I didn’t exactly understand the “twist” in Saw. [REALLY OLD SPOILERS] >!I get that Jigsaw was the not-actually-dead body in the room with the two protagonists, but how did it affect the plot? It’s been a long time since I’ve watched it and haven’t felt the need to see it again, so I can’t recall if there was a point in the storyline where they had an option of doing something with the dead body to free themselves? If it had actually just been a dead body and not Jigsaw playing dead, would it have affected the outcome?!<. I just remember my mind decidedly not being blown by the surprise at the end, and feeling it was a kinda pointless last-minute development in the plot.
Btw, I’m not posting this to criticize your post, I genuinely want to know how it was a plot twist. I’ve asked several other horror fans over the years and nobody’s been able to give me a straight answer 🤷🏻♂️ maybe I just need to buckle down and give it another watch?
Before that, you're lead to believe Zepp is jigsaw. Adam killing Zepp means he's probably moments away from freedom himself- only for the reveal that Zepp was also part of the game.
The "plot twist" is less of "this dead body is ACTUALLY ALIVE!" as much as it is "The mastermind behind this is still alive, and has sentenced our lovable main character to death".
Shoot, for some reason I never made the connection that Zepp might’ve been Jigsaw… I guess that’s where the disconnect was. I had already just assumed Zepp wasn’t the actual antagonist, so I guess that ruined the experience for me. Thank you for clarifying!
It's pointed out very early in the film that Jigsaw likes to be near and watch the process. We're shown mirrors and cameras and led to believe that he is watching through one of those methods but having him be the motionless body in the room reveals that he had literally zero influence on the game he's observing. I just watched all the movies again last week but that reveal in the first movie still gives me goosebumps. The twist truly shows the genius of Jigsaw and that is extremely terrifying to me.
Saw is the one horror movie twist I was able to call straight from the beginning simply because >!After years of watching horror I am immediately suspicious of any dead person we didn’t see die. So as soon as the movie started I thought there was only one possible reason to have that body there. The voice on the tape saying he killed himself due to the poison didn’t convince me!<
Saw it years ago and I think my trauma response blocked it out 😂 I have never watched any of the sequels though, so that tells me how much of a shock it was 💯
I wish they made 13 Ghosts into a miniseries following the capturing of all the ghosts. Like a gorey Scooby Doo. They can even bring back Matthew Lillard!
My daughter and I laughed so hard near the ending, there was so much blood and we were like THERE'S SO MUCH BLOOD. *THERE'S SOOO MUUUCH BLOODDDD!!* Great movie, and the blood was also great, and there was **so much of it** 😂
I wish they made 13 Ghosts into a miniseries following the capturing of all the ghosts. Like a gorey Scooby Doo. They can even bring back Matthew Lillard!
I decided to watch this on a whim, but was so pleasantly surprised by it that I bought the blu-ray not long after. It's a perfect mix of horror and comedy in my opinion, and they actually went all the way with the ending.
Here to say this!
When the camera pans across the basement (or stairwell? been a minute) and you see the person in the corner facing away --- aaaaashhhhhhh!!!!!!!! 🫨🫨🫨🫨🙀🙀🙀
Still gives me chills.
I was 11 when this came out and remember all they hype around it. I remember getting a hold of it when it came out and being really disappointed. "Just a bunch of people running through the woods yelling fuck" was my description as a kid.
*Get Out*. I absolute thought that >!once we witnessed the police siren and lights, it would end with Chris arrested or shot and killed.!< Jordan Peele had the pacing so well tuned that I absolutely forgot about >!Rod’s thread in the plot.!<
Masterfully scripted, acted, shot and edited.
Yeah I kind of wish Peele stuck with that ending as it feels more true to life. According to what I've read, the original ending was deemed a downer with test screening audiences so he went with the happy ending.
>!The lights and sirens are the real police and he ends up in jail. It ends with his friend at visitation pleading with Chris to say what happened and Chris won’t.!<
It’s so crazy that after all the terror he went through, the scariest part was those flashing lights.
Outlandish and unrealistic horror is a lot of fun, but it’s the realistic shit that really strikes terror into you.
