Did that just happen?
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00:00 The most important part of the story is the end, and horror films definitely know this.
00:04 Even though it's hard to recall a film's plot if you haven't seen it in a while,
00:07 a shocking climax can stay with you for the rest of your life.
00:10 Sometimes we're left reeling because the movie culminates with a jaw-dropping twist.
00:14 Other times, the conclusion leaves a huge impact on us since it went in a direction
00:18 that we just didn't see coming.
00:19 Once in a while, the final scene stays with us because it was just, well, stupid.
00:24 Whether it was for better or worse though, I'm Josh from What Culture Horror and these
00:27 are 10 Horror Movie Endings That Made You Say "What?"
00:31 Number 10 – Krampus
00:33 Krampus begins with the Engel family preparing their house for the Christmas season.
00:37 However, the younger son Max hates the entire Christmas season, but no one quite knows the
00:42 reason.
00:43 As a result, Max's disillusionment causes Santa Claus' dark twin Krampus to unleash
00:47 his legion of monsters on the family.
00:50 And even though the Engels put up a valiant fight, they are all eventually slaughtered
00:54 by the evil monsters, sadistic toys, and carnivorous gingerbread men.
00:58 With Max being the sole survivor, he then begs Krampus to undo all of the evil he's
01:04 committed.
01:05 And even though Krampus punishes those who turn their back on Christmas, you assume here
01:08 that he might spare Max since, well, he's a decent kid.
01:12 But nope, that's not how it turns out as despite Max telling Krampus that he takes
01:16 back his wish and apologises for not appreciating his family, the dark creature sends him to
01:21 hell anyway.
01:22 In a strange twist though, Max then suddenly wakes up in his house to see that his family
01:26 are all safe and sound, implying the horrors he experienced were all just a dream.
01:31 But surprise!
01:32 This moment turns out to be a double fake out.
01:35 As Max embraces his family, the camera zooms out to reveal that the whole Engels house
01:39 is sealed in one of the many snow globes which reside in Krampus' lair.
01:45 The Bedine - Saint Maud Saint Maud follows a care worker who seeks
01:49 redemption after accidentally killing a patient.
01:51 After being hired by a terminally ill atheist called Amanda, Maud believes that she can
01:55 save her own soul if she convinces her new patient to accept God, as God is apparently
02:00 talking to Maud directly.
02:03 But after acting erratically, Maud is fired, causing her instability to worsen.
02:07 After confronting Amanda once more near the end, she is seemingly possessed by a demon,
02:12 urging Maud to kill her.
02:14 In doing so and believing that she has fulfilled her task, Maud walks onto a beach and then
02:18 sets herself on fire so that she can ascend into heaven.
02:21 As she ignites the flames, angelic wings appear on her back, causing onlookers to then suddenly
02:27 kneel before her to bask in her angelic glory.
02:30 Throughout the movie, Maud comes across as an unreliable narrator, so it's kind of
02:34 hard to tell whether she did speak to God or maybe the devil or if it was just in her
02:39 own mind.
02:40 But upon watching her take on the appearance of an angel at the end, the audience then
02:44 wonders whether she was actually chosen by God all along.
02:47 However, in the final, final seconds, the rug is swept beneath our feet yet again.
02:52 In the very last shot, the screen cuts to Maud screaming in agony as the flames char
02:56 her body to the bone.
02:57 It's a jarring, powerful shot and one that definitely leaves an impression.
03:02 Number 8 - American Psycho
03:04 American Psycho centres around a Wall Street nutter called Patrick Bateman.
03:08 He's handsome, he's successful and astoundingly rich, but unfortunately, he also likes to
03:13 dissect girls and is utterly insane.
03:16 Even though Bateman is usually able to separate his love of murder from his personal life,
03:21 he becomes more unhinged as the story progresses.
03:24 After seeing him try to feed a cat to an ATM machine, I mean, hey, who hasn't done that
03:29 at 2am during a big sesh?
03:31 And then hacking a woman to pieces with a chainsaw, alright, that one's a little more
03:34 unique, viewers naturally assume that the movie is going to conclude with the titular
03:38 psychopath performing the most unspeakable act of evil possible.
03:42 But in the final scene, his lawyer informs him that Paul Allen, who Bateman supposedly
03:47 killed earlier, is actually alive and well and was spotted just the other day.
03:51 In that moment, Bateman, and the audience, has no idea what to think.
03:56 Did he imagine the murder of Paul Allen?
03:58 Has he ever killed anyone?
04:00 Were all of his psychotic moments just in his head?
04:02 We don't know.
04:03 Before the viewer has a chance to process this revelation, the screen suddenly cuts
04:07 to black.
04:08 Number 7 - The Neon Demon
04:10 The Neon Demon follows a teenager called Jessie who moves to LA to pursue a modelling career.
