https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/7nz8i7/super_dark_times_ending_help_me_out_spoilers/

Anyway I’ll just say what I think, after reading a bunch oof the other comments and a few other articles.
So I think Joshs brother is dead, or something like that. Josh gets super upset in the scene where those kids make fun of him (the bro) for joining the Navy, then Josh literally gets stepped on but isn’t fully submitting (?? I think that’s the word i’m looking for) to the guy stepping on him saying “it’s the marines” or something along those
lines. Then in the following scene is still pissed about it, I think that shows he’s capable of holding onto that anger, then Zach tells him to get over it basically, definitely should’ve consoled him or helped him actually move on instead of forcing him to. Daryl the poor, fat kid, seems to almost immediately get on Josh’s nerves (or so I deduced) so he most likely didn’t actually feel bad about killing him, and that was a lot of other people’s opinions; “Good riddance”, as one person said in the hallway. Okay but the scene where Daryl actually gets stabbed, I genuinely think Daryl is brain dead, yes he’s mad cuz the weed he stole was taken back so he couldn’t do drugs oh no wah, first off it’s a low blow to attack someone when their back is turned, secondly he saw that Josh was picking up the sword ?? Now if you were mad and wanted to fight someone with just your fists, would you attack the other if they had a sword or any weapon for that matter, no it’s common sense you’re gonna lose. So Daryl is a big dumb idiot, why did he RUN after getting stabbed in a fatal spot? Who knows.

What we do know is that the three boys high schoolers and an eighth grader, decide to hide the body ?? uhhh. hello? they all know it’s an accident so why hide the body? oh yeah, for the plot. so frustrating, I was hoping they would just use their brain and get the cops and medical assistance. It’s like they genuinely wanted him to die out there.
Okay back to Josh now. So he accidentally stabs and kills Daryl, freaks out rightfully…. or does he? He could easily be mimicking fear and sadness in front of the others but we know that he took the sword from the hiding spot and not only uncovered the body, he stabbed the corpse multiple times in the back, in the head and chopped half of the fingers off. Where are the phalanges? IDK! I’m no psychology major or anything, but that screams insane to me. More than anything though, I was and am mad at Josh, but also Zach, he must have some hero complex cuz going back into the house instead of just going to a neighbors house and having them call the cops smh.
Also I just remembered when Zach got stabbed in the leg on the lawn there was just a clip of this little girl watching, no emotion on her face…………. um………….. i’m sorry what ? What is that al about I genuinely have no idea.

Anyway I think I said just about everything I think. Howeverrrr I do think it would be interesting to see the film from the other characters perspective, especially Josh. Throughout the film it’s mainly focused on Zach and his thoughts and challenges and dreams, no one else’s. I think it’s a great film but I’m left with TOO many questions, usually I have a few but my brain just keeps coming up with more the longer I think about it, so that’s a problem I would say. Also there was just so much going on and even with the film being such a slow pace the character development and twists were too many too often. I’m mainly thinking about how Josh goes from weird mostly good kid to recluse to baddie to creepy weirdo and scary murderer. Like in my opinion there weren’t enough signs (or shots) showing that he was going down a spiral of crazed killer.
okay that’s all, thanks

– Aeryn

The chicken or the egg?

I think Josh, while holed up in his room for that time after the incident, came up with the plan to end the guilty hell, and free his friend of the burden. He essentially turns the scenario into a Legend Of Zelda scenario (recall Zach almost desperately asking Josh what game he was playing). At the end, during the climax and bloody fight, Zach begs Josh to consider what he’s doing because they’re friends. Well I think Josh was doing what he was doing BECAUSE they are best friends: he’s turned himself into evil warlord Ganon, and Zach into protagonist and hero Link, and allows Link to save Princess Zelda (Allison). This allows Zach to be exonerated from the crime, and to have his princess. Twisted, yes, but also somewhat noble.

It’s hard to know what we would do in an extreme situation – think about Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment. Those were regular people that, in an extreme situation, did some really fucked up things. Just because it seems unlikely doesn’t mean it is.