Going out with a boo! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the horror movie finales that still give us nightmares. We’re revealing some great endings, so here’s a spoiler alert.
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00:00 "I want Damien to die too."
00:02 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the horror movie finales that
00:08 still give us nightmares. We're revealing some great endings, so here's a spoiler alert.
00:13 "What have you done to him, you maniac!"
00:16 Number 30. Sinister
00:20 Ethan Hawke stars as a true crime writer who inadvertently curses his own family by
00:25 moving into a house with an evil history. But once he realizes his mistake,
00:30 it's already too late. He, his wife, and his son become the next victims.
00:34 "The ancient church believed that he would take possession of those who saw the images and
00:39 caused them to do terrible things."
00:42 The young daughter Ashley becomes possessed by an ancient demon and slaughters her entire family.
00:47 "Don't worry, Daddy. I'll make you famous again."
00:51 The ending, shot in creepy Super 8 footage, only suggests the violence,
00:56 and it's played mostly against an eerie and ambient soundscape. There are no screams,
01:01 no hysteria, just the disjointed images of the children who have been taken by
01:05 the malevolent spirit that haunts the movie.
01:08 Number 29. Black Christmas
01:11 "The caller is in the house. The calls are coming from the house."
01:14 Largely credited with being the first movie to bring the "calls are coming from inside the
01:20 house" trope to film, Black Christmas is an underrated thriller. The killer is a vicious
01:25 and disturbed man who calls a group of sorority sisters from an upstairs phone line every time
01:30 he murders one of them. After the killer is presumed dead, the police leave the sole survivor
01:35 alone to sleep.
01:36 "They're driving down from Unionville."
01:37 "I'll stay with her till then. But the condition she's in,
01:42 I wouldn't count on talking to her before tomorrow afternoon if I were you."
01:45 Then, the murderer, who is still very much alive, descends from the attic. The phone rings again,
01:51 going unanswered. It gets louder and louder as the credits roll,
01:56 leaving us with the assumption that the only girl left in the house has also been murdered.
02:00 Number 28. The Babadook
02:03 Possessed by the demonic Babadook, the grieving widow Amelia tries to kill her son in the movie's
02:08 last act. Amelia chases him through the house until he knocks her out, and although love does
02:13 win the day, it's a hard-fought and intense win.
02:17 "Watch out for your mom's leg, little one. He's fine, I've had the stitches out."
02:21 The Babadook ends up banished to the family's basement,
02:24 where the mother and son collect worms and grubs to feed it.
02:27 "It's alright. It's alright. It's alright. Shhh."
02:35 Since the titular monster is largely understood as a metaphor for grief,
02:39 this is actually a relatively hopeful note to end on, even if that last scene does have a great scare.
02:45 Number 27. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
02:49 "You're evolving into a new life form. Come and watch."
02:55 In this remake of the Red Scare-inspired sci-fi classic,
02:59 Donald Sutherland plays a health department employee who becomes caught up in an apocalyptic
03:04 alien invasion. These creatures invade the bodies of humans and replicate them. At one point, though,
03:10 the humans learn they can fool the pod people by acting like they're one of them.
03:14 "We'll get him. We'll get him. Can't stay awake forever."
03:17 This is what we think, or at least hope, is happening at the end. But when Sutherland's
03:23 character is approached by one of the last remaining humans, he lets out an inhuman howl,
03:28 alerting the other replicants to her presence.
03:30 All is lost. The people you care about are either dead or about to be. Roll credits.
03:36 Number 26. Phantasm
03:39 You can never really trust what you see in this bizarre metaphysical cult horror classic
03:43 from the late '70s. In it, a young boy named Mike stumbles upon a deadly secret at the local mortuary.
03:49 "You play a good game, boy. But the game is finished. Now you die."
03:56 The Undertaker is actually taking the bodies from the cemetery and transforming them into
04:01 undead hooded monsters from another dimension. If it sounds like a fever dream, it actually is.
04:07 At the end, Mike wakes from this elaborate nightmare.
04:10 "Hey, you had a dream. Just a nightmare."
