10 horror movies saved by their great endings

Warning! Spoilers for each film listed.

More than many other genres, Horror movies They are especially relying on their ends to make an impressionWith the best of them can save otherwise mediocre films. Finding a good way to tie a story together is especially important for horror movies, which thrive on the gradual development of terror that reaches a climax over time. Horror movie endings can be tragic, or, in rare instances, happy, but they’re generally better the more shocking they are.

With that in mind, M. Night Shyamalan’s famous twist endings present Some great contenders for horror movie endings that save their respective films. In other cases, a heightened sense of focus that comes with a finale can dial up the excitement of a scary movie without necessarily needing a complex narrative surprise. However they can pull it off, many horror movies are quite reliant on their final moments to leave a lasting impression, being otherwise unassuming films.

10

The visit

One of the best twists ever made by M. Night Shyamalan

The visit was seen by many as something of a return to form by M. Night Shimalan, who, until the film’s release in 2015, had largely allowed his horror roots to fall by the wayside. The movie goes Two young siblings, Becca and Taylor, who arrange to visit their grandparents For a week away from home. Becca and Taylor are not very familiar with their estranged relatives, and they are soon subjected to some terrifying behavior from their old hosts.

When the chilling events of the kids’ fateful stay unfold, they call their mother in a panic, only to learn that the strange couple the two are staying with are not their grandparents. What follows is a mad bid for survival as the two imposters realize their facade is up, torturing their young captives with impunity. While The visit Finally had a happy endingIts disturbing twist is one of Shyamalan’s best.

9

Slipaway camp

A standard slasher made legendary by its ending

As far as slasher locales go, Slipaway camp Is not particularly creative. A lonely, misunderstood girl at a summer camp struggling to fit in with her peers, only to be surrounded by a series of gruesome murders perpetrated by an unknown killer stalking the campgrounds.

It can be surprising to learn Slipaway camp is considered such an iconic horror movie from that logline alone, however What really propels this film into legendary status is its shocking twist ending. Earlier it is mentioned that the little brother of the terrified Angela died in a tragic boating accident, one Angela herself just barely managed to live.

The startling conclusion of the film reveals that Not only is Angela the wild killer of the camp, but she is actually her brother, Peter, living as his sister. After the tragedy, with the real Angela being the one who died. The disturbing final shot of Angela/Peter Stark standing naked, screeching with a blank expression, is one of the most iconic images in slasher movie history, making up for the so-so premise up to this point.

8

The garbage

A creature feature that ends on a sad note

As far as Stephen King movie adaptations go, The garbage is one of the better films to take one of the author’s most creative premises and run away with it. located in a small town, The garbage Describes a group of strangers’ desperate bid to survive hold up in a grocery store after A mysterious fog with otherworldly monsters descends on their cityKill all who get lost in it.

What could have been a by-the-numbers creature feature is brought to new heights by its utterly downers of an ending, which sets a precedent for one of the most uncomfortable in horror movie history. The end of The garbage actually changes the source materialWhich makes for a more fascinating, but much more deaf tone to cap the film off.

When his vehicle runs out of gas after trying to make an escape through the fog, protagonist David makes the decision to mercy kill his fellow survivors, including his son, rather than allow them to be ravaged by the ferocious monsters of the fog. Only moments later, David is bailed out by the military, who have mounted a response against the creatures, meaning that his hasty actions are futile.

7

split

Led by James McAvoy’s unleashed acting skills

Another M. Night Shyamalan movie to be completely led by its ending, split Gives a funny case for a horror movie. The film says James McAvoy as a dissociative identity disorder who kidnaps three teenage girlsThey are imprisoned in a secret underground institution. The girls have to navigate the various ages of McAvoy’s character, especially beware of “The Beast”, a wild secret personality with an appetite for human blood. split is an okay horror thriller that becomes much more noteworthy for its bombastic ending.

In the last moments of the film, it is revealed that split is a stealth sequel to Shyamalan’s earlier film Unbreakable, In which a criminal with a rare condition rendering his physical body weak, Mr. Glass, comes into contact with David Dunn, a man with latent super strength. Then reappears in a cameo at the end of split, Connecting the two films into a shared universe that would be further explored in the sequel, Glass. Even if the idea of ​​a Shyamalan superhero universe isn’t great, split Unforgettable final reveal after colors it favored in memory.

6

Death proof

Don’t fire on all cylinders until later

Released as part of the double feature Greenhouse Along with Robert Rodriguez Planet Terror, Death Proof is Tarantino’s take on a slasher movie. Rather than wield a knife, the film’s horror villain stuntman Mike, played by Kurt Russell, uses a “death proof” stunt car as his weapon of choice, running down hapless victims in a spree of vehicular manslaughter.

As exciting as the premise sounds, The majority of the film unfortunately suffers from pacing issuesWith stuntman Mike’s victims being few and far between. It’s only in the last third of the film that things really come online with a real exciting car chase, as stuntman Mike relentlessly pursues his latest batch of targets.

