Worst Endings
 

Hi All,

As an avid horror film fan, there is nothing more frustrating than when the film-makers completely screw up the end of the film. I have recently watched several films that I've been really enjoying and then comes a ridiculous ending that pretty much ruins the entire experience.

What are everyone's worst endings to horror films (as spoiler-free as possible)?

Mine would be:

The Last Exorcism (I found the vast majority of this film to be surprisingly entertaining, creepy and well acted, but then along comes an ending that is a completely different tone to the rest of the film and looks cut and pasted onto the end from a different movie)

Insidious (started so promisingly for me - genuinely scary and a cool idea, but then we are shown too much, and what we see is not as scary as it should have been, and the pacing seemed to be off, leaving a very poor, disappointing final act, in my opinion).

White Noise (shows way too much and doesn't work as the rest of the film did)

I hated the way Bug ended. It negated the entire rest of the movie, IMO.

Haute Tension ......made no sense

That was my original reaction, but after giving in to the idea that [SPOILER] it was all in her head [/SPOILER], I was able to justify pretty much everything, and still say I loved what was a pretty intense movie. I'd like to watch it again now that I know the ending.

I haven't yet seen Bug but had previously heard very good things, mainly from the critic Mark Kermode, is it worth a watch in people's opinions?

The village - Even know it was unique and unsuspecting it ruined it for me.

Hide and Seek - Movie wasn't really that good but the ending made it ten times worse

Intruders - Ending made more questions then answers.

The Mist: Done differently it could have been great but i didnt like the way they went about it. He jumped to that decision way too fast for me.

The Devil Inside: Abrupt, confusing, and ends right when the movie is starting to get interesting

This is actually a great topic as bad endings seriously grind my gears - Pretty much the ones that bother me the most have already been said...


Haute Tension - It felt like a ridiculously cheap cop-out for me that was absolutely unnecessary. I hate unnecessary "twists;" would have served as a straight-out serial killer/slasher film (because those bits were fantastic).

Also agree with:

I found the ending to Last Exorcism to be just such a big letdown... I mean, it made sense, and tried to tie things together, but it fizzled.

And Insidious is 1/3 phenomenal and 2/3 awful - Can't believe how poorly it went after it started out so strong.

Also agree with:


HAHAHAHAHAHA - TOTALLY agree about The Mist. I found the end actually kinda laughable... WE HAVE BEEN ON THE ROAD FOR TWO MINUTES THERE IS NO OTHER WAY... Have you read the novella? It was really really good. After reading the story, the movie just sucks even more.

Agree absolutely with Devil Inside, and a lot of reviewers were saying that as well - Just started to pick up and get awesome aaaaaaaaand - Guess they ran out of money?


The Deaths of Ian Stone: Man, here's one that was 2/3 phenomenal and 1/3 awful - The end was just so so silly - It's a shame because it could have been fantastic. All I could think of was Ghost of Fabio Fighting for the Right

Tale of Two Sisters: Aggg! Again with another lame "twist"

How about the ending of this season's American Horror Story? Just found it a huge letdown...


That's it for now; I'll probably think of more later...

Of the ones mentioned so far, my least favourite endings are: The Devil Inside and Haute Tension. Didn't like the endings for The Mist or Insidious either, but I mostly hated both those movies anyway so it wasnt much of a let down.

Besides that, pretty much any 'it was all a dream' or 'it was me all along' style endings suck unless they're done really well. A few of my most hated include:

Secret Window
The Number 23
Hide and Seek

Some of the saw movies were very stale and predictable. Cant remember which one but i knew from the start what the outcome would be. For a movie that relies on twists it was not very good.