Gloomy, sad or bleak movie endings

[Baron Von Marlon]

Been thinking about this again lately after watching Damien (The Omen tv series). So time for a topic.

There are two main examples I'd like to use. If you've seen them, you know what I mean.
If you haven't, sorry but you should've seen those movies by now.

One's the one with the number and the box.
The other one's based on a Stephen King book.

What are your thoughts and opinions?

Personally I think a "bad" ending is often more suitable, more memorable, a lot more powerful and especially more interesting. And I'm not talking about simple endings where the monsters pops up one more time before the screen cuts to the credits. I'm talking about those clever ones like in the examples.
And something that pisses me off is when there's this all powerful, great, ancient evil whatever and it can be killed in a conventional way. I'm talking about you Evil Dead remake.

[darkdetective]

I also love really bleak/dark endings.
The two you mention are two of my favourites.

I think, when you watch a horror film or thriller where everything gets wrapped up at the end, the good guy lives - bad guy dies, these endings are less memorable and interesting. They lack impact.

The jump scare, return of bad guy at last second endings are just terrible sequel bait endings to give the audience a little jolt at the end. These endings aren't stimulating on an intellectual level, just a reactionary one.

BOO- Ahh, you scared me.. what's for lunch?

The endings that are truly memorable are the ones that make you think or leave you in shock.

dark/bleak ending then fade to black - I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY DID THAT, what happens next? Why did the one guy do that one thing? What's in the box???

These endings are more interesting, you could have a whole conversation about the ending afterwards.

Also, in terms of horror movies: what's more scary than a bad guy winning and there's nothing you can do about it?

A couple of endings I like are:

The one will the girls in the cave.
The one with the pregnant woman INSIDE the house.
The one that was recently remade badly.

[ferretchucker]

For the most part I'm a fan of bleak endings. I think they can serve a very important purpose in a lot of films - mostly to remind us that the world is essentially a pretty unforgiving place. In horror they work very well for reminding us of our overall mortality. One of the most powerful examples for me has to be Requiem for a Dream. Absolutely heartbreaking, and a happy ending simply would not have fit in with the subject matter.

That being said, I don't always like them being used. While I'm struggling to think of an example off the top of my head, sometimes they can feel shoehorned in and just a little off-kilter. Occasionally you need that cathartic pay-off and rather than being a shocking reminder that sometimes you lose, a sad ending can just be a flat anti-climax.

Furthermore, I'd argue that there are some seemingly bleak endings which are actually not too sad when you take them in - often hero self sacrifice. Films in which a hero willingly accepts and makes peace with their death aren't particularly bleak because the protagonist accepts the outcome. Alien 3 would be an example of this - the peace with which Ripley welcomes death almost makes this a happy ending if anything.

[Sculpt]

I agree, sometimes the bleak/sad ending fits the film, and sometimes not. I don't like bleak all the time.

Some effective, appropriate, practically bleak/sad endings: (in white txt, highlight to see)

The Thing 82
The Fly 86 & 58
Evil Dead 2
Se7en
Incredible Shrinking Man
Empire Strikes Back
The Prestige
Fellowship of the Rings

[Angra]

I prefer happy endings.


And now we play the waiting game.. ::roll eyes::

[roshiq]

I actually LOVE bleak, sad or shocking ending more if they can put it through a reasonable scenario and sometime remind us about the uncertain, raw & unpredictable nature or chain of events of real life human conditions and incidents.

Some of my favorites (as quickly I can recall at this moment) are:

Bicycle Thieves
Requiem for a Dream
Se7en
Oldboy
Eden Lake
The Orphanage
Wolf Creek
Grave of the Fireflies

[DeadbeatAtDawn]

Lilja 4-Ever

@ Suicide Room

Mandragora

[ferretchucker]

Interesting that Rosemary's Baby and The Omen - the two biggest Satan spawn movies - both end with bleak endings. We really do have no hope against little Damian.

Perhaps the most depressingly bleak and hopeless for me is the ending to The Beyond. Haunted me for the longest time, I still can't think of much worse than their fates.

I'd say all of the above are very good examples of bleak endings - hopelessness is a very powerful feeling, and that lasting dread that it leaves undercuts the more primal fears of shock and repulsion by an awful lot.