The satisfying final sequence ends with Mike’s would-be victims turning the tables on himChasing him down with their own car, only to drag him off the wagon for further punishment. It’s quite the oversight of expectations to see a slasher movie villain suddenly get his composure, but the welcome change of pace for the genre is par for the course for Tarantino’s revenge-exploitation sensibilities.

5

Identity

Typical horror tropes saved by a dramatic ending

Riding the fine line between mystery thriller and outright horror, Identity Was nothing impressive before the big reveal of its twist ending. Taking inspiration from Agatha Christie’s classic Whodunit And then there were none, The film establishes a similar premise, following ten strangers sharing an isolated hotel in remote rural Nevada. Before long, they begin to be picked off one by one, prompting a hasty search for the culprit before there is no one left alive.

Identity Pulls a similar trick to split, Relying on a villain with dissociative identity disorder to sow confusion in the cast. Along the way, the film falls prey to many tropes in both horror movies and murder mysteries that don’t do it any favors, with particularly stupid decisions being made by many of the characters. But, the end Discover that the killer is actually the most unsuspecting victimThe young boy, Timmy, is a fantastic soccer player who more than makes up for it Identitys previous defects.

4

Scanners

Goes all-out in a sudden burst of energy at the end

One of the works of David Cronenberg, famous for his body horror scenes, Scanners is a decidedly uneven viewing experience. The film centers around the prospect of the titular “scanners”, people with rare psychic abilities. When a weapons manufacturer begins to acquire various scanners for their nefarious purposes, a single psychic wages war against them.

This prompts the company, ConSec, to release their own scanner on-retain as a response, leading to a paralyzing war for supremacy. While Scanners‘ Head-explosion scenes are still well-remembered, the story itself takes a long time to go, with a gradual, plodding pace that takes a long time for the war between ConSec and the rebel Revok to come to fruition.

The film suddenly picks up towards the ending, in which it is revealed that Revok and the protagonist, Cameron, are estranged brothers, made into the most powerful scanners ever thanks to the tampering of their father. The two engage in a deadly telepathic duel, saving the movie’s methodical pace A brilliant spectacular finale.

3

The vanishing

Relies on his ending to be effective

Sometimes, horror movies aren’t so much made up for by their ending as much as they rely on their final moments to properly convey their themes and terror. The vanishing is a prime example of this, a Dutch psychological thriller with a downer ending indicative of its overall theme of despair. The movie centers around a young couple, Rex and SaskiaTraveling to France on a vacation.

Their holiday soon turns into a nightmare for Rex when Saskia suddenly disappears from his sight, leading him to fall into the depths of despair in search of answers. in early The vanishing Makes no mystery out of the culprit behind Saskia’s disappearance, explaining the motives of the psychopathic Raymond in-depth.

In the final moments of the film, Raymond contacts Rex and offers to reveal the truth, leading to Rex’s search for answers that leaves him buried alive, just like his lover. This Brutally depressing conclusion is paramount to the entire film experience, and The vanishing Wouldn’t be nearly as impressive without it.

2

Live

Takes its horror to another level as its runtime depletes

Most likely, 2017 Live Stands as a decent combination of a rip-off of Alien and John Carpenter’s The thing. The science fiction horror feature Revolves around the discovery of an alien form of life Which was delivered to the International Space Station by an unmanned probe, nicknamed “Calvin” by a naming contest back on Earth. While Calvin begins life as a simple biological oddity, it soon evolves and balloons out of control, brutalizing the workforce of the claustrophobic space station.

Live Borrows heavily from its obvious inspirations, presenting unoriginal ideas like alien infections and creatures hiding in the vents of a spaceship. That said, the final gambit by the survivors of Calvin’s wrath makes for a deliciously horrifying predicament. The astronauts attempt to trap Calvin in one escape pod and launch him into space while returning to Earth in the other, only for the situation to be switched, with the lonely, screaming Miranda sent hurtling into oblivion while Calvin ends up on Earth, ready to Continue his break.

1

The human race

Goes from funny to spectacular in the last minute

A rarely seen gem of the 2010s, The human race is an odd film with a completely unpredictable ending that makes up for its many weaknesses. The movie goes A group of eighty strangers who suddenly wake up in a strange institutional realmTold by a disembodied voice that they must race one another to the death, instantly dying if they step on the grass or are lapped twice by another person.

Sure enough, disobeying the magical rules causes the abductees’ heads to explode, prompting a desperate bid to be the last one standing. In the end, the only survivor of the battle royal is the one-legged Eddie, who survives a desperate attempt by another racer to push him into the grass by balancing on his crutches.

Winning the race, Eddie is congratulated, only to be told that he will advance in another contest, this time against a flying alien creature. Eddie steps into his neck, pretending to be An incredibly cool ending To an otherwise awkward and unfocused science fiction survivalist Horror Movie.