Tin & Tina Ending Explained

The Spanish thriller Tin & Tina has plenty of creepy moments interwoven with heady religious themes and an ending that leaves much up to the viewer’s imagination. Released in 2023 and directed by Rubin Stein, the film follows Lola (Milena Smit) and Adolfo (Jaime Lorente), a newlywed couple who adopt a pair of twins following the loss of their first child. Relying heavily on an eerie atmosphere above anything else, Tin & Tina isn’t necessarily a scare-a-minute horror film, but an unnerving exploration of faith in the face of tragedy.

Tin & Tina‘s inclusion on Netflix offered an even bigger audience, and critics were largely split. The film averaged 50% on Rotten Tomatoes with many critics criticizing the slow and deliberate pacing. Tin & Tina joins a host of Netflix Spanish shows and movies, and offers a distinctly Spanish perspective on horror, especially with its heavy incorporation of Catholic themes. Unlike many horror films which are straightforward with their approaches, Tin & Tina posed a series of questions that the movie didn’t necessarily answer. The real scares in the movie’s ending came within the margins of doubt.

Did The Twins Start The House Fire?

It’s Possible But An Accident Is More Likely

One of the things that makes Tin & Tina creepy is that the film doesn’t offer definite answers to many of its most shocking events. The film’s ending sees Adolfo and Lola’s relationship nearly crumbling as the arrival of their firstborn biological child is heralded as a medical miracle. However, Lola’s descent into religious fascination is one of the biggest wedges between them, and Adolfo is seemingly punished by God when he is suddenly set on fire in a blaze that also consumes the entire house.

Tin & Tina toes the line between the possible and the impossible, and the movie never explains whether Adolfo was struck by lightning or if the twins punished their former adoptive father. Adolfo’s rejection of religion was a running theme for the character throughout, and it clashed mightily with the twins’ biblical devotion. Adolfo’s burning of the Bible could have been the last straw for the twins that set them over the edge, and his death ironically mirrored the way he torched the book.

The memorable movie twins are somewhat exonerated by the fact they were at the orphanage when Adolfo died, but it was also shown their caretaker had fallen asleep. While the creepy questions linger about Stein’s film, Tin & Tina perhaps earned its split Rotten Tomatoes score because it was too vague. The implication that the young children could have killed Adolfo is there, but it is just too far-fetched to be possible. What’s more likely is that Adolfo died in an accident. However, it justified Lola’s religious fascination, itself stoked by the piety of the twins.

How Saint Augustine Connects To The Plot Of Tin And Tina

He Represents The Children Possibly Being Impure

When Lola and Adolfo adopt the bleach-blonde twins, they travel to the Convent of Saint Augustine, named for the notable Saint in the Catholic religious tradition. Considering how much Catholicism fits into the themes of the Netflix horror movie, it is clear that screenwriter and director Rubin Stein specifically picked Saint Augustine as the image for Tin and Tina as characters. According to Catholic Online, Augustine is the Saint of brewers, which has no connection to the story. It is the theologian’s thoughts on faith that tie in.

Saint Augustine proposed the controversial idea of original sin, a foundational idea of Catholicism, and has a lot in common with Tin and Tina as characters. According to the concept of original sin, even a child is born impure in the eyes of God and is therefore in need of the guidance of the church. Lola questions whether Tin and Tina are evil or simply misguided children, but if St. Augustine is to be believed, they are indeed impure. The choice was artistic, and the twins’ close association with Augustine explains their rabid devotion to baptizing the baby later on.

Why Tin And Tina Baptized The Baby

They Tried To Force Their Religious Ideas On The Baby

In one of the most powerful images in the entire movie, Tin and Tina get Lola’s new baby and perform their twisted version of a baptism. Nearly drowning the child in the process, Tin and Tina insist on wiping away the baby’s original sin as quickly as possible, which is the last straw for Adolfo, who refuses to allow his child around the seemingly dangerous twins. Symbolically speaking, the twins not only tried to wash away the child’s sin, but they also forcefully tried to conform the newborn’s life to their concept of religion.

