There are some really awful horror movie endings out there. The whole “It’s all been a video game” thing in Serenity and the Thade is Abe Lincoln now final shot of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, for instance. But horror is often particularly guilty of weak finales. Part of the reason is that horror movies feel the need to end on a twist, but on the other hand there are just the simple cases where the third act is a whiff. On the former end, there’s the plants being evil in The Happening and, on the latter, there’s either ending of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, one of which is boring and standard and the other of which is an intended gut punch that’s more shrug-worthy (namely, Doctor Loomis’ fate in the Producer’s Cut).
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But then there are the horror movies that intentionally send you out with a big frown and maybe a tear or two. They’re trying to feel like hopeless conclusions, and they succeed in being just that. What follows are the best of the horror movie endings that actively attempted to be bummers and really pulled it off.
7) The Mist
The best sci-fi movie based on a Stephen King work, The Mist is an intense single-locale alien invasion movie. But it’s the ending that actually manages to make it better than the source material.
We watch Thomas Jane’s David Drayton get his son, Laurie Holden’s Amanda, Jeffrey DeMunn’s Dan, and Frances Sternhagen’s Irene out of the grocery store, which had fully descended into chaos. The car is surrounded by these sky-high aliens and, feeling the end is near, David turns a gun on everyone else in the car to mercy kill them. Then, the mist dissipates, and in rolls the military.
Stream The Mist for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
6) The Vanishing
Don’t bother with the 1993 Hollywood-ized remake which added in a more palatable ending, because the original The Vanishing is the true masterwork. But you won’t leave feeling good about the world.
Throughout the movie we follow Rex, whose girlfriend, Saskia, was kidnapped a few years back. The kidnapper reveals himself and tells Rex that he can learn what happened to his girlfriend. But what he means by that is he’ll bury Rex alive just like he buried Saskia alive. Then the kidnapper, Raymond, goes back to his suburban life with his wife and kid.
Stream The Vanishing on The Criterion Channel.
5) Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The second and very best of the four adaptations of Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers, the 1978 remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers took what was established in the book and ’50s movie and perfected it. Part of how it did so was by adding in the point-and-scream.
Throughout the movie we see this increasingly overtaken world through the eyes of Donald Sutherland’s Matthew. But we also spend time with his friend, Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) and Jack and Nancy Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright). In the third act, Jack is taken over, then we and Matthew learn that Elizabeth has fallen to the same fate. Then, it’s almost as if the movie ends. We’ve gone from night to daylight and, apprehensively, Nancy finds Matthew, who is walking in a park setting. She shows emotion upon seeing him and, stoic for a moment, Matthew then points and screams at her, alerting the other pop people to the fact she’s still human. Matthew has been taken over as well, and now the movie really is done.
Stream Invasion of the Body Snatchers on Prime Video.
4) The Blair Witch Project
A pop culture sensation in the late ’90s, The Blair Witch Project doesn’t feel as revolutionary now that stuff like Paranormal Activity has entered film history. But the ending still really packs a punch.
The whole movie is hopeless, but the ending really makes you feel beaten. One of the three filmmakers is gone, likely dead, which leaves Heather and Mike. They find an abandoned house, Heather loses track of Mike, then finds him in the basement just standing still and staring into the corner. She then screams, falls, and drops the camera. What exactly happened to them? Why is he staring into the corner? We don’t know, but we know enough to be sure they are most certainly not okay.
Stream The Blair Witch Project on Kanopy.
3) The Return of the Living Dead
It may essentially be a somewhat serious spoof of Romero’s Dead movies, but The Return of the Living Dead is an important entry in the zombie subgenre in its own right. It also does a great job of crafting an ending nearly as jarring as Night of the Living Dead‘s.
Specifically, the military sends a nuke down onto the cemetery where the deadly Trioxin gas is resurrecting the dead. What they don’t know is that the blast has only made the resurrection process spread even further.
Stream The Return of the Living Dead for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
2) The Thing
One of the movies that proved the 1980s was the decade for sci-fi cinema, John Carpenter’s The Thing is a masterpiece. It also has a wonderfully inconclusive finale.
We have two survivors: Kurt Russell’s MacReady and Keith David’s Childs. MacReady took out the Blair-Thing and Childs disappeared for a bit. We’re as suspicious of Childs as MacReady is. But, as MacReady says, if they have any surprises for one another, they’re not in much of a position to do anything about it. They’re going to freeze to death, that’s certain. But what happens if one of them is infected and they’re later thawed? Food for scary thought.
1) Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is one of the great 1960s horror films, and its impact holds strong to this day. A big part of the reason for that is its devastating conclusion.
We follow only a handful of characters throughout the film and, by the end, only Ben is alive. Daylight comes and looks out the window only to get shot by a zombie-killing posse. Considering this was the ’60s and it was rare to have a Black protagonist, we’re forced to wonder if this posse even thought that Ben was a zombie, or if they saw an opportunity to kill someone who looked different from them.
Stream Night of the Living Dead on HBO Max.
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