04:13 But in the last few frames, there's a shocking double reveal. Not only was it all true,
04:20 but Mike is ripped through his bedroom mirror by the monsters.
04:23 Fans would have to wait over a decade to find out what happened to him in the sequel.
04:27 Number 25. Don't Look Now
04:30 "It's okay. It's okay. I have a friend."
04:37 Donald Sutherland's bad luck continues. In Don't Look Now, he's a grieving father who
04:44 begins seeing apparitions of his daughter on the streets of Venice,
04:47 wearing the red raincoat she died in. This just happens to coincide with a serial killer
04:52 stalking the streets of the flooded city, chasing the childlike figure to the top of a tower.
04:57 Sutherland's character is horrified to see that this isn't his daughter at all.
05:01 It's actually a little person who just happens to be that same serial killer.
05:05 You can guess how it ends. Not only is it scary and disturbing, it's also incredibly tragic.
05:16 Number 24. Saw
05:19 Although the series has since become an endless cycle of narrative loops and needless twists,
05:23 the original film actually has a pretty satisfying ending. Throughout the movie,
05:27 we've been asking, "Will one of these guys saw their own foot off to get free?"
05:31 Well, yes, that does happen. But the movie's pièce de résistance is the gut-punching reveal
05:36 that the corpse lying between the two victims has been alive the whole time.
05:40 In the last minutes, he rises, revealing himself to be the man we now know as Jigsaw.
05:46 He leaves the last prisoner to die in the bathroom alone,
05:49 with only his terrified screams piercing the dark.
05:52 "Game over!"
05:53 Number 23. Night of the Living Dead
05:59 Things really go south in the last 10 minutes of George A. Romero's genre-defining zombie flick.
06:04 The farmhouse that Ben and his compatriots have holed up in is now divided,
06:08 and falling to the zombie horde. Barbara, our focal character,
06:12 is dragged into a pile of hungry undead by the living corpse of her brother.
06:16 "Help me! Help me! Help me!"
06:20 Ben survives the night, only to be gunned down by a white militia in a scene that
06:25 reflects real-world violence. "Okay, he's dead. Let's go get him.
06:29 That's another one for the fire." The terror of the climax is followed by an oppressive
06:34 feeling of dread and hopelessness. Even as the humans win, it's a hollow victory.
06:40 Number 22. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
06:43 "You just cooperate, young lady, and we'll have no trouble."
06:46 Director Tobey Hooper spends a lot of time building this movie's atmosphere,
06:50 but the final act of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre never lets up for a minute.
06:54 Sally is the last survivor of her friend group. She's taken to the house of Leatherface and his
07:00 cohort of cannibals, and subjected to the most unhinged family dinner in movie history before
07:05 finally making her escape. "Help! Help!"
07:11 The last chase down the country road is a nail-biter, but it's Leatherface's maniacal
07:17 chainsaw dance that stays in your mind. The movie's final moments are a showcase of savage,
07:22 untethered madness. Number 21. Halloween
07:26 The masked killer has finally caught up to his prey, the babysitter Laurie Strode. His endless
07:32 assaults culminate in a terrifying and claustrophobic scene in a walk-in closet.
07:36 Dr. Loomis saves the day, shooting his former patient and sending him careening off a balcony.
07:41 "What's the boogeyman?"
07:43 "As a matter of fact, it was."
07:51 But of course, when he looks down, Michael Myers is gone.
07:55 That iconic and terrifying theme kicks in once more.
07:58 [Music]
08:04 As the film cycles through footage of all the places we've been, there is no sign of the killer
08:09 except the sound of his breathing. We realize he is everywhere. Myers hasn't just escaped from Dr.
08:15 Loomis, it's like he's escaped his physical form. Number 20. The Descent
08:27 This British horror flick terrified audiences with its release in 2005. When a group of friends
08:32 growing apart decide to schedule a spelunking trip together, they're confronted with monstrous
08:36 creatures known as Crawlers. After being picked off one by one and even betrayed by one of their
08:47 own, the last survivor, Sarah, along with the audience, believe she's escaped the cave.
