5 Movies You Forgot Have Really Messed-Up Endings

Some movie endings leave audiences happy, and others leave them deeply disturbed. The most unnerving film conclusions often involve shocking character deaths or grim revelations viewers don’t see coming. Horror, sci-fi, and thriller movies typically have the most messed-up endings, though other genres like drama and romance can also deliver harrowing finales. Se7en (1995), Requiem for a Dream (2000), and The Mist (2007) are among the most popular disturbing movie endings, and people still talk about how astounding and gloomy they are. Believe it or not, several of the most messed-up final acts can be found in movies that aren’t talked about much today.

The following five movies have extremely unsettling endings, and they deserve much more recognition.

5) Joy Ride (2001)

In Joy Ride, brothers Lewis (Paul Walker) and Fuller (Steve Zahn) embark on a road trip to pick up a friend. Using a CB radio in their car, they prank a nearby trucker named Rusty Nail by posing as a woman interested in meeting him at their motel. Rusty Nail finds a man staying in the room next to the brothers and puts him in a coma, triggering a terrifying series of events that pits Lewis and Fuller against an out-of-control madman. At the end of Joy Ride, Rusty Nail is presumed dead after his truck crashes into the motel where he’s holding Lewis’s friend hostage. While receiving treatment for their injuries, the group learns that the dead body found was not that of Rusty Nail. Then, Rusty Nail’s voice can be heard from the ambulance’s radio, revealing that the deranged trucker is still out there.

Joy Ride‘s eerie final twist is an excellent way to conclude the thriller. From its beginning, the film throws numerous surprises and misdirections at viewers, generating a great deal of suspense and tension. Rusty Nail’s survival at the end of Joy Ride paved the way for two sequels — neither of which reached a similar level of success. Nonetheless, Joy Ride stands out as one of the creepiest and most exhilarating movies of the 2000s, and its ending confirms that it’s criminally underrated.

4) Black Death (2010)

Black Death is pretty bleak from the start, given that it focuses on the deadly bubonic plague outbreak in medieval England. Even so, its ending is far more harrowing than one would expect. Osmund (Eddie Redmayne), a monk tasked with guiding a group of soldiers to a village unaffected by the disease, hopes to see his lover Averill (Kimberly Nixon) again once he investigates rumors of necromancy in the town. After finding Averill’s bloodstained clothes, Osmund believes her to be dead, though he later discovers her alive in the village. Assuming that she was brought back to life via witchcraft, Osmund fatally stabs Averill to save her soul. Black Death‘s ending reveals that Osmund, turned cruel and merciless, spends his years hunting down innocent women accused of witchcraft and burning them at the stake.

It’s not surprising that Black Death‘s love story doesn’t have a happy ending; however, Osmund’s descent into madness and ensuing violent crusade is particularly disturbing. The tragedy of Osmund killing his romantic partner is depressing enough on its own, yet his act of unleashing his anguish on countless women makes Black Death‘s story even more disheartening. Death and disease evidently take a massive toll on Black Death‘s characters. Thus, the movie’s somber conclusion makes a lot of sense.

3) Revolutionary Road (2008)

Revolutionary Road‘s chronicle of Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April Wheeler’s (Kate Winslet) fractured marriage in 1950s suburbia takes a shockingly grim turn at the end. Throughout the film, Frank and April express their dissatisfaction with their lives and argue about their plans for the future. Their conflict reaches a turning point when April reveals she is pregnant with their third child, prompting Frank to accept a promotion at his job instead of moving to Paris as the couple had planned. Revolutionary Road‘s dismal finale involves a severely depressed April admitting that she no longer loves Frank and subsequently dying from a self-performed abortion.

A raw depiction of a volatile relationship, Revolutionary Road completes its story in the most dismaying manner possible. The collapse of Frank and April’s marriage is easily foreseeable and likely the kindest outcome for the two characters, but April’s death makes Revolutionary Road utterly gut-wrenching. Before the United States Supreme Court ruled abortion a constitutional right in the case of Roe v. Wade in 1973, back-alley abortions were the only method to terminate a pregnancy for most. Revolutionary Road‘s ending highlights the horrific reality of unsafe abortions that tons of women faced in the past and could endure today due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Some viewers may have forgotten the bleakness of Revolutionary Road‘s ending, and it warrants more attention in 2025.

2) Life (2017)

In many ways, Life feels like a copy and paste of an Alien movie, though its ending features a sinister twist one might not anticipate. The plot revolves around an extraterrestrial life form’s arrival at the International Space Station, where scientists discover its fast evolution and lethal intelligence. The alien, nicknamed Calvin, takes out all but two of the crew, who desperately try to prevent it from reaching Earth. Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal) plans to trap Calvin in his escape pod and fly it into deep space while Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson) pilots another pod back to Earth. A debris field sparks chaos, and somehow, David and Calvin’s pod lands on Earth. Life‘s unnerving final sequence depicts fishermen opening David’s pod while Miranda screams in agony as she drifts further into the cosmos.

Life‘s stunning conclusion sees an immensely dangerous creature arrive on Earth after it appears the scientists had successfully defeated it. The movie’s worst possible outcome becoming a reality is a horrifying thing to witness, as it confirms that the death and destruction Calvin inflicts on the ISS will take place on Earth in the future. Life’s premise isn’t original by any means, but the frightening implications of its ending separate it from most other sci-fi horror flicks.

1) Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Jeepers Creepers remains one of the scariest horror movies of the 2000s, and the cult-classic’s ending is beyond messed up. As siblings Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry (Justin Long) drive home from college for spring break, they encounter the Creeper (Jonathan Breck) — a menacing winged creature that consumes human body parts and integrates them into its own body. Trish and Darry fight to escape the Creeper’s clutches, and just when it looks like they’ll prevail, Jeepers Creepers delivers its nightmarish ending twist. The Creeper flies away to an abandoned building, where lies a mutilated Darry with his eyes removed. Now using Darry’s eyes as his own, the Creeper has accomplished its goal.

Thanks to its astonishing, disheartening, and gruesome nature, the ending of Jeepers Creepers is the most disturbing entry on this list. Many horror movies conclude on a dismal note, but Jeepers Creepers is different. The film channels much of its human spirit through the young protagonists, who share a strong familial bond. Trish and Darry go through so much peril as they bravely battle the Creeper together. Therefore, watching the Creeper abduct Darry and graphically murder him is hard to stomach. Jeepers Creepers‘ ending isn’t just scary; it’s terribly depressing.

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