from Terrible 3 tone Dawn of the Dead To John Carpenter thingFew of the scariest horror movies ever ended on a hauntingly ambiguous note. A cliffhanger ending can serve several dramatic purposes. In the horror genre, the most common function of a cliffhanger is to leave the audience suitably unsettled as they leave the theater. After searching, it is known that Sara is still trapped in the cave at the end The Descent Or David finally switched places with Walter Alien: CovenantThe audience is deeply disturbed.
A certain ending has a sense of comfort and closure, like Sally running away from Leatherface at the end Texas saw chain carnage Or Chris finally being saved by his best friend get out. It’s like an ambiguous ending that’s too uncomfortable to get some closure bright the gold the bird. Cliffhanger endings can serve other purposes as well; They can set up a sequel, eg Evil Dead IIIts time travel twist or Terrible 3Portal to hell. Some of the best horror movies end on hair-raising cliffhangers.
10 Terrible 3
Its final task Terrible 3 Avenging Angel sees Sienna Shock confront Art the Clown and his latest sidekick, Victoria. Sienna manages to behead Victoria, but this has a fatal effect: Victoria’s blood burns on the floor and opens a portal to Hell. Sienna’s younger cousin Gabby falls into the portal and takes Sienna’s magical sword with her. Before the credits roll, Sienna promises to find him and save him.
This cliffhanger sets up a great story for what’s to come Terrible 4. Sienna has always been a cross between a final girl and a full-fledged superhero, and its cliffhanger ending. Terrible 3 Set up his most daring adventure to date. Terrible 4 Sees him fighting the minions of Satan in Hell to save his cousin who is watching over him.
9 Alien: Covenant
Ridley Scott’s second the alien prequel, Alien: CovenantA space crew answers a distress signal and finds they get more than they bargained for. Their benevolent android, Walter, clashes with David, its malevolent AI Prometheus Those who want to wipe out humanity. At the end of the movie, when the Xenomorphs have been killed and David seemingly defeated, Walter watches the survivors go into their cryosleep chambers. But as they drift off, they realize it’s not really Walter – it’s David. He switched places with Walter as part of his diabolical plan.
It sets up a cool storyline for a third the alien A prequel that, sadly, was never made. It’s a spooky twist in itself, with some really scary effects, but Michael Fassbender really sells it with a creepy smile. Based on those laughs alone, the audience deduces just as much disgust as the surviving crew members.
8 28 weeks later
28 weeks later Covers the zombie apocalypse on a much larger scale than its predecessor, 28 days later. 28 days later Shows the apocalypse through the eyes of a survivor, and that survivor wasn’t even around for the initial outbreak. 28 weeks later A wide ensemble cast shows the zombie uprising from multiple different perspectives. The finale sets up an even bigger scale for the sequel, as the survivors cross the English Channel to France – only to find the virus has spread there as well.
It’s an incredibly dark and depressing ending. After London is destroyed by zombie attacks and firebombing, the only shred of hope is that the rest of the world is okay. When they arrived in France to find that the virus had reached continental Europe, that hope was dashed. There is no escape from this virus.
7 It follows
By David Robert Mitchell It follows A poignant horror metaphor for the dangers of STDs. It revolves around a parasitic entity that relentlessly follows whoever it attaches to, never giving them a second to rest, and it is passed on to the young through sexual contact. At the end of the movie, Joy’s friend Paul offers to receive the parasite by having sex with her, then Paul is seen considering hiring a sex worker. But as Jay and Paul walk through town holding hands, a mysterious figure follows them.
It could have been a completely harmless ending. Maybe Paul gave the parasite to a sex worker, he and Jay became a happy couple, and the person walking behind them was just a person walking behind them. But it’s equally possible that Paul couldn’t take the parasite to another innocent soul and was simply accepting his dire fate and allowing the entity to get him.