04:15 Because of her striking features, Jessie finds herself catapulted to the highest ranks of
04:19 the fashion industry almost immediately.
04:21 She's on top of the world, oblivious that her competitors, Ruby, Gigi and Sarah, are
04:27 actually preparing her downfall.
04:29 So what do the other models do?
04:31 Do they ruin her career?
04:32 Do they get her fired?
04:34 Do they mess up her looks?
04:35 Well no, they literally decide to eat her.
04:39 They convince themselves that they can absorb Jessie's beauty by devouring her flesh and
04:43 so they chop her up, gorge on her flesh and then bathe in her blood.
04:47 Ruby then completes the ritual by urinating a torrent of blood on Jessie's grave.
04:53 While at a modelling shoot the day after, Gigi becomes overwhelmed with guilt and suddenly
04:57 vomits up Jessie's eyeball.
04:59 She then gouges her stomach open, desperate to "get her out of me".
05:02 Sarah on the other hand has absolutely no qualms about her actions and eats the regurgitated
05:07 eyeball hoping to absorb even more of Jessie's beauty.
05:10 It's a totally unhinged finale and one that leaves you thinking about what the hell you
05:15 just watched.
05:16 Number 6 - The Devil Inside
05:19 In The Devil Inside, a filmmaker called Isabella decides to put a documentary together to understand
05:23 why her mother killed three clergymen 20 years ago.
05:27 Upon investigation Isabella comes to the realisation that her mother's actions were caused by,
05:31 what else, demonic possession.
05:33 Because The Devil Inside was set to remix elements of The Blair Witch Project and The
05:37 Exorcist, it looked like it had potential at the time.
05:39 The fact that the story was also supposedly based on true events also encouraged millions
05:43 of viewers to flock to see the docu-horror in its opening weekend.
05:47 As a result the film recouped 100 times its budget.
05:51 But The Devil Inside became infamous for its ending, or well, lack thereof.
05:56 See in the final scene, Isabella becomes possessed while in a moving car.
06:00 As the demon transfers itself into the driver, he then crashes into an oncoming vehicle,
06:05 killing everybody inside.
06:06 Then, the screen suddenly cuts to black with a title card advising viewers to check out
06:11 the website "For more information on the ongoing investigation".
06:15 Although there's a lot of horror films that leave viewers scratching their heads, it's
06:18 usually because of a last minute jump scare or a shocking twist, not because the film
06:22 itself was too lazy to have an ending.
06:25 Number 5 - Suspiria 2018
06:28 Like the 1977 version of Suspiria, the 2018 remake follows an American dancer called Suzy
06:34 who joins a ballet academy unaware that it is a coven of witches.
06:38 Even though Suzy is happy when she excels in her training, the matriarchs intend to
06:42 use her body as a vessel for the high witch Marcos, who claims to be the fabled Mother
06:46 Suspiriorum.
06:47 As the story draws to a close, Suzy is invited into the coven's secret chambers where she
06:51 comes face to face with Marcos, a vile creature composed of pus-leaking skin, fetal limbs
06:57 and a whole lot of other creepy, creepy stuff.
06:59 And then, somehow, the ending gets weirder.
07:02 In fact, people who've watched the original Suspiria will be even more shocked by the
07:06 remake's climax.
07:07 See in the 1977 version, Suzy confronts Mother Suspiriorum and then kills her, but in the
07:12 remake, Suzy reveals to the witches that she has secretly been Mother Suspiriorum the entire
07:18 time while Marcos is a fraud.
07:20 To punish the coven for following a false prophet, she caused all of Marcos' followers
07:24 to explode in spectacularly gory fashion.
07:28 Even though the film has a lot of deeply disturbing imagery, nothing could prepare viewers for
07:32 this gruesome but admittedly awesome conclusion.
07:36 In the Mouth of Madness.
07:38 In In the Mouth of Madness, John Trent is an investigator who's tasked with tracking
07:42 down pulp horror writer Sutter Cain, who has vanished on the eve of his new book's release.
07:47 Believing Cain's disappearance to be only a publicity stunt to promote his new book,
07:51 Trent is certain that he will find the writer in one piece.
07:54 But as Trent stumbles upon all sorts of otherworldly horrors, he becomes terrified that he may
07:59 lose his life, his mind, and his soul, as it turns out that he's actually a character
08:04 created by Cain whose stories are now coming to life.
08:07 After Trent encounters Cthulhu-esque monsters, demon children, and tentacled mortel keepers,
08:13 it's no surprise that he ends up in a psychiatric institution by the end.
08:16 He eventually gets out though thanks to monsters taking over the entire world.
08:21 Upon learning that he has basically woken up in the apocalypse, Trent does what any
08:24 normal person would do in that situation.
