Top 10 WTF Endings in Horror Movies

One of the great things about horror is that when you go into a scary movie, you know it could have either a happy ending or a horrible ending. After giving us plenty of creature-feature action, “The Descent” plays with this expectation. Having left Juno to die, Sarah falls further down the cave before seeing a miraculous ray of light. Following it, she escapes the cave with an intake of air. Triumphant music swells as the desperate heroine locates her car and drives away, before pulling over to break down. But with a single jump scare, all hope is dashed away as it’s revealed Sarah is actually still trapped in the cave, unlikely to survive.

When Josh goes missing, Mike and Heather begin to descend into hysteria. All signs point to the Blair Witch being very real and tormenting the teens. Despite this, Heather and Mike decide to follow Josh’s screams to a dilapidated house. The ghastly final moments of the film indicate that they’ve walked directly into the clutches of... something. Mike drops his camera in the basement and Heather, letting out some shudder-inducing screams, locates him facing a corner. She drops the camera and... cut to black. Although this is a throwback to an earlier story in the movie about children being murdered after being forced in the corner, is that really what happened?

After an encounter with the witch in the barn, Thomasin awakens with bloodied hands, the twins nowhere to be found, and the farm in disarray. The strange goat Black Phillip gores William with his horn, causing Katherine to believe that Thomasin is the witch. They struggle, with Thomasin ultimately forced to kill her own mother. With no other options, Thomasin conjures Black Phillip to speak to her. A figure emerges and she agrees to sign a contract in exchange for living “deliciously.” Thomasin proceeds to a bonfire where naked witches chant incantations, and she rises into the air, laughing. It’s a haunting movie with an equally haunting ending that sticks with you.

Sometimes endings don’t make sense at first, but become strokes of genius upon revisiting them. Such is the ending to “The Babadook.” After the titular villain possesses Amelia, Sam is finally able to bring her back by proving how much he loves her. It attempts to weaken her again by appealing to her despair at the loss of her husband, but she overcomes it and forces the creature into the basement. Later, Amelia and Sam have repaired their relationship, and she’s seen feeding the tamed Babadook in the basement. At first glance, the ending is strange. But upon learning that the Babadook is a representation of grief, it makes this frightening film much more meaningful.

Every holiday needs a horror film centered around it, and this one has the perfect twist for its particular holiday. After discovering that Muffy has actually been her evil twin sister Buffy the entire weekend, they flee from her. Kit pleads for her life before running into the living room and discovering that all her friends that she thought dead were still very much alive. All prior events in the film had been staged in an elaborate rehearsal for a whodunit getaway that Muffy planned on opening. It’s a cruel prank, but Nan gets her back for it by pretending to slit her throat in the final scene.

We spend the majority of the film sympathizing with Angela, who is ruthlessly bullied due to her introverted nature. When the grisly deaths start to pile up, Ricky is suspected as the killer for his protective nature over her. One chaotic night brings about several deaths, and Angela and Paul decide to go skinny-dipping, naturally. When Ronnie and Susie finally locate them, we’re given one of the most shocking twists in the entire slasher genre. Angela, who has decapitated Paul, was actually born Peter, but raised as a girl by her eccentric aunt. Try as you might, you’re not going to forget that horrific noise she makes as the film comes to a close.

When a group of Him’s fans intrude on their house, Mother begins to get annoyed. That annoyance becomes rage and fear as their behaviour becomes more bizarre. Mother and Him are able to escape to Him’s office where she gives birth. Him takes the baby to his followers, who... cannibalize the child. As revenge, Mother blows up the house, with herself and Him inside, killing everyone but them. Him removes the heart from Mother’s burnt body, finds a crystal inside, and places it on a pedestal, creating a new house and a new Mother. It was a controversial ending, and its meaning is up for debate. Regardless, we all had the same three-word reaction.

You know the drill. A bunch of teenagers go to a cabin in the woods, zombies or whatever attack, yadda yadda. Well, this movie shook up that formula a bit with its gonzo final act. Survivors Dana and Marty descend into the underground facility, which has been controlling the events up to that point. In one of the most insane horror scenes of the decade, they release a plethora of monsters into the facility, killing everyone. Eventually, The Director confronts them and explains that these violent deaths are a ritual to satisfy the Ancient Ones. Dana and Marty allow the ritual to fail, and the evil gods are not happy about it.

The most effective horror movies find horror through emotion. Though David, Dan, Amanda, Billy, and Irene are able to escape the supermarket, they are thrust into the mist, full of horrific deadly creatures that have destroyed nearly everything. Believing there is no hope, they decide to allow David to kill them peacefully, so they don’t have to live through the horrible deaths their comrades have. David kills his friends and, out of bullets, goes into the mist to die. But just then, the army arrives, rescuing survivors. David then realizes that he needlessly killed his colleagues, including his son. We were expecting a horrific ending, but this is something else.

“Hereditary” masterfully rewards patience by slowly building toward its horrifying finale. Annie thinks that by burning Charlie’s sketchbook, she’ll expel the demon in her home. Instead, it causes her husband to combust, allowing the demon Paimon to possess her. She chases her son, Peter, into the attic, where we see the terrifying shot of Annie sawing her own head off. Peter jumps out the window before awakening, clicking his tongue, and following his mother’s headless corpse into the treehouse. Joan informs him that he is now the human host for Paimon, who previously lived in Charlie. The scene bleeds horror, from Annie banging her head on the ceiling to a ritual revolving around decapitation.