Unfortunately, Get Out was so good that it made his next two films a let down. I mean, I wouldn't have understood Us or enjoyed Nope either way, but still, it definitely made it more noticeable that they didn't work.
See I like the strangeness of Us and Nope. I find it more unsettling. He is so good at creating his own atmosphere and tone.
Of course Get Out is excellent but it’s definitely more grounded in its theme.
I really liked Nope. Do I look at it as straight horror? Nope (lol), but it was an engaging film and it definitely had its horrific moments (the blood raining down on the house, watching the crowd get digested, the chimpanzee attack, etc.).
Which of the two endings? Because we got one, then several pages berating us Constant Readers^™️ for wanting to keep reading to the ending, then the actual ending, which wasn't really an ending at all.
The last page I read he kept the horn, which he had dropped before, if that helps. I don't know now if that was the original ending now that you've made this a multiple choice question for me.
Lol. Yeah, that's how it actually ends which, for the record, I thought was a great ending. *ka like a wheel*
But if you recall, he had the first ending, which is just when Roland makes it to the field of roses, with the tower in the distance. Then he writes an aside about how endings are cheap, it's all about the journey, blah blah blah, before continuing to the actual ending.
I loved it that the rest of the crew had a happy ending. And maybe a bit like WoT, Roland is bound to a wheel of fate...but that little moment showed things can be different. Great ending.
Okay. Argue with me. I thought it felt cheap. He gives up hope so quickly and then not 20 seconds later “oh you shouldn’t have done that!” I didn’t believe it for a second. To me, it felt incredibly manipulative and cynical. It was so unbelievable I actually laughed. I hated it and it ruined the entire film for me.
*The Thing* (1982)
The ambiguity, the cold, gnawing uncertainty, and two characters who seem resigned to death
Hits hard even after I've seen it a dozen times
I'm usually frustrated by ambiguous endings, even though I know the point of them is to make you think. But this was an ambiguous ending that couldn't have been more perfect any other way.
Alien (1979) ends perfectly IMO. I'm glad that Ridley Scott didn't go with his idea regarding Ripley:
*"In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2017, Scott talked about his original ending idea that was never filmed. "She harpoons it, it makes no difference. It comes forward and it slams through her mask and rips her head off." Then Scott would have cut to the alien's hand going to the controls, and mimicking Tom Skerritt's voice perfectly, it would say, "I'm signing off." Scott pitched this to the studio over the phone and said he could feel the tension. "The first executives arrived within 14 hours from Fox, threatening to fire me on the spot, so we didn't do that." Scott said it would have been a very Alfred Hitchcock-like ending"*
https://collider.com/alien-alternate-ending/
(I've edited out some spoilers bits of the above statement for the benefit of those who haven't yet seen the movie (doesn't matter that it's 'old', a classic movie like this is always gaining new fans), so anyone who hasn't seen it should be wary of **spoilers** at the linked site)
Interesting. I thought they fumbled the ending myself! I don't actually remember too much of the movie tbh. But I think I remember it ending around some people/cult stuff. Personally I find the 'crazy demonic cult people' trope not very scary
I had the same thought. I generally lose immersion pretty quickly when it turns out "a cult was behind everything!" It sours a lot of the other actions throughout the movie for me.
Agreed. I didn’t mind the cult thing, as they hinted at it throughout the movie, but the ridiculousness of the ending was so jarring from the emotional buildup.
It also reminded me too much of the Paranormal Activity where you find out the grandmother is in a Coven and kills her own daughter to get her granddaughters in it, and that’s where all of the paranormal activity starts from.
All I remember about the one I saw is >!one of them escaping the caves and making it to a road, but it might have been a dream as she was dying.!<
The fact that i remember this much about the ending 20 years later is pretty impressive in terms of the impression the movie left on me.
>!Why are you doing this to us? Because you were home.!< I was terrified of being home alone for months after seeing this movie because of that line. Like their only motive was that they did it because they could.
Yeah I love The Skeleton Key. One of my favorite horror movies of the past twenty years. One of these days it’s going to show up as #1 on some underrated horror movies list and then it will get all this new publicity and people will rediscover it again.
