Promising Young Womandirector breaks down that brutal twist ending

Emerald Fennell tells EW why she chose to end her rape-revenge thriller with a shock.

Warning: This article contains major spoilers forPromising Young Woman.

“It’s how the system works.

The house always wins.

In the film (now playing in select theaters), Fennell baits her audience with thrilling genre mechanisms.

For her, the film is partly an experiment in social complicity.

“It’s important that the audience wants her to pick up that scalpel.

All of us do.

By that stage, we’re ready.

We’re primed for it.

We might be frightened of her.

It felt, to me, incredibly untrue to give [her the upper hand].”

“We need to talk about this stuff,” Fennell says.

“I didn’t want people to leave thinking it was fixed.”