6 Evil Dead II
Sam Raimi Evil Dead II It’s basically a zanier remake of its predecessor with a lot more slapstick humor, but its cliffhanger ending introduces more consistent elements to the franchise. After attaching a chainsaw to his severed arm and cutting off the barrel of his shotgun, Ash Williams manages to beat the undead out of the cabin. And then he and his Oldsmobile Delta 88 are sucked through a time vortex and transported to the Middle Ages.
Like a cliffhanger ending Terrible 3 And Alien: CovenantIt was intended to set up a sequel. It is led forces of darknessThe triquel that sees Ash fighting demons while trying to travel back to his own time in 1300 AD. Evil Dead IIIts time travel twist provided a suitably bonkers ending to one of the most bonkers movies ever made.
5 the bird
Alfred Hitchcock’s timeless gem characters after surviving the night the bird Decided to leave town to try their chances elsewhere. They hear on the radio that the birds have attacked other nearby communities and the military is considering an intervention. As they quietly approach their cars and drive away, the birds – who mindlessly attack humans all day and night – quietly gather around the property, staring at them ominously.
The lack of any sort of explanation in this cliffhanger ending makes it even more unsettling. Either way, birds that don’t attack anyone but seem like they might at any second are much scarier than birds that just randomly attack people. It is unclear why the birds are so still – perhaps they are asserting their dominance over humanity as humans cower in fear around them.
4 Dawn of the Dead
George A. Romero’s second zombie movie, Dawn of the DeadA biting satire of consumerism about a group of survivors who hole up in an abandoned shopping mall. At the end of the movie, the remaining survivors fight their way to the roof of the mall, board the helicopter and take off. They make it out of the zombie-infested mall, but they’re low on fuel and their fate is uncertain.
The beauty of this cliffhanger ending is whether it’s dark or optimistic is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe they’ll run out of fuel and crash, or they’ll land somewhere that’s similarly littered with dead and devoured immediately. But it’s just as possible that they’ll find a safe haven away from the zombie menace and start a new life.
3 The Descent
American audiences found Neil Marshall’s ending much happier The DescentWhere Sarah escapes the cave and gets away from the bloodthirsty mutants that live inside. The original ending is much more ominous. Sarah exits the cave, gets back in her car, and runs out of the woods. But it turns out this was all an extended hallucination. He couldn’t really escape the cave; He’s still trapped there, surrounded by the terrifying sounds of mutants trying to sniff him out.
The ending is similar to “An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge”, where a character on the gallows is shocked to realize that he had imagined his escape and going home within seconds of breaking his neck. In both cases, the happy ending was in the protagonist’s head as they tried to mentally escape from their dark reality. Needless to say, it is not easy to sleep after watching this movie.
2 bright
Stanley Kubrick has an apparent sense of closure at the end bright. Wendy and Danny manage to escape Jack’s wrath and escape on a snowcat. As Jack thrashes around in the blizzard, he eventually becomes exhausted, falls to the ground, and freezes to death. It appears to be a happy ending where the heroes escape and the villains are punished. And then Kubrick took an old black-and-white photo of a Fourth of July ball in 1921, with Jack standing in front of a crowd of partygoers.
It calls the whole movie into question. The story of a desperate suburban father losing his mind in extreme isolation and trying to kill his wife and son suddenly becomes much more complex. Was Jack reincarnated or is he suffering in this hotel all the time? bright It leaves the audience with so many unanswered questions that it deeply disturbs them.
1 thing
At the end of John Carpenter thingMacReady and Childs manage to kill the pesky alien entity by detonating the station. But as they settle down, they realize the futility of their situation. They have no way of knowing if any of them have already been assimilated by the entity. And even if none of them get together, they will probably sink to death before being rescued. So, they decide to just split a bottle of Scotch whiskey and wait for death.
thing A subtly nihilistic movie about how quickly humanity can be completely destroyed. This cliffhanger ending hammers home the nihilism because, even after triumphing over the aliens, the characters still have no hope of survival. like Dawn of the Deadits end thing It leaves it up to the audience to decide whether to be optimistic (but being optimistic about this ending requires a lot of mental gymnastics).