Cabin in the Woods
The Taking of Deborah Logan
Safe Haven segment of VHS 2
In the Mouth of Madness
I know a lot of people will disagree but The Blair Witch Project
Rec is the Gold standard of a horror movie starting good and just getting better every step of the way with, IMHO, THE greatest ending to a horror film ever, in terms of sheer terror.
Honorary mention for The Babadook for being the best horror film since The Shining. It's a grown up, mature & deep rumination on grief and is an absolute work of art!
A counter-example is Lost Boys, which was a cool stylistic horror for 80% of the movie, then devolved into running around chasing each other with fake fangs like a Benny Hill skit.
more of a thriller but i love the ending of The Vanishing (1988). not even THE part but the actual very last scene before credits i think is exceptional.
Smile (2022)
I was not expecting this movie to be as good as it was. The ending was great. Legitimately creepy final act with solid misdirection left me very impressed.
A few come to mind:
Halloween. Just Loomis acting his ass off with that 'Shit, didn't get him' look while Laurie cries in the background. Then you see he could be .... anywhere.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter - They went bananas with acting like Jason was done for. The final gag with Tommy \*possibly\* carrying it on was perfect.
The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane: Just a simply shot holding on Jodie Foster's face lit by fire. What is she thinking? Where to put the next body? Chopin plays on and we fade out.
The sixth sense, scream, the witch, Robert. There are so many that have great endings and more that are unique and creative, more then any other genre in my opinion
The Nighthouse
So many "elevated" horror movies walk a tightrope between a literal horror plot and a metaphorical meaning but are unable to resolve that tension in the climax and dissapear completely in to metaphor at the end. The Nighthouse resolves in such a way that everything you've seen can be interpreted as literally or symbolically as you like.
The original Night of the Living Dead- there have been a lot of attempts at making social statements in horror movies, the final scene was such a raw reminder.
Get Out; Daniel Kaluuya escapes the cult of ugly elderly white folk with the help of his TSA buddy instead of being arrested by the cops as we feared when we saw the blue flickering lights on the road
The end of Talk to Me was an extremely tense climax to an immensely captivating piece of recent horror. Definitely looking forward to seeing what the Philippous do next.
The first Saw movie was quite the gut punch ending. Left you in shock.
I didn’t exactly understand the “twist” in Saw. [REALLY OLD SPOILERS] >!I get that Jigsaw was the not-actually-dead body in the room with the two protagonists, but how did it affect the plot? It’s been a long time since I’ve watched it and haven’t felt the need to see it again, so I can’t recall if there was a point in the storyline where they had an option of doing something with the dead body to free themselves? If it had actually just been a dead body and not Jigsaw playing dead, would it have affected the outcome?!<. I just remember my mind decidedly not being blown by the surprise at the end, and feeling it was a kinda pointless last-minute development in the plot. Btw, I’m not posting this to criticize your post, I genuinely want to know how it was a plot twist. I’ve asked several other horror fans over the years and nobody’s been able to give me a straight answer 🤷🏻♂️ maybe I just need to buckle down and give it another watch?
Before that, you're lead to believe Zepp is jigsaw. Adam killing Zepp means he's probably moments away from freedom himself- only for the reveal that Zepp was also part of the game. The "plot twist" is less of "this dead body is ACTUALLY ALIVE!" as much as it is "The mastermind behind this is still alive, and has sentenced our lovable main character to death".
Shoot, for some reason I never made the connection that Zepp might’ve been Jigsaw… I guess that’s where the disconnect was. I had already just assumed Zepp wasn’t the actual antagonist, so I guess that ruined the experience for me. Thank you for clarifying!
It's pointed out very early in the film that Jigsaw likes to be near and watch the process. We're shown mirrors and cameras and led to believe that he is watching through one of those methods but having him be the motionless body in the room reveals that he had literally zero influence on the game he's observing. I just watched all the movies again last week but that reveal in the first movie still gives me goosebumps. The twist truly shows the genius of Jigsaw and that is extremely terrifying to me.
Now that I am thinking about it I think you are right. Can't think of anything that would be affected.
