The Power Of The Dog Ending Was Changed For The Better By Jane Campion

“The Power of the Dog” is based on a novel by Thomas Savage, and this alternate ending would have been closer to the one the book delivered, inasmuch as it would have spelled it out for the viewer more directly that Peter had poisoned Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, Phil Burbank, in order to end Phil’s reign of emotional terror over his mother. Sciberras observed that showing the definition of “anthrax” in a medical book is “the exact thing that the novel does.”

As it is, Campion went with a more understated ending, which implies the very same thing without force-feeding it to the audience. And we still get something similar to that moment with the book when Campion shows Peter reading the Bible verse that gives the film its title: “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.” 

As I wrote back in December, “The Power of the Dog” is “a mesmerizing tale that asks the viewer to see the hidden shape in it, much like Phil and Peter see the shadow of a barking dog in the mountains.” Campion’s film is currently streaming on Netflix.