An ending can make or break a horror movie, and some endings are so bad that they practically ruin the entire film. After spending the whole running time building up to something, a horror movie’s ending is under a lot of pressure to put the perfect final point on the story.

Many classic films succeed at leaving the viewer with one last chill, while others fall flat. Whether it’s a baffling twist, an annoying cop-out, or something more complex, a poor ending leaves the audience with a bad taste in their mouths. It’s especially frustrating when the ending betrays the themes and ideas presented in the rest of the movie.

Bad movies are usually the ones with horrible endings, but there have been a few decent horror flicks that totally whiffed in their final scenes. Even if it doesn’t completely tank the movie, it sours its reputation with new viewers. Horror endings are perhaps the trickiest of all genres, but some movies are a lesson in what not to do.

Scream 3 (2000)

The original Scream is known for having one of the best twist endings in horror, and it set a precedent. Scream 3 continued the franchise and concerns murders on the set of Stab 3, by a new Ghostface killer. The movie got mixed reviews, but has since been reappraised more fairly as a biting satire of the film industry.

However, things completely fall apart when the idenтιтy of the new Ghostface is revealed to be Roman, the director. He announces that he originally inspired Billy Loomis to start the killing in Scream, thus retconning the original movie’s motivations. This completely betrayed the point of Scream as a commentary about horror films and their fans.

The Last Exorcism (2010)

The Last Exorcism was one of the few bright spots in the short-lived demons craze of the early 2010s, and it’s almost a great movie. The found-footage story follows a priest who attempts to expose his own fakery by filming a supposed exorcism. It has some compelling scares, but goes for a total cop-out ending when things finally wrap up.

Instead of an interesting surprise, the entire story turns out to be the workings of an evil cult, complete with the cheesiest clichés imaginable. The movie’s commentary about faith versus reason should have resulted in a thoughtful ending, but it’s just lazy. A horror ending that fails to surprise immediately fails to be scary.

47 Meters Down (2017)

Jaws helped to make shark attack movie popular forever, and 47 Meters Down is a great example of the sharksploitation subgenre. Two sisters find themselves trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean, and the thrills come from their daring escape attempts. It’s a thrilling story overall, but the ending left a lot to be desired.

A majority of the final half of the movie turns out to be a hallucination of the main character, and the film betrays its somewhat hopeful ending for something completely dour. A downbeat ending is fine, especially if it is a surprise, but the hallucination angle is on par with “it was all a dream” in terms of narrative cheapness.

Halloween Ends (2022)

Halloween Ends mercifully concluded the modern Michael Myers trilogy, and it carried the lofty ambition of finally killing the legendary villain. Laurie Strode and her family get into one last confrontation with Michael Myers, while a new killer rises. The movie wasn’t great to begin with, but the ending was one last sour note in a tired franchise.

Killing off Michael Myers in a satisfactory manner is probably impossible, and Halloween Ends didn’t do a very good job. His actual death was tame compared to his other injuries, and the disposal of his body was downright laughable. When he inevitably returns again in another movie, the ending can finally be retconned.

Signs (2002)

After a string of great movies, M. Night Shyamalan continued his H๏τ streak with his sci-fi thriller, Signs. Mel Gibson plays a grieving father who begins to discover crop circles on his farm. The alien plot also has thinly-veiled commentary about faith and healing, and has some somewhat spooky moments. However, Shyamalan’s signature twist ending falls like a lead balloon.

Though the revelation about the wife’s final words is silly, it’s the reveal about the aliens that tanks the finale. The creatures are harmed by water, and yet they decide to come to a planet that is composed almost entirely of water. There is often moisture in the atmosphere, meaning the aliens should have been sizzling at all times.

High Tension (2003)

Horror movies have always pushed boundaries, and High Tension brought blood and guts back to the slasher genre. The French shocker involves a young woman in a secluded farmhouse who is stalked by a killer. The movie embraces classic tropes but enhances them with grizzly gore. As a fun ride, the movie is unbeatable, but its ending is disappointing.

The twist that Marie was the killer isn’t a bad idea in principle, but the execution just doesn’t make any sense. The movie shows moments that couldn’t have happened, such as the killer in his truck before the main characters even arrive in town. This makes the twist feel tacked on, and not like a fulfilling conclusion to the story.

The Open House (2018)

2018’s The Open House is an almost universally reviled horror film, and its ending drew most of the derision from viewers. A family temporarily lives in a secluded house, only for a series of weird events to put their lives in danger. It’s a bog-standard mystery story that eventually devolves into a full-blown slasher film in the final act.

Revealing the killer is key in horror, and a good twist can leave audiences with their jaws on the floor. However, the killer is revealed to just be someone the viewer has never seen before, and all the events were random. This makes the dour ending frustrating, since it was all pointless to begin with.

City Of The Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1980)

Lucio Fulci’s horror movies oscillate between surreal classics and incoherent messes, and City of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ falls somewhere in the middle. Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the pseudo-zombie story has plenty of gore and atmosphere. However, there are completely baffling moments all throughout, and the ending is the most baffling of all.

Having survived her ordeal, Mary is greeted by the young boy, John-John. Suddenly, she begins screaming as the film cuts to the credits. It’s never explained why she screams, and the interpretation that she’s traumatized is somewhat flimsy and unsubstantiated by the actual film. Adding one last spooky moment is fine, but it has to make sense.

The Happening (2008)

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening essentially has the same ending as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, but it falls completely flat. When a rash of mysterious self-inflicted deaths break out, a couple try to escape from the invisible menace. Twists abound in the third act, but none of them work very well and some are actually laughable.

The biggest letdown of the ending is that it makes the entire film feel somewhat pointless. The outbreak is just a random occurrence and isn’t motivated by anything but mere chance. Instead of making it scarier, it makes the entire film a rudderless mess. Modern reᴀssessments of the film as a B-movie are disingenuous, and the “B” just stands for bad.

The Devil Inside (2012)

The found-footage possession movie The Devil Inside fails at almost every level, and it shows the strain that horror was under in the early 2010s. A woman investigates her mother’s violent past only to discover possession might be involved. The tedious story slogs along from jump scare to jump scare, until the ending is one last insult.

The film ends on a cliffhanger where things are left unresolved. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a тιтle card appears asking viewers to visit a website to learn more. People see horror movies to be scared, and to see a great story, they don’t watch movies so that they can be redirected to websites which don’t even exist anymore.