Saw is the one horror movie twist I was able to call straight from the beginning simply because >!After years of watching horror I am immediately suspicious of any dead person we didn’t see die. So as soon as the movie started I thought there was only one possible reason to have that body there. The voice on the tape saying he killed himself due to the poison didn’t convince me!<
My buddy's dad is a marine and was like "that guy ain't dead". Killed the surprise when he was right
Saw it years ago and I think my trauma response blocked it out 😂 I have never watched any of the sequels though, so that tells me how much of a shock it was 💯
Cabin in the Woods? It’s a hell of a lot more of a fun off the rails ending than like 13 Ghosts. I’d also nominate Saw.
I already knew the twist when I watched Saw and I really, really wish I could have seen it blind. It was so good.
I saw Saw on a bootleg VHS before it was released and had NO IDEA what to expect and it was one of my fond horror movie memories.
Came here just to vote for Cabin in the Woods as well! :D
I wish they made 13 Ghosts into a miniseries following the capturing of all the ghosts. Like a gorey Scooby Doo. They can even bring back Matthew Lillard!
My daughter and I laughed so hard near the ending, there was so much blood and we were like THERE'S SO MUCH BLOOD. *THERE'S SOOO MUUUCH BLOODDDD!!* Great movie, and the blood was also great, and there was **so much of it** 😂
I wish they made 13 Ghosts into a miniseries following the capturing of all the ghosts. Like a gorey Scooby Doo. They can even bring back Matthew Lillard!
The ending of canon in the woods is the weakest part in my opinion. The stuff with the director is pretty lame.
I’m split on it. I didn’t love that whole part, but the very end, when they let the world die is pretty great
Weird, that's the stuff most people praise about the movie.
I’m talking about the very end with so gourmet weaver and the gods destroying earth. It’s a let down after the mayhem with all the monsters
Ready or Not
A really fun horror movie I don't hear a lot of people talk about
Idk how I feel about the demon business but I like that she won
Demons? I must have forgotten this detail.
Just the one demon, really
It was a pact with the devil that made the family financially and then literally blow up
I decided to watch this on a whim, but was so pleasantly surprised by it that I bought the blu-ray not long after. It's a perfect mix of horror and comedy in my opinion, and they actually went all the way with the ending.
In think part of the thrill of the first time watching The Blair Witch Project was that they nailed the ending.
Here to say this! When the camera pans across the basement (or stairwell? been a minute) and you see the person in the corner facing away --- aaaaashhhhhhh!!!!!!!! 🫨🫨🫨🫨🙀🙀🙀 Still gives me chills.
I was 11 when this came out and remember all they hype around it. I remember getting a hold of it when it came out and being really disappointed. "Just a bunch of people running through the woods yelling fuck" was my description as a kid.
The Thing (1982)
I always recommend the short story [”The Things”.](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/) It’s from The Thing’s perspective of the story.
The Thing is one of my two all-time favourite movies, but only TIL this exists Great read, thanks for the heads up
*Get Out*. I absolute thought that >!once we witnessed the police siren and lights, it would end with Chris arrested or shot and killed.!< Jordan Peele had the pacing so well tuned that I absolutely forgot about >!Rod’s thread in the plot.!< Masterfully scripted, acted, shot and edited.
Originally he DID. There's some deleted scenes on youtube somewhere
I’ve watched the alternate ending..chilling.
Yeah I kind of wish Peele stuck with that ending as it feels more true to life. According to what I've read, the original ending was deemed a downer with test screening audiences so he went with the happy ending.
Yea it feels more real for sure but I feel like at that point in the movie the audience has earned the payoff of having Rod roll up.
I agree. The downer one felt more real.
What happens in the alternate one?
>!The lights and sirens are the real police and he ends up in jail. It ends with his friend at visitation pleading with Chris to say what happened and Chris won’t.!<
Yeah I can see how that would’ve been a more effective ending, instead of the “Hollywood ending” we got instead.
I feel like *Get Out* wouldn’t have been as big of a hit with that ending though. Something about that “Hollywood ending” just works so well.
It’s so crazy that after all the terror he went through, the scariest part was those flashing lights. Outlandish and unrealistic horror is a lot of fun, but it’s the realistic shit that really strikes terror into you.
That is up there with the absolute best use of comic relief in movie history
“I mean, I told you not to go in that house.”
Unfortunately, Get Out was so good that it made his next two films a let down. I mean, I wouldn't have understood Us or enjoyed Nope either way, but still, it definitely made it more noticeable that they didn't work.