08:26 He goes straight to the cinema to see the movie adaptation of In the Mouth of Madness.
08:31 Watching himself on the big screen and everything that's already happened in his life, Trent
08:36 maniacally laughs to himself before breaking down in tears.
08:39 So what happened?
08:41 Is Trent crazy?
08:42 Is he a character in Cain's novel?
08:44 Is it a little bit of both or something in between?
08:47 You decide.
08:48 Even though the Evil Dead trilogy seemingly wrapped in 1992, fans of Sam Raimi's iconic
08:56 Zomcoms wanted more.
08:58 Much like the Deadites themselves, it seemed like the franchise just couldn't stay buried.
09:02 So fans were thrilled when another entry was greenlit in 2013 simply called Evil Dead.
09:07 Although us fans hoped that the latest addition would have some direct connection to the original
09:11 film, 2013's Evil Dead was more of a straightforward remake, although it did switch up who you
09:17 thought the hero would be.
09:18 Anyone who stuck around to watch the post-credits scenes though had something of a different
09:23 thought.
09:24 After the credits, there is a single shot of the hero of the original film, Ash Williams,
09:28 saying his iconic catchphrase of "groovy" before turning to face the camera.
09:32 Now even though this was probably nothing more than me at fanservice, many viewers got
09:36 more excited by this post-credits scene than the movie itself.
09:41 Many speculated online that this sequence could prove that everyone's favourite chainsaw
09:45 wielding hero would appear in the sequel, which was furthered by the producers as they
09:50 were discussing the possibility of a sequel that merged the original trilogy with the
09:53 remake universe.
09:55 But eventually, just like the fabled Evil Dead 4, it was all for naught.
09:59 Although Bruce Campbell did reprise his role in a TV series titled Ash vs. The Evil Dead,
10:04 Ash Williams has yet to appear in another movie and thanks to Bruce Campbell now retiring
10:08 the role, it's unlikely he ever will.
10:13 Speaking of Sam Raimi, in his great film Drag Me To Hell, a loan officer called Christine
10:18 Brown is told by her boss that she's too soft to get promoted.
10:21 In order to prove him wrong, she refuses to give out a loan to a woman called Ganush,
10:26 resulting in her losing her house.
10:27 Furious, Ganush places a hex on Christine's button, condemning her to hell.
10:32 Although Christine tries to make peace with the old lady, that becomes impossible when
10:36 she pops her clocks.
10:37 After being tormented with hallucinations, possession and nightmarish nosebleeds, God
10:41 I hate those myself, Christine learns that she can pass on the hex by offering her cursed
10:47 button to another person.
10:48 Tempted to give the button to a colleague that she hates, she decides instead to place
10:52 it on Ganush's grave, seemingly reversing the hex.
10:55 But in the climax, Christine realises that she accidentally gave up the wrong button,
11:00 meaning that she's still in possession of the cursed one.
11:03 Before she has a chance to remedy this, the horde of demons burst from the ground and
11:06 cast her down to hell.
11:08 Even though there are a lot of horror films where the protagonist winds up dead, viewers
11:12 really thought that Christine would make it out of this alive.
11:16 The Shining Yep, could it have been anything else?
11:20 In The Shining, struggling author Jack Torrance agrees to a caretaking position at the Overlook
11:25 Hotel, unaware that it's haunted.
11:27 Moving in with his wife Wendy and his son Danny, Jack feels like this is the perfect
11:31 opportunity for him to finish his book.
11:33 Yeah, there's a lot of entries about writers trying to finish their books and going mad
11:36 on this list.
11:37 I don't know what it is about that process that just makes for good horror I guess.
11:40 Anyway, after the spirits of the hotel prey on Jack's vices, which are funnily enough
11:45 other kinds of spirits, he goes insane and tries to murder his family.
11:48 Luckily, Wendy and Danny lose Jack in a blizzard and escape, and unable to find his way back
11:53 to the hotel, Jack freezes to death.
11:55 Just as everything looks like it's wrapping up, we cut to the hotel's interior where
11:59 the camera zooms in on a picture of a party at the Overlook Hotel with Jack Torrance in
12:04 the bottom centre.
12:05 The camera slowly pans down, showing the picture was taken in 1921, 59 years before the events
12:11 in the movie.
12:12 The series have raged about what this means for decades, and there is no question that
12:17 The Shining has one of the biggest WTF endings in the history of cinema.
12:22 So that's our list.
12:23 Want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
12:25 What did you think about these horror movie endings?
12:27 Do you have any interpretations for The Shining or anything like that as well?
12:31 And are there any that you would've put on here?
12:33 While you're letting us know, could you please give us a like, share, subscribe and
12:36 head over to What Culture Horror for more lists like this on the regular.
12:39 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thank you so much for watching, and I'll
12:42 See you soon.
12:43 (gentle music)