, she gives her the name of his mother. 

Alex’s birth is a strange and disturbing event in itself. Mallory finds a show that documented a cult called the Night’s Disciples. Eight of the members of this cult lived on the same ranch, and their leader was Alex’s father, Jerry Thorne. Jerry and the other men of the cult raped his wife, Catherine Thorne, for a breeding ritual. The cops found out about this cult when Catherine murdered all of the cult members, and while Catherine didn’t deny killing them, she claimed that she was sleepwalking during the time. She was in labor when this incident took place, and she gave birth to Alex while she was in police custody. Catherine soon killed herself in her prison cell, and the words “endless night” were etched onto the wall. When Mallory goes through her video recordings, she finds the voice recording of the demon himself, and she remembers Alex saying vague things about a morning being the start of an endless night. All the dots connect now, and Armitage’s words now make sense to Mallory. 

After being awol for another day, Alex comes back at dinnertime with all smiles, and he tells Mallory that she was right, and he’s decided to stay in this cottage for another week. Mallory is justifiably uncomfortable and wants to leave ASAP, and that triggers Alex once again, and he just dumps his food on the table as a result. The same night, Alex goes missing once again, and Mallory finds him in the crawl space, standing naked and murmuring to himself. Alex behaves terribly with Mallory, and he clearly seems to be controlled by Phobetor. He wants Mallory to stay with Alex and let him in her body. Mallory sprints towards the house and locks the door, and Alex soon returns to normalcy. The next morning, Alex can’t remember anything that happened, and when Mallory suggests that they leave, Alex is still not convinced that his nightmarish episodes are that bad. But Mallory’s patience has run out, and when she tells him that she’s afraid of him and reveals the truth about his mother, he agrees to leave and get treated. But things were never going to be this convenient, and when Mallory is ready to go, she finds Alex sleeping, and she can’t get him to wake up. 

Mallory calls Armitage once again, and he informs her that the Night’s Disciples did the breeding ritual to birth a baby that can be fully possessed by Phobetor once he’s thirty years old. Alex literally turned thirty on the very day this conversation is happening, and Armitage warns Mallory that she should get the hell away from her boyfriend. The fact that Alex confronted Mallory about filming the night before meant that he wasn’t fully asleep and he was conscious enough. Phobetor is slowly consuming Alex, and this night is the final piece for the God of Nightmares to fully take Alex as his dream walker. 

Just as Armitage is warning Mallory, the lights go off. Mallory goes to check on Alex, who’s not in the bed anymore. When Mallory goes to look for him outside, she finds a dead animal hanging in the garage door, and she also finds tons of sketches of Thebator; maybe that’s what Alex was up to for days. Mallory finds the roundabout moving on its own, and she gets spooked further when she hears a creepy whistle. Alex attacks her inside the house, and she finally sees Phobetor right beside Alex as they shout together. Mallory hides in the closet, but Phobetor tells Alex exactly where to look. When he attacks her again, she finally manages to save herself from this nightmare by stabbing the person she loves. Alex stops her from calling 911, as he’s realized that this is the end for him. A few weeks later, we find Mallory still processing Alex’s death, and she doesn’t know what to do with the footage that captured everything that led to his death. One of her colleagues, Jordan, offers her the opportunity to fine-tune the footage into a documentary, which could potentially boost her career to unimaginable heights. But Mallory is probably never going to reach there, as she finds out she’s pregnant, and she immediately sees Alex’s dirty, naked corpse is back in her life, claiming she’ll never lose him.