Warning: SPOILERS ahead for all the movies mentioned in this article.The horror genre continues to terrify audiences with great sequels like Smile 2, and new, original movies such as the Hugh Grant thriller Heretic. It’s a genre that has consistently provided audiences with moments of pure terror, by either introducing new characters like Art the Clown in the Terrifier series, or with wildly inventive body horror films like Coralie Fargaet’s The Substance. However, many horror movies are iconic because of their shocking endings.
The Substance’s ending is a great example of a modern film with a sick, gruesome final act that lingers long in the memory. What’s so great about it, is that it isn’t just done for shock value. The scene is a great culmination of the protagonist’s journey, and is a great way to close the movie’s narrative. The movie joins a long list in the horror genre, of films that have endings so memorable, and shocking, that they have haunted audiences long after the movie has finished.
10 Funny Games (2007)
Directed By Michael Haneke
Austrian director Michael Haneke made Funny Games in 1997 with a relatively unknown cast. However, after deciding it would work for a more mainstream audience, he gathered a more well-known cast, and directed a shot-for-shot remake of his own movie in 2007, starring Tim Roth and Naomi Watts.
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The plot centers on a couple of young men, Peter and Paul, who decide to torment Roth and Watts’ family, first by killing their dog, then turning on them. With most movies like Funny Games, the general audience expectation would be to wait until the sadistic antagonists get the comeuppance they deserve.
A wealthy couple enjoy the start of their vacation with their son in a house by a lake. Shortly after arriving, they are approached by two threatening young men who take the family hostage, subjecting them to a game of perversion and violence.
- Director
- Michael Haneke
- Release Date
- October 20, 2007
- Cast
- Naomi Watts , Tim Roth , Michael Pitt , Brady Corbet , Devon Gearhart , Boyd Gaines
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
However, director Haneke has other, more twisted ideas. The movie ends with the two men successfully killing the entire family before moving on to their next victims. Paul’s fourth-wall breaking smirk at the end is chilling.
9 The Substance (2024)
Directed By Coralie Fargaet
One of the most surging horror movies of 2024, The Substance is a superbly original, and graphic story about fading celebrity, and the lengths people go to, to cling onto fame. Demi Moore provided one of the best performances of her career as the movie’s protagonist, Elisabeth, who takes a black market drug that creates a younger version of herself.
Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading celebrity, turns to a mysterious drug that promises to restore her youth by creating a younger, more beautiful version of herself. But splitting time between her original and new body leads to horrifying consequences as her alternate self, Sue, begins to unravel her life in a disturbing body-horror descent.
- Director
- Coralie Fargeat
- Release Date
- September 20, 2024
- Cast
- Demi Moore , Margaret Qualley , Dennis Quaid , Gore Abrams , Hugo Diego Garcia , Olivier Raynal , Tiffany Hofstetter , Tom Morton , Jiselle Burkhalter , Axel Baille , Oscar Lesage , Matthew Géczy , Philip Schurer
- Runtime
- 140 Minutes
Coralie Fargaet’s wonderfully disturbing horror movie kicks into gear once Elisabeth uses the drug. The scene when her younger self, Sue, is ‘born’ from a slit in Elisabeth’s back is gruesome, but it’s the movie’s ending that leaves a lasting impression. Elisabeth uses the serum one last time, resulting in a grotesque hybrid of herself and Sue, and the sight of her detached face crawling onto her Hollywood Walk of Fame star is incredibly disturbing.
8 Titane (2021)
Directed By Julia Ducournau
This movie was so graphic and disturbing, that reports from its early screening said that Titane made people faint in movie theaters. When you consider the film’s premise, and reassess its most extreme sequences, it’s not hard to see why. Titane was directed by Julia Ducournau, who also brought the equally sick horror movie, Raw, to screens in 2016.
Titane is a French horror drama directed by Julia Ducournau. Agathe Rousselle stars as Alexia, a woman with a titanium plate in her head who leads a violent and unconventional life.
- Director
- Julia Ducournau
- Release Date
- October 1, 2021
- Cast
- Garance Marillier , Agathe Rousselle , Vincent Lindon , Laïs Salameh
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
Ducournau’s movies have a wonderful sense of the absurd, and she fills her narratives with a mix of body horror, and psychological trauma. This is definitely the case in Titane. The main character, Alexia, is impregnated by a car, resulting in a series of disgusting changes to her body, and substances begin to drip from her orifices. The ending, in which Alexia gives birth to a baby with titanium plating, is gruesome, especially when her skull splits open during a final push.