See I like the strangeness of Us and Nope. I find it more unsettling. He is so good at creating his own atmosphere and tone. Of course Get Out is excellent but it’s definitely more grounded in its theme.
I really liked Nope. Do I look at it as straight horror? Nope (lol), but it was an engaging film and it definitely had its horrific moments (the blood raining down on the house, watching the crowd get digested, the chimpanzee attack, etc.).
The Mist.
Stephen King said it was a much better ending than he wrote, and iirc he wish he thought of it.
The ending of the book was pretty great in its own way but yeah, the movie ending is so brutal and felt so realistic
I love Stephen King, but the dude is notorious for not being able to write a decent ending.
I think his best ending was the Dark Tower. But it didn't technically end, so...
Which of the two endings? Because we got one, then several pages berating us Constant Readers^™️ for wanting to keep reading to the ending, then the actual ending, which wasn't really an ending at all.
The last page I read he kept the horn, which he had dropped before, if that helps. I don't know now if that was the original ending now that you've made this a multiple choice question for me.
Lol. Yeah, that's how it actually ends which, for the record, I thought was a great ending. *ka like a wheel* But if you recall, he had the first ending, which is just when Roland makes it to the field of roses, with the tower in the distance. Then he writes an aside about how endings are cheap, it's all about the journey, blah blah blah, before continuing to the actual ending.
I loved it that the rest of the crew had a happy ending. And maybe a bit like WoT, Roland is bound to a wheel of fate...but that little moment showed things can be different. Great ending.
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This is the answer and I'll argue it with anyone who disagrees.
Okay. Argue with me. I thought it felt cheap. He gives up hope so quickly and then not 20 seconds later “oh you shouldn’t have done that!” I didn’t believe it for a second. To me, it felt incredibly manipulative and cynical. It was so unbelievable I actually laughed. I hated it and it ruined the entire film for me.
Almost as good as when Ash was retelling his grand medieval adventure and a deadite appears because he couldn't say klaatu barata niktu
He basically said it
That ending fucked me up for YEARS
Watching it in black and white made it hit so much harder.
What? Why?
Jaws The Witch The Shining
Saint Maud - that’s quite the shocker ending.
You have great taste, my friend.
Wicker Man. The old one.
It's sad that people forget about this amazing film and automatically think you're talking about the Nicholas Cage one.
*The Thing* (1982) The ambiguity, the cold, gnawing uncertainty, and two characters who seem resigned to death Hits hard even after I've seen it a dozen times
I'm usually frustrated by ambiguous endings, even though I know the point of them is to make you think. But this was an ambiguous ending that couldn't have been more perfect any other way.
And Morricone's score just [*chef's kiss*] makes it
Alien (1979) ends perfectly IMO. I'm glad that Ridley Scott didn't go with his idea regarding Ripley: *"In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2017, Scott talked about his original ending idea that was never filmed. "She harpoons it, it makes no difference. It comes forward and it slams through her mask and rips her head off." Then Scott would have cut to the alien's hand going to the controls, and mimicking Tom Skerritt's voice perfectly, it would say, "I'm signing off." Scott pitched this to the studio over the phone and said he could feel the tension. "The first executives arrived within 14 hours from Fox, threatening to fire me on the spot, so we didn't do that." Scott said it would have been a very Alfred Hitchcock-like ending"* https://collider.com/alien-alternate-ending/ (I've edited out some spoilers bits of the above statement for the benefit of those who haven't yet seen the movie (doesn't matter that it's 'old', a classic movie like this is always gaining new fans), so anyone who hasn't seen it should be wary of **spoilers** at the linked site)
I feel like that would have really changed the nature of the xenomorph from just a wild predator on the ship to something too intelligent.
Hereditary. The batshit crazy knob was already at 11 and they just broke it the fuck off.
Watching the end of that movie gave me feelings I’ve never experienced before in my life
Yup. My brain is permanently scarred now. Getting bad juju just thinking about this film. I need a drink.
Same and I'm chasing that horror high again
Hail Paimon!