Generally, exorcism horror movies tend to dominate the small niche of Catholic terror, but Tin & Tina stands out because it uses faith as a frightening theme. Adolfo’s clashes with the twins take on a distinctly theological bent because he is non-religious, bordering on anti-religious. The young twins are practically zealots even as tiny kids. It could be explained that the twins nearly killed the baby because they were young and didn’t understand. However, their motivation is clearly to take possession of the baby’s soul much in the same way they reactivated Lola’s religious fervor.

Lola Forgave The Twins

She Felt It Was The Christian Thing To Do

Following Adolfo’s death, Lola is left as a single mother, and she also fully returns to her faith now that her doubting husband is out of the way. As the house burned down around her, she suspected Tin and Tina were responsible. Following her escape, she learned they were supposedly still at the orphanage. Lola forgives the kids and takes them back, which in her eyes is the Christian thing to do. Depending on the interpretation of the twins’ motivations, the ending could be seen as a triumph or a frightening indictment of blind faith.

Were Tin And Tina Innocent?

The Film Never Gives A Definitive Answer

Horror movies with ambiguous endings have a way of polarizing viewers. Concerning ambiguity, Tin & Tina takes the idea to the extreme. The biggest question left after the film is whether Tin and Tina are innocent, and unlike many other horror movies, the film gives no definite clues either way. Being that they are children, Tin and Tina’s actions could be seen as entirely without malice since young kids don’t understand that actions have consequences. Being raised in such a rigid religious environment colored their worldview, which could be seen as creepy to those watching their actions.

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Their violent retribution against the family pet could be chalked up to their young minds twisting religious doctrine, and such an event is a possibility despite how gruesome and horrifying it is. Adolfo’s death is perhaps the only event that is somewhat suspect, but it could be chalked up to a so-called “act of God”. Considering the twins don’t do anything magical or impossible in the rest of the film, they are likely innocent of killing Adolfo with fire, even if it is eerily connected to their burning hatred for the man.

The Real Meaning Of Tin And Tina’s Ending

The Twins Represent A Symbol Of Faith & A Divide Between The Parents

While many horror movies have deeper meanings, Tin & Tina‘s ending was the culmination of the film’s themes. Faith was at the heart of the story, set in a country in the middle of a cultural shift. Spain went through growing pains in the 1980s, as certain forces within the government wished to push it towards a fundamental direction (via The Guardian). Similarly, the arrival of Tin and Tina pushed the lives of Lola and Adolfo in a more fundamental direction, and she was more easily swayed because of her desire to have children.

In the end, the real division between Lola and Adolfo was their thoughts on parenthood in general. She was ready to be a parent, while Adolfo was unsteady. The adoption decision thrust the orthodoxy of parenting on him, and he reacted negatively. Tin & Tina used the twins as a symbol of faith, which was greeted with skepticism from Adolfo and acceptance from Lola. The open-ended nature of the ending was also intentional, as it allowed the audience to see things based on their views on religion, forgiveness, and faith.

How The Tin & Tina Ending Was Received

The Audience Reacted Negatively & Critics Were Not Much Kinder

While critics were only slightly favorable toward Tin & Tina, the audience was very unhappy with the movie, with a low 22% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Much of the audience’s dislike comes from the ending, with Lola quickly accepting the children thanks to her blind faith even after her husband’s death and the dangerous baptism scene with the baby. Several audience members used the word “frustrating” to describe the movie on RT.

Roger Moore from Movie Nation agreed with the audience’s sentiments toward the ending. He wrote, “Stein takes forever to get the picture on its feet, and when it does, it never manages more than a slow, hobbling gait.” M.N. Miller of Ready Steady Cut agreed, writing, “While I usually can get on board with an ambiguous ending, the one here does the film no favors.”

However, Archi Sengupta of LeisureByte.com explained why this ending worked so well. After discussing how the movie examines Lola’s fears of motherhood, he finishes by writing, “Regardless of whether the twins are there or not, you can can’t help but feel tense and wonder whether they truly are the culprits. We never really get an answer because you will be left questioning the truth in the end, and thus it leaves you uncomfortable and confused.” For a movie about faith, Tin and Tina force the viewers to question their faith as well.