08:52 This is quickly revealed to be nothing more than a hallucination, and Sarah is back alone in the
08:56 cave with the creatures moving in for the kill. It's a dark ending that was changed for its United
09:01 States theatrical release. Number 19. Paranormal Activity
09:12 2007's low-budget found footage phenomenon Paranormal Activity shows us the slow and
09:23 deliberate possession of Katie by a demonic spirit, as her boyfriend Mika attempts to
09:28 document their new house's haunting. At the film's end, the demon finally takes full control of Katie,
09:36 luring Mika out of bed after her usual hours of creepy night looming. The audience is limited to
09:40 the stationary camera view of the dark hallway as we hear horrific screams of Mika downstairs
09:45 before they're suddenly and brutally cut off. After a tense period of silence, Mika's body
09:54 is flung from the darkness into the camera as we see a blood-soaked Katie standing in the doorway,
09:59 truly chilling. Number 18. Enemy
10:03 All of the endings on our list are terrifying, but this one is also bizarre as hell.
10:15 "What's happening?"
10:16 Jake Gyllenhaal stars as two characters, history professor Adam Bell and stage actor Anthony
10:22 Clare. As the film comes to a close, Bell is talking with his new lover Helen,
10:26 only to come across a startling sight.
10:28 Being face-to-face with an enormous tarantula is horrifying in and of itself,
10:36 but that's not the kicker here. It's Bell's low-key reaction that's even more frightening.
10:40 Rather than being openly scared, he instead appears resigned to the situation.
10:44 To say it's all open to interpretation would be the understatement of the year.
10:48 Number 17. Buried
10:53 Hopefully you aren't too claustrophobic. This Ryan Reynolds vehicle is about an American truck
11:01 driver in Iraq who's kidnapped and buried alive for ransom. Reynolds' Paul is given a cell phone
11:06 and a few supplies and has to try to survive until he can be rescued. By the movie's end,
11:10 it seems as though rescue is on the way for Paul, only for it to be a misdirection.
11:14 The film ends with the rescue crew digging in the wrong place as Paul's damaged coffin
11:23 fills up with sand, suffocating him. It's a dark ending that we did not see coming.
11:28 Number 16. Sleepaway Camp
11:34 "Yes, I've always dreamed of a little girl just like you."
11:38 This 1983 slasher cult classic starts off as a particularly creative summer camp massacre movie
11:45 before its shocking twist ending. After a flashback seemingly shows the death of Angela's
11:49 father and brother in a boating accident, she goes to live with her aunt and is sent off to
11:53 summer camp with her cousin a few years later. At the film's conclusion after a series of gruesome
11:58 murders, Angela is, yes, shown to be the killer. Not only that, it's also revealed that she
12:03 isn't Angela at all, but is in fact her long thought to be dead brother Peter,
12:08 who survived the boat accident but was raised as a girl by his aunt.
12:11 Number 15. Mulholland Drive
12:19 David Lynch's dense and nightmare-inducing film has been called one of the best films
12:23 of the 2000s, in part due to its horrifying conclusion.
12:26 "Okay, now once you hand that over to me, it's a done deal.
12:29 You sure you want this?"
12:35 After spending most of the movie in what many interpreted as an extended dream sequence,
12:39 Naomi Watts' Diane, an actress, wakes up to her failed Hollywood life,
12:43 where she may have hired a hitman to kill her lover. Or not.
12:46 The movie's ending sees Diane plagued by visions and voices in her apartment before
12:51 she takes her own life. Though the film and its ending may be abstract and open to
12:55 much interpretation, there's no doubt that Lynch succeeds in provoking terror in his audience.
13:00 Number 14. Candyman
13:07 "Have you ever heard of Candyman?"
13:08 Hooks and vengeful violence. Certainly an unsettling concept,
13:13 and one that's not helped by this movie's bleak finale.
13:15 "Jesus, it stinks."
13:17 At the end of Candyman, which, by the way, is based on a Clive Barker story,
13:21 grad student Helen has sacrificed herself for the sake of a child and has left her
13:24 husband Trevor in the land of the living. Where he's shacked up with one of his students,
13:28 we might add.
13:29 "I don't know what happened. I just woke up in that place and there was blood everywhere."
13:35 While at the home of his new lover, Trevor calls out Helen's name out of sheer grief.