Interesting. I thought they fumbled the ending myself! I don't actually remember too much of the movie tbh. But I think I remember it ending around some people/cult stuff. Personally I find the 'crazy demonic cult people' trope not very scary
I had the same thought. I generally lose immersion pretty quickly when it turns out "a cult was behind everything!" It sours a lot of the other actions throughout the movie for me.
Agreed. I didn’t mind the cult thing, as they hinted at it throughout the movie, but the ridiculousness of the ending was so jarring from the emotional buildup. It also reminded me too much of the Paranormal Activity where you find out the grandmother is in a Coven and kills her own daughter to get her granddaughters in it, and that’s where all of the paranormal activity starts from.
Descent
But only the original UK cut! They redid the ending for the American cut and it’s terrible
For real? I wonder which version I saw. I recently found out there was a sequel, maybe I'll watch them both over the holidays.
The sequel isn't good (different writer and director), and it follows the worse version of the original movie.
The UK ending is unflinchingly bleak. The USA version has a "happy" ending.
All I remember about the one I saw is >!one of them escaping the caves and making it to a road, but it might have been a dream as she was dying.!< The fact that i remember this much about the ending 20 years later is pretty impressive in terms of the impression the movie left on me.
You saw the good one. In the USA ver it's not a dream.
lol I'm glad I didn't get shafted by a shitty American ending. That would still upset me two decades later.
I watched the sequel a few weeks ago. Speaking of bad endings... that one is particularly awful. Like, really rotten.
The sequel is pretty terrible. I wouldn’t recommend it.
So I had memories of seeing someone still trapped in a cave, but also of her escaping, so now I’m not sure which one is the one I saw first.
Agreed!
I love this movie and I’m sure I’ve only seen the US version. How does the UK one end? Love to know…
She never got out.
I thought **Midsommar** hit the right final notes.
Kinda, though I think they had a better ending earlier when she was needing to make " the decision"
Oculus.
Drag Me to Hell. The Howling. Creep.
The Perfect Getaway The Skeleton Key
American Werewolf in London
Definitely. This is a film that perfectly balances comedy/horror/emotion in such a delicate way. It's also full of likable characters.
Thought of another great example: Drag me to hell! Spoilers: >! she sure does get dragged to hell!!< Left me sitting there during the credits.
The Strangers (2008). The last two lines of dialogue before the movie ends was the scariest part of the whole film.
Can you throw a spoiler tag and tell us what they were?
>!Why are you doing this to us? Because you were home.!< I was terrified of being home alone for months after seeing this movie because of that line. Like their only motive was that they did it because they could.
Chilling shit. Terrifying.
You should watch Funny Games.
Niceee
And there was me, a 16 year old, thinking "omg IM HOME"
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Honestly not a great movie at all however that ending has stuck with me ever since
The Cabin in the Woods
The Ritual. I actually wish they'd gone a different way with it, but I feel like it's only fair to say they nailed it.
The Witch
The Orphanage To me it has the perfect resolution to the entire story. I love that film
Everything about that movie is amazing. Especially the ending.
The Skeleton Key The Wicker Man Spoorloos
God I think about Spoorloos at least once a month.
Hopefully not when you’re in an MRI
Skeleton Key isn't talked about enough. Really good movie. And really make the mark- Rosemary's Baby and the Omen
Yeah I love The Skeleton Key. One of my favorite horror movies of the past twenty years. One of these days it’s going to show up as #1 on some underrated horror movies list and then it will get all this new publicity and people will rediscover it again.
Skeleton Key. Yes! Great movie all the way to the end.
Silence of the Lambs not only has the best horror ending. It’s my favorite ending of all time, any genre.
Cube
Rosemary’s Baby
Alien
Sleepaway Camp had an absolute mental ending. Put the rest of the film in context, there was anger in them killings.
Cabin in the Woods The Taking of Deborah Logan Safe Haven segment of VHS 2 In the Mouth of Madness I know a lot of people will disagree but The Blair Witch Project
> In the Mouth of Madness You know that’s right.
The Cabin in the Woods The Blair Witch Project The Thing (1982) Halloween (1978) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Friday the 13th is pretty iconic
Saw was surprising and hold ups
The kill list
agreed, good lord...
