'River Of Ghosts' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: What Really Happened To Jane?

River of Ghosts has a plot that could have very well been made into one of those excitingly gritty Netflix thriller series. But director Jules East’s approach is pretty amateurish, and the result is a fantasy horror thriller that’s serviceable at best. The title also doesn’t quite justify the story, even though there’s a river and even a hint of ghosts. Let us break things down for you.

Spoilers Ahead

Ever since his wife Jane has gone missing, Brian Meyer is being haunted at his house. The haunting happens at a specific time – after nine PM – and an unseen supernatural entity tortures Brian almost to death and leaves him battered and bruised. Brian is suspected to be involved in his wife’s disappearance, and the police are keeping a watch on him, but so far, nothing has been found.

Meanwhile, Kathy has been suffering from severe back pain for many years and nothing has been able to help her so far. So when Macy suggests she see hypnotherapist Shaun Halton, she’s initially skeptical but ultimately gives it a go. Dr. Halton tells her that her pain might well be psychological. When she goes to hypnosis, it is revealed that Kathy is severely missing the company of her workaholic husband Larry, whom she loves so much. From her description though, Larry sounds like quite the prick who doesn’t care much about his wife’s well-being. He also doesn’t believe in things like hypnotherapy, which means he wouldn’t approve of this new treatment. However, Kathy does start to feel relaxed and her pain lessens considerably. What’s even better is Dr. Halton treats her for free and says he is only gonna charge money if Larry ever comes with her. Now I am not gonna go into how unprofessional that is because this is not that kind of a movie. 

Our good doctor is also going through his own issues. He is a Stanford University dropout and not getting the psychology degree still bothers him. Throughout the movie, he has this conversation with Professor Trex at the riverbank, which is mostly about how he can help people with his gift. That said, all the scenes between Dr. Halton and Professor Trex are poorly written and you can’t wait for them to get over. It also seems like Trex is not real, and that proves to be true when you literally see him walking into the water and going under it. He is clearly a figment of Dr. Halton’s imagination, but we can’t also rule out the possibility of him being a magical creature. Speaking of creatures, we do see Dr. Halton watching a dragon-like creature coming out of the water. But the movie seems to abandon the whole fantasy schtick midway and go into full Lifetime thriller mode.

I kept wondering whether there’s any connection between Brian and Kathy’s arcs, because during the first two acts of the movie, it just seems like watching two different stories of two people who just happen to live in the same town. Of course, Dr. Halton is a common link here. Unable to handle his situation with the haunting, Brian seeks help from the doctor. Upon hearing about the haunting, Dr. Halton decides to go to Brian’s house and experience it by himself. Meanwhile, the police contact Dr. Halton, and he comes on board with helping them out with the Brian. That’s some serious doctor patient confidentiality breach happening but that’s not at all relevant. At Brian’s house, the doctor experiences the haunting, exactly how it was described. In fact, it looks more severe than before and Dr. Halton has to run out of the house, all scared and confused. 

Coming to Kathy now, she finally tells Larry about this new treatment she’s taking and he is obviously not too happy about it. Even though Kathy says the treatment is making her feel better and her pain is lessening, Larry is quite adamant and concludes it’s all fake, including his wife’s back pain. He eventually softens quite a bit and even decides to go see Dr. Halton with Kathy. That proves to be his biggest mistake, as Dr. Halton puts Larry under hypnosis (only to help Kathy, as he intends to figure out what’s troubling the husband) and the ugly truth comes out. 

Larry had a full blown affair going on with Jane. She got pregnant and he didn’t handle it well and ended up killing her. That’s the story, which we have seen millions of times before. Not to mention, it was a workplace affair and Larry conveniently used work in order to fool Kathy. And then he had the audacity to berate her physical (and mental) pain! Anyway, because Larry confesses everything while being under hypnosis, the doctor decides to verify everything by himself. It turns out that Larry did tell the truth after all. Dr. Halton then asks Brian to meet him at the riverbank, where Larry buried Jane’s body. It is then revealed that Brian actually knew everything, as he saw the whole thing unfolding while hiding in a bush nearby. He obviously regrets not saving Jane, and that’s also the reason he is being haunted. Sure, she did cheat on him but that doesn’t mean she deserved to die. Since this movie has a very in your face approach, we even see Jane’s ghost asking Brian why he didn’t save her. Anyway, Larry trying to kill Dr. Halton was inevitable, and so was Brian saving the doctor by shooting Larry. The police have a bare minimum part to play here, which is an usual trope for a movie of this kind. 

River of Ghosts’ ending is un-ironically hilarious, as we see Kathy storming into Dr. Halton’s chamber and blaming him for murdering the love of her life, Larry. According to her, Larry might have made a mistake but that never warranted the death penalty. Did the woman forget how terribly he used to treat her, and also him murdering a woman whom he impregnated? I guess we will never know.