Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's a slow detective story with a demon that jumps between bodies.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
4 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
Expect it to last about a night, longer if a stranger starts humming at you.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Fine for most viewers, as long as you can handle a demon who hums at you.
Fallen runs two hours and four minutes. A homicide detective visits a serial killer on death row shortly before the execution, and murders in the dead man's style start again soon after. The killer greets him with words in a language nobody recognizes.
The premise, briefly
After a serial killer is executed, a Philadelphia homicide detective finds that murders in the dead man's style have started again, and the trail leads somewhere supernatural.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Hobbes poisons himself so that the demon Azazel dies in the wilderness when it jumps into him. It works, but the closing voiceover shows that Azazel had already moved into a cat. Art, Stanton and Jonesy are dead.
The scene you're dreading
Azazel murders Hobbes's brother Art and marks Hobbes's nephew Sam. It happens in the middle of the movie, just after Hobbes is framed for shooting a possessed schoolteacher.
The dog
No dog dies in Fallen. The demon ends up in a cat at the very end.
It is a slow, grim detective story about a demon who can jump between people, and it ends with the demon ridiculing the audience.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A cheerful goodbye on death row
John Hobbes, a Philadelphia homicide detective, goes to see the convicted serial killer Edgar Reese on death row, not long before the execution. Reese is oddly cheerful, grips Hobbes's hand and speaks what sounds like gibberish but is later identified as Syrian Aramaic. During the execution he mocks the witnesses and sings a song. Soon afterward a series of murders resembling Reese's crimes begins. Hobbes and his partner Jonesy assume a copycat is responsible. The clues lead Hobbes to Gretta Milano, whose late father, a detective, killed himself after being accused of similar occult killings. Inside the abandoned Milano family cabin, Hobbes discovers possession books and the name Azazel painted over in the cabin's basement.
Gretta warns Hobbes to drop the investigation, then explains that Azazel is a fallen angel, and that touching someone is how he takes them over. Because Hobbes cannot be possessed directly, the demon will try to ruin his life instead. Hobbes starts to notice people around him suddenly singing the same song, and he realizes Azazel is mocking him by hopping between bodies, including fellow officers and civilians. It is the same song Reese sang at his execution.
Nobody asks the family
Azazel escalates by possessing Hobbes's nephew Sam and attacking Hobbes's brother Art, who is intellectually disabled. The demon then sets up a scene in which Hobbes has to shoot a possessed schoolteacher with witnesses watching, and witnesses under Azazel's influence blame Hobbes for it. Next, Azazel murders Art and marks Sam. This is the part of the movie to brace for, and it comes in the middle of the film. Hobbes hides his nephew with Gretta, who tells him that if Azazel is forced out of a host body, he lasts one breath at most and then dies.
Hobbes poisons himself on purpose
Hobbes wants to finish the demon and draws Azazel to the Milano cabin. Jonesy and Lieutenant Stanton arrive there. Azazel is now in Jonesy, who kills Stanton. Jonesy plans to shoot himself so that Azazel will move into Hobbes, but a struggle leaves Jonesy mortally wounded. Hobbes then reveals that he has poisoned himself with the same poison Azazel used on Art. If the demon possesses him, it will die stranded in the wilderness with no other host nearby.
The ending, explained
After Jonesy dies, Azazel enters Hobbes, as Hobbes planned, and quickly succumbs to the poison. That seems to be the end of it, but a closing voiceover has Azazel ridiculing the audience for believing he was defeated. While he talks, a cat creeps out from under the cabin and wanders away, which shows the demon survived by moving into the animal. Art, Stanton and Jonesy are all dead. The movie ends with a song playing over the credits.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether Fallen has a scene after the credits. A song plays over the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Fallen scary?
Somewhat. Fallen is a 4 out of 10 with medium dread. Most of the fear is a slow, paranoid detective story in which any stranger could be the demon, and it has jump scares.
How does Fallen end?
Hobbes poisons himself so the demon Azazel dies when it jumps into him. A closing voiceover then shows that Azazel had already moved into a cat that wanders away from the cabin.
Does the dog die in Fallen?
No dog dies in Fallen. The demon ends up in a cat at the end.
Is there a post-credits scene in Fallen?
Nobody has confirmed whether Fallen has a scene after the credits. A song plays over them.
Who is Azazel in Fallen?
Azazel is a fallen angel that takes over people by touching them. In Fallen he jumps from host to host to taunt Hobbes, and he can survive outside a body only for the length of one breath.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Fallen is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't have to sit through Fallen to find out where the demon ends up. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