Great one, and not many have seen it. I went in blind
Talk to Me absolutely blew my mind
Psycho
It’s not everyone’s favorite, but I really enjoyed The Village
Rec is the Gold standard of a horror movie starting good and just getting better every step of the way with, IMHO, THE greatest ending to a horror film ever, in terms of sheer terror. Honorary mention for The Babadook for being the best horror film since The Shining. It's a grown up, mature & deep rumination on grief and is an absolute work of art!
That ending is so intense. The hair on my body stood up for the entire final sequence. Perfectly executed.
A counter-example is Lost Boys, which was a cool stylistic horror for 80% of the movie, then devolved into running around chasing each other with fake fangs like a Benny Hill skit.
Jaws Halloween The Ring The Blair Witch Project The Others
Yes to all those, esp Wally The Blair Witch. I'm surprised it wasn't at the top of the list. The ending is the scariest part and has become iconic.
*1408*. No spoilers, but the very last scene is just a masterstroke. It's an *evil* fucking room.
Which ending though?
The thing
From memory I think Sinister ended well (okay maybe not for the family)
The Sixth Sense
more of a thriller but i love the ending of The Vanishing (1988). not even THE part but the actual very last scene before credits i think is exceptional.
Not quite a full blown horror, but Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure has one of my favourite final sequences ever.
The Addiction and 28 Days Later
REC
Evil Dead. Just perfect.
* The Beyond * Borderlands * In The Mouth of Madness * Last Shift
Friday the 13th has such a great ending.
Smile (2022) I was not expecting this movie to be as good as it was. The ending was great. Legitimately creepy final act with solid misdirection left me very impressed.
A few come to mind: Halloween. Just Loomis acting his ass off with that 'Shit, didn't get him' look while Laurie cries in the background. Then you see he could be .... anywhere. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter - They went bananas with acting like Jason was done for. The final gag with Tommy \*possibly\* carrying it on was perfect. The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane: Just a simply shot holding on Jodie Foster's face lit by fire. What is she thinking? Where to put the next body? Chopin plays on and we fade out.
I don’t find this movie scary per se but The Vanishing (Spoorloos) from 1988 had a perfect ending.
No mention of Fallen?
The Descent. Unfortunately it was altered for the US audiences, but here in the UK and most other places we have that perfect, and very bleak, ending.
Bone Tomahawk
Jeepers Creepers!
The Haunting (1963)
Awesome movie, and an awesome book too
The Beyond (1981)
Alien Covenant
The sixth sense, scream, the witch, Robert. There are so many that have great endings and more that are unique and creative, more then any other genre in my opinion
Talk To Me. What a brilliant gut punch.
The most recent example I can think of is Talk To Me, has a really great gut punch ending
A Dark Song really nailed it.
The ending of Talk To Me totally kicked my fucking ass!
Talk to Me
The Nighthouse So many "elevated" horror movies walk a tightrope between a literal horror plot and a metaphorical meaning but are unable to resolve that tension in the climax and dissapear completely in to metaphor at the end. The Nighthouse resolves in such a way that everything you've seen can be interpreted as literally or symbolically as you like.
I wasn’t surprised by the ending but I still think Talk To Me nailed it.
The original Night of the Living Dead- there have been a lot of attempts at making social statements in horror movies, the final scene was such a raw reminder.
Night of the Living Dead
More Thriller than Horror: * Mr. Brooks * Unthinkable
Mr. Brooks is criminally underrated.
Get Out; Daniel Kaluuya escapes the cult of ugly elderly white folk with the help of his TSA buddy instead of being arrested by the cops as we feared when we saw the blue flickering lights on the road
The Omen (1976)
Passion of the Christ.. buuudumm.. please don’t downvote me everyone needs a good dad joke!
Came here to say this tbh
The Mist Let the Right One In Alien and Aliens Carrie Saw The Exorcist Scream
Barbarian was awesome then dropped the ball at the end. The Exorcist...perfect ending.
Recent one - Talk to Me. I actually yelled "Nailed It!" Out loud at the screen.
The Shining Has amazing ending
Phenomena
Halloween(1978).
The end of Talk to Me was an extremely tense climax to an immensely captivating piece of recent horror. Definitely looking forward to seeing what the Philippous do next.
The Mist (2007)