13:39 And who should appear but the spirit of Helen herself, angry and ready to kill.
13:43 "My God, Trevor? Trevor? Trevor?"
13:50 It's a brutal and unrelentingly violent way to end a film.
13:54 But then again, this is a film about hook-wielding spirits.
13:57 Number 13. Insidious
13:59 "To be honest, I've never seen anything like it."
14:01 A horror movie rule to remember. Demonic possession may not end just because you think it has.
14:08 Insidious sets itself up for a triumphant ending, with the Lambert family seemingly
14:16 free from the demons haunting that's been plaguing them. However, paranormal investigator
14:20 Elise becomes suspicious of Josh Lambert. And when she takes his photo, he flies into a violent rage.
14:25 "Why did you do that?"
14:30 The scene's tension builds as Josh's wife comes up to investigate,
14:34 ending with a shocking reveal of the photo. And one final jump scare courtesy of Josh.
14:38 That poor family.
14:40 Number 12. Drag Me to Hell
14:50 "Soon it will be you who comes begging to me."
14:53 Talk about a last-minute screw-up. In Drag Me to Hell, persevering bank loan officer Christine
14:59 has seemingly freed herself of a curse that would condemn her to hell. Relieved,
15:06 she can now prepare for a bright future. Just one small issue. Her boyfriend Clay shows up
15:11 carrying a button which Christine intended to use to break free of said curse.
15:15 "I thought maybe you could, uh, I thought maybe you could show back on."
15:20 As the audience clues in to Christine's hopelessness, she ends up backing onto an
15:24 open train track, where the film's title finally bears fruit.
15:28 Number 11. The Shining
15:34 "Here's Johnny!"
15:37 This 1980 classic based on the Stephen King novel tells the story of the Torrance family's tenure
15:43 as winter caretakers of the remote Overlook Hotel in Colorado.
15:46 "A little slow tonight, isn't it?"
15:48 Throughout the winter, Jack Torrance is driven mad by ghosts of the hotel's past.
15:57 When Jack finally snaps and goes after his wife Wendy and their son Danny, all hell breaks loose.
16:02 Jack chases Danny into the snowy labyrinth of the hotel's giant maze,
16:08 where his son outwits him and escapes with his mother while Jack freezes to death.
16:12 If that wasn't enough, the film concludes with an eerie picture
16:15 implying Jack has been adopted as one of the many ghosts of the Overlook Hotel.
16:19 Number 10. Carrie
16:38 The second Stephen King adaptation on our list, this Oscar-nominated 1976 film tells the tale
16:43 of psychic high school student Carrie White, who is constantly subjected to intense harassment
16:48 and an abusive mother. "I'm gonna get a police and doctor me!"
16:53 After being elected prom queen, only to be doused in pig's blood as a prank by a few students,
17:02 Carrie launches a telekinetic attack on all the students, eventually burning the school
17:07 to the ground with everyone locked inside. She heads home, only to be attacked by her mother,
17:12 whom she promptly kills along with herself. At the very end of Carrie, the only surviving
17:17 student Sue has a terrifying nightmare of Carrie's hand grabbing at her from the grave.
17:22 Number 9. The Wicker Man
17:34 No, not the remake starring Nicolas Cage. We're talking about the original film here.
17:38 The Wicker Man follows police officer Neil Howie, who's sent to a remote Scottish island to try to
17:43 locate a missing girl. Howie becomes embroiled in the pagan religion of the islanders, and Howie
17:48 slowly uncovers a plot to use the missing girl as a human sacrifice. Near the film's climax,
17:53 this is revealed to be a ruse, and the true sacrifice is Howie himself. "Think what you're
17:59 doing, think! In the name of God, think what you're doing!" The horror cult classic ends
18:06 with Sergeant Howie burning alive in a giant Wicker Man structure as the sun sets.