7 Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (1986)
Directed By John McNaughton
Michael Rooker is undoubtedly best known for playing the grumpy, but loveable, Yondu, in Guardians of the Galaxy. However, it was the 1986 serial killer horror, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, that brought him to the attention of Hollywood.
The movie features a killer based on a real person, which makes the movie’s events even more shocking, plus it has an incredibly downbeat, hopeless ending that will stay with you forever. The movie has a reputation for being traumatic to sit through, and although it features some brutal moments, nothing comes close to the final devastating moments.
Drifter Henry teams up with fellow ex-con Otis for a series of brutal, random murders. As they descend deeper into violence, Otis’ sister Becky becomes entangled in their dark world. The film offers a stark, unflinching portrayal of a serial killer’s psyche and the disturbing impact on those around him.
- Director
- John McNaughton
- Release Date
- January 5, 1990
- Cast
- Michael Rooker , Tracy Arnold , Tom Towles , Mary Demas
- Runtime
- 83 minutes
After dumping a mutilated body in a river, Henry and Becky check into a hotel room for the night. After declaring her love for Henry, and him reciprocating in a less than genuine way, he leaves the hotel alone the next day. While it’s not visually horrendous, the fact that he dumps her blood-stained suitcase in a ditch is genuinely chilling.
6 The Wicker Man (1973)
Directed By Robin Hardy
Robin Hardy’s 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man is highly memorable for many reasons, and features an ending so bleak that it has haunted audiences for decades. The movie follows Edward Woodwards’ police officer, Sergeant Howie, as he investigates the case of a missing girl on a remote Scottish island.
The film is genuinely creepy, and the ending is a horrific culmination of the Policeman’s fateful trip to the island.
The movie expertly sets the tense, and unnerving narrative, with a series of increasingly odd confrontations. The people living in the village are less than keen to have Sergeant Howie poking his nose into their business, and before long, the devout Christian police officer suspects all is not what it seems with the locals.
The Wicker Man is a horror film released in 1973 and follows Police Sergeant Neil Howie, who heads to an island on the coast of Scottland in search of a missing girl. Howie discovers that the disappearance is related to a pagan society that conflicts with his Christian values – but his continued search leads him to the heart of something sinister.
- Director
- Robin Hardy
- Release Date
- December 6, 1973
- Cast
- Diane Cilento , Britt Ekland , Edward Woodward , Ingrid Pitt , Christopher Lee
- Runtime
- 88 minutes
Sure enough, a cult emerges that eventually engulfs Howie in the most horrific way, as he’s sacrificed to the Wicker Man, being burned to death in the process. The film is genuinely creepy, and the ending is a horrific culmination of the Policeman’s fateful trip to the island.
5 The Descent (2005)
Directed By Neil Marshall
One of the most effective tropes in the horror genre is the jump scare. When handled correctly, they are a wonderful way to scare audiences, delivering a brutal jolt in the process. When done badly, they come off as a cheap way to elicit a reaction from the viewer.
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However, one movie that not only offered an incredibly bleak ending, but also managed several great jump scares throughout, was 2002’s The Descent. Directed by the UK-born Neil Marshall, The Descent is one of the creepiest horror movies of all time.
The Descent is a horror film that follows a group of thrill-seeking friends who find themselves fractured after one of them loses their husband and daughter in a car accident. Attempting to rejuvenate her friend Sarah and bring her back to the group, Juno convinces her to follow her and their friends to a mysterious cave system they find in the mountains. However, when they find themselves traped with no way out, she reveals she took them to an uncharted region with no chance of rescue, hoping to give them the adventure of the life time. Angry, fearful, and low on supplies, the group travels further into the caves only to discover they’re not alone.
- Director
- Neil Marshall
- Release Date
- August 4, 2006
- Cast
- Shauna Macdonald , Saskia Mulder , Alex Reid , Natalie Mendoza , MyAnna Buring , Nora-Jane Noone
- Runtime
- 99 minutes
It also subverted genre expectations by having an all-female cast, full of tough women who go on a caving expedition from hell. The movie’s cave-dwelling monsters are great, but its final scene where the audience thinks that the main protagonist, Sarah, has escaped is gut-wrenching. In reality, she’s still stuck in the cave while the monsters close in for the kill.
4 Psycho (1960)
Directed By Alfred Hitchcock
When Psycho was released in cinemas in 1960, there were reports of the movie causing audience members to hyperventilate, and the police were called in to help with the mass cases of fainting. The movie shocked audiences by killing off its main star early on, in one of horror’s most iconic death scenes.
However, it’s the film’s ending that proves to be more shocking. The masterstroke by Hitchcock in the movie was by casting Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Perkins had previously been known for playing likable characters, so when it’s revealed that he’s the movie’s killer, it came as a huge shock to audiences.