[Repo'd]

Horror lends itself to bleak and gloomy.

Lovely Molly
Felt
Rabid
May
The Devils
Fade to Black

[Baron Von Marlon]

Guess we all agree that sometimes it's better and more suitable.

That being said, how about movies main character is the bad guy.
Like Maniac.

[ImmortalSlasher]

I think it depends on the feel and tone of the movie. If the two examples in the opening are Seven and The Mist those are good examples of setting a dark and foreboding tone. John Carpenter is also very good at that in his End of the World movies.

I personally hate it when a bad ending is for shock value though. I can't remember the movie, I guess it was pretty bad. But a character gets shot, I think in the face. It might have even been a female character. And I felt bad because it happened to a girl. And it was more for shock. More a look what happens and life is unfair and dangerous sort of thing. But the whole time the movie's tone wasn't like that. If anyone remembers this movie let me know. Now I'm trying to remember what movie it was.

[Roiffalo]

(This is going to be a bit off topic but I swear it's related.)

Situation pending it can be a good thing or a bad thing. Two examples I can think of are Evil Dead when it had an ending with a bit of shock value, and Mexican Werewolf in Texas (you can insert any terrible B movie here really though) which also had a jump scare.

Evil Dead it was fitting and approved of by audiences, and whenever anyone plays the attacking camera bit at the end of the movie people automatically get pissed off and accuse the film of ripping off Evil Dead. What makes Evil Dead fitting though? It's an 80s film with campy effects and one guy against constant evil, rarely giving the movie a minute to breathe once shit hits the fan. I think the lack of hacking things to pieces is what makes the final attack so effective. Really what was left to attack after all that? It puts you on the edge of your seat and makes you crave more.

Where Mexican Werewolf in Texas and its equal crap counterparts do so poorly at trying to create a scare, using bad effects and no build up to try and make you jump. One cannot fear jump scares alone though. The movie's final attempt at trying to scare its audience is just that. A lousy jump scare. Giving a horror movie a sudden bleak ending with an unexplained attack does not make it scary and thus a good horror movie. If you're going to make the movie any good at this point you might as well let the characters live. It'd be more unexpected and less whoring yourself out to try and be spooky.

That said bleak, gloomy, sad, etc endings only benefit the movie if it furthers the story. It wants to leave an impact with the audience, something that will make them talk about it for hours after words and recommend it to their friends just so they can understand why it was such a powerful film.

It can also be argued that certain genres of horror would be better fitted with a tragic ending. Horror comedy for example prooooobably wouldn't be a good one. That kind of movie wants to leave a humorous impact and killing everyone off would just leave a hollow impact. Drama would certainly work. Thriller could go either way. It's really about knowing what audience you're trying to entertain and story you're trying to do it with.

[jburning]

I love bleak endings, but it sort of depends on the context. John Carpenter's The Thing is my favorite bleak ending ever. Other well-done bits of nihilism include Requiem for a Dream, The Fly, Found, The Poughkeepsie Tapes, etc.

Then there are some films that are so bleak that they make me feel icky afterwards, like A Serbian Film and Salo.

[Ferox13]

I love Lovecraftian Horror, so happy cute endings are a must for me.

[Anthropophagus]

I love bleak and depressing endings.

The Mist
Se7en
The Road
Oldboy
Planet of the Apes.(original of course)
Wicker Man
The Vanishing
Funny Games

[1890 Media]

Just wanted to chime in and say another bleak ending I enjoyed was Session 9. The whole last line of the movie leans toward Satan. I think Orphanage and May were good examples as well.

[MightyKat]

The sort of ending a movie "should" have will obviously depend on the particular story in question. I'm a big fan of tragedies and bleak endings, but I also find it cheap when movies tack on a "just kidding! The monster was still alive the whole time!" moment in the final seconds of the movie. It just seems lazy and unplanned.

Whether it's "bleak" or not, I prefer an ending that's ambiguous. If something "doesn't sit quite right" at the end of the movie, I'm more likely to reflect on it long after the movie is over. (Of course, a movie that just does a bad job telling its story to a point where it's confusing wouldn't fit in this satisfyingly ambiguous category)