18:11 Number 8. Hereditary
18:21 This horror hit may just be an instant classic. Hereditary tells the story of a mother of two
18:25 and her family in the aftermath of the death of her own mother, who may or may not have been,
18:30 but definitely was, a witch. After the shocking death of the family's daughter Charlie early on
18:34 in the film, things only escalate from there, culminating with the possession of Annie and a
18:38 pagan ritual to summon a demon known as Paimon. The film's final minutes are hectic and terrifying,
18:48 with Annie's son Peter trying to comprehend what is happening before he dies and is
18:52 possessed by the demon, followed by the film abruptly ending with him being hailed as a demon
18:57 king. Number 7. Wreck
19:01 Keep calm and don't get grabbed. A perfect example of that advice not being followed
19:10 appears in Wreck, a Spanish horror film about a reporter's survival and investigation of a viral
19:14 outbreak. Angela and cameraman Pablo eventually find themselves stuck in a penthouse with a demon
19:24 possessed girl, whom they try to evade. Unfortunately, this plan quickly falls apart
19:30 as the two are brutally attacked. The film ends with Angela's last glimmer of hope being stamped
19:35 out, just as she's about to reach her camera. So close. Number 6. The Omen
19:43 "You'll see me in hell, Mr. Thorne. There we will share out our sentience."
19:49 This '70s classic finds the Antichrist himself secretly and unwittingly adopted by American
19:55 diplomat Robert Thorne shortly after the death of his son in childbirth. Young Damien is raised by
20:00 the ambassador and his wife, played by veteran actors Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. By the time
20:05 Thorne comes to understand what the boy is, it's too late. After the death of his wife and
20:10 confirmation that Damien is the son of Satan, Thorne tries to take Damien to a church so he
20:14 can kill him, but is stopped by police who see a man attempting to murder a young boy.
20:19 "This is not a human child. Make no mistake."
20:25 Thorne is killed, and Damien is able to continue in his role as the Antichrist.
20:29 Number 5. Psycho
20:32 "We have 12 vacancies. 12 cabins, 12 vacancies."
20:36 He wouldn't hurt a fly, would he? Or is it she?
20:39 "Well, a boy's best friend is his mother."
20:41 Whatever the case, this simple but effective final scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960s
20:45 psychological horror has a way of putting people on edge.
20:48 In the film's final moments, some police officers go to check on their detainee, Norman Bates.
20:56 "It's sad when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son,
21:01 but I couldn't allow them to believe that I would commit murder."
21:05 The audience finally gets a look into Bates' mind, as we listen to his mother,
21:09 Norma, discussing her innocence, the camera slowly zooming in on Norman's creepily satisfied face.
21:15 "He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man."
21:22 His psyche totally splintered. Norman Bates is somehow more terrifying,
21:26 all wrapped up in his own mind, than when he was free to kill at will.
21:29 "I hope they are watching. They'll see. They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say,
21:35 'Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly.'"
21:39 Found footage movies just don't end well for people. Take The Blair Witch Project, for example,
21:48 a fictional documentary about three student filmmakers who disappear while investigating
21:52 the titular witch. As the movie comes to its abrupt end, students Heather and Mike
21:56 search for their friend in an abandoned house.
21:59 "I hear you. Josh!"
22:01 Little by little, there's a growing sense that the two are being watched,
22:04 and then Heather finds Mike staring at a wall before she's attacked herself.
22:09 The lack of context and surplus of ambiguity makes it all the more terror-inducing.
22:16 And thus, a franchise was born.
22:23 "They just weren't paying any attention. They were making love while that young boy drunk."
22:29 Friday the 13th moves towards its finale on a victorious note.
22:33 Sole survivor Alice awakens to see police investigating Crystal Lake,
22:36 and then suddenly the decomposing corpse of Jason Voorhees pops up to drag Alice to her doom.
22:42 Fortunately, it's just a dream as Alice awakens in a hospital to inform police about what has occurred.
22:50 Unfortunately, when told there was no boy found at the lake,
22:56 Alice's three choice words ensured filmgoers went home in terror.
23:00 "Till fear."
23:01 Now that's true fear.
23:04 Number 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street
23:07 "This is God."
23:10 If not for this, things might have ended happily.
23:14 "Come to Freddy."
23:16 Right after our teenage heroine Nancy Thompson has seemingly vanquished Freddy Krueger,
23:20 she emerges from her house to find her friends alive and her mother wