Among writers, the endings in the horror genre are notoriously difficult to craft. With every horror movie’s ending, a screenwriter must decide whether to commit to the darkness and end on the bleakest possible note (Drag Me to Hell, Rosemary’s Baby) or give the audience a crowd-pleasing, triumphant finale (Army of Darkness, Aliens).
Unsurprisingly, even great horror movies can end on a sour note. But, unfortunately, when a writer has to resolve a story that’s already unpleasant by design, it’s easy for them to end up with an unpleasant ending for the wrong reasons.
There is a mention ahead of a scene that involves suicide. Additionally, several film endings are spoiled. Please proceed with caution.
10 High Tension Loses The Tension
The gory French slasher High Tension received widespread attention from horror fans and critics in 2003 and put director Alexandre Aja on the map. The film follows Marie and Alex, two students who are on the run from a serial killer after he invades Alex’s house and kills her family.
While the film received critical acclaim for its masterful suspense and uncompromising violence, the twist ending was almost universally hated. Marie is the survivor who spends the most time fighting back against the killer, but in a twist that would embarrass Donald Kaufman, Marie turns out to have been the killer all along, with little-to-no logical explanation.
Lights Out is a demonic presence story with a twist: the monster disappears when exposed to light. Based on David F. Sandberg’s 2013 short film Lights Out has lots of fun with this premise, climaxing with a crowd-pleasing setpiece where the protagonists have to scramble to find light sources.
It’s a good time until it becomes a deeply offensive metaphor. Earlier in the movie, the demon was revealed to be a ghost attached to Sophie, a woman dealing with mental health ailments. To dispel the demon, Sophie shoots herself in the head, bringing down the movie’s mood from delightful to profoundly upsetting.
8 Signs Has M. Night Shyamalan’s Worst Twist Ending
Ever since The Sixth Sense, audiences have gone into M. Night Shyamalan’s movies wondering what the big twist will be. His second film, Unbreakable, featured a twist that earned solid approval from most fans. However, Signs is where moviegoers started to question whether Shyamalan peaked too early.
Signs is a truly scary alien invasion movie told from one family’s perspective. However, when they have their final face-off with an alien, they have two absurd realizations: the aliens are allergic to water, and God once told Mel Gibson through his dying wife that he could kill an alien with a baseball bat.
7 The Rental Stops Its Plot To Kill Everyone
Endings in which everyone dies aren’t necessarily bad; some horror movies just wouldn’t be as frightening if they offered a promise of survival. However, when an “everyone dies” ending fails, it’s often because the writer seems to have given up on a better conclusion. This is the case with The Rental, an otherwise solid writing and directorial debut from David Franco.
The Rental follows two couples on vacation at a fancy beach house, where hidden cameras expose their infidelities and insecurities. The movie focuses on the compelling, tense conflicts between the four friends. However, nothing is resolved because a serial killer suddenly and unceremoniously murders all four in the last act.
6 Friday the 13th: Part V Has An Unresolved Cliffhanger
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning is the only Friday the 13th film other than the very first to feature a killer other than Jason. Part V tends to rank lower on most fans’ lists, and the big reveal – that background paramedic Roy, not Jason, was the killer all along – is part of why.
Then, after Roy has been defeated, protagonist Tommy Jarvis wakes up in a hospital, puts on the Jason mask, and hides behind a door with a knife at ready, seemingly about to plunge it into an unsuspecting survivor, Pam. This incident is never mentioned in the series again, and Part VI picks up with Tommy without mentioning Pam’s fate.
5 The Sadness Gives In To Its Own Nihilism
A critically acclaimed 2021 Taiwanese film, The Sadness is already notorious for its horrific violence and images too disgusting even for some horror fans. Audiences might go into a movie like this hoping for some sort of redemptive moment or a protagonist who overcomes the depravity. Those audiences will be disappointed.
The Sadness is about the spread of a virus that causes its hosts to give in to their most destructive instincts. Young protagonists Jim and Kat find themselves on the run from a zombie-like horde of people who want to hurt, maim, and kill them. After a gauntlet of terror and despicable acts, the film ends with Jim infected and Kat gunned down by the military right after discovering she’s immune.
4 Terrifier Seems To Like Its Villain More Than Its Heroes
Terrifier is a difficult film to defend. On the one hand, the grimy low-fi cinematography, the brilliant throwback score, and the fantastic wordless performance by David Howard Thornton as serial killer Art the Clown are all well executed. However, on the other hand, the film’s focus on violence towards women and its cruel treatment of its female characters border on fetishization.
Art’s graphic attacks on women might be more acceptable if the film ended with his demise at the hands of one. Terrifier, though, almost seems to think Art the Clown is cool and keeps him alive. Instead, the film ends with him inexplicably rising from the grave after murdering every female character except one, whom he disfigured so badly that she lost her sanity.
3 Sinister Loses Momentum, Then Kills Everyone
Sinister, directed by Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone), is the chilling story of Ellison Oswalt, a writer who moves into a new home and discovers old home videos of families being murdered. Even worse, the videos are haunted by an evil spirit who possesses children and compels them to commit the murders. It’s an unsettling premise, and an unhappy ending would not be out of place in this story.
It’s the weirdly uneventful way that Sinister arrives at the ending that ruins it. To combat the evil spirit, Ellison burns the films and moves his family back to their old home. After such a weak attempt to escape an all-powerful demon, it’s no wonder his daughter becomes possessed and murders him, along with the rest of the family.
2 Oculus Forgets The Point It’s Making
A haunted mirror story from the brilliant Mike Flanagan, Oculus follows the story of two siblings in two different eras: the past, where the mirror turns their parents into sadistic murderers, and the present, where sister Kaylie is trying to catch the mirror’s evil nature on camera.
The story is scary and moving, and the parallels between the childhood sequences and real-life childhood trauma are hard to miss. However, the parallels fall apart in the present-day storyline. The story seems to be about young adults coming to terms with the trauma of their past and taking control of their lives, that is, until Kaylie is killed by a booby trap intended for the evil mirror and brother Tim is dragged off by the police.
1 Piranhaconda’s Ending Is As Ridiculous As The Rest Of It
The campy SyFy original film Piranhaconda is clearly aiming for “it’s so bad it’s good” status, so its ridiculous ending is in keeping with the rest of the tone. In fact, for some viewers, the abrupt ending might be the best joke in the whole film. But, of course, whether that makes the ending good or not is up to the viewer.
Piranhaconda is about three giant hybrid piranha-anaconda chasing a film crew around an island, killing them all except the heroes, Jack and Rose. Jack and Rose blow up two of the piranhacondas and think they’re in the clear. As they share a well-earned kiss, the third piranhaconda plows through the shot, reducing them to a bloody mist. The film ends in tragedy all because the survivors forgot about one of the monsters.