In this now-iconic Alfred Hitchcock thriller, a secretary embezzles forty thousand dollars from her employer’s client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel. The place is run by a young man under the domination of his mother — and he soon turns out to be far more threatening than he appeared at first.
- Release Date
- September 8, 1960
- Cast
- Janet Leigh , Martin Balsam , Anthony Perkins , John Gavin , Vera Miles
- Runtime
- 109 minutes
Norman’s “mother” is who everybody thought was the person who stabbed Janey Leigh’s Marion Crane in the shower scene, but it’s actually Norman and his split-personality who’s revealed to have committed the crimes in Psycho’s iconic twist ending.
3 Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Directed By Roman Polanski
The ending of Rosemary’s Baby is one of the most traumatic scenes any expectant mother could have the misfortune of seeing. It’s an excellent movie, but the horrific finale, and its devastating revelations about the titular baby, will last forever in the memory.
It’s an excellent movie, but the horrific finale, and its devastating revelations about the titular baby, will last forever in the memory.
The plot follows a young couple who are trying to start a family, and move into an apartment block inhabited by some strange neighbors. Rosemary’s Baby inspired other horror movies, and its ending is one of the most shocking moments ever put on screen.
Directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow, Rosemary’s Baby chronicles the chilling tale of Rosemary Woodhouse, the wife of an actor who, after finding out she is pregnant, begins to suspect that her unborn child is something far more sinister than a normal baby. John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, and Maurice Evans also star.
- Director
- Roman Polanski
- Release Date
- June 12, 1968
- Cast
- Ralph Bellamy , Mia Farrow , Sidney Blackmer , Ruth Gordon , John Cassavetes
- Runtime
- 137 minutes
Rosemary discovers her newborn baby is, in fact, the son of Satan, and instead of freaking out about this devastating revelation, her response is even weirder. Instead of finding a way to stop the curse on the child, or even taking more extreme measures, Rosemary comforts the crying demon-child, smiling creepily as she looks down at him.
2 Martyrs (2008)
Directed By Pascal Laugier
The revenge movie has been one of the most popular horror sub-genres for a long time now, with audiences enjoying the retribution offered by the protagonists in movies such as I Spit on Your Grave, and Ready or Not. However, one of the most twisted horror movies with revenge at the center of its plot is Martyrs, which features one of the most bleak endings of all time.
Martyrs (2008) is a French-Canadian horror film directed by Pascal Laugier which follows the harrowing journey of a young woman seeking revenge for her childhood abduction and subsequent abuse, leading to horrifying and extreme consequences.
- Director
- Pascal Laugier
- Release Date
- September 3, 2008
- Cast
- Morjana Alaoui , Mylène Jampanoï , Catherine Bégin , Robert Toupin , Patricia Tulasne , Juliette Gosselin , Xavier Dolan , Jean-Marie Moncelet , Jessie Pham , Erika Scott , Louise Boisvert , Isabelle Chasse , Emilie Miskdijan , Tony Robinow , Anie Pascale , Mike Chute , Gaëlle Cohen
- Runtime
- 99 Minutes
You may only watch Martyrs once, such is the horrific nature of the film. The French horror movie follows Lucie and Anna, who seek revenge against those who tortured Lucie when she was just a child. Although the viewer feels sympathy with the girls, you’re never sure if what they’re doing is right, or that they’re sane. When Anna whispers something to her abuser, before taking her own life, it leaves the viewer, and the villains, in a complete state of shock.
1 The Mist (2007)
Directed By Frank Darabont
Stephen King is one of the greatest horror writers of all time, and although some of the movie adaptations of his work haven’t been great, the ones that land are all-time classics. The Mist is a superb example of a King adaptation that not only works as an amazing horror movie, it also features the bleakest endings of a movie from any genre.
Stephen King’s terrifying novel is brought to the screen with The Mist – a horror-thriller film directed by Frank Darabont. When a small town suddenly sees a giant rolling fog arrive, they show mere curiosity. But when people begin to die mysteriously within, several survivors hold up in a grocery store as they attempt to find a way out and survive – unfortunately, the dangers don’t just come from outside- they also come from within.
- Director
- Frank Darabont
- Release Date
- November 21, 2007
- Runtime
- 126 minutes
Some films have great twists, but the best horror movie ending of all is from The Mist. The film’s huge shock comes as protagonist David, played by Thomas Jane, escapes from the mist with his son, and some other survivors, but they run out of gas just as a huge monster appears ready to kill them. David, thinking he has no other option, kills everyone in the car, but moments later the mist clears, and the military arrives to save them. David realizes to his horror that he killed his son, and the other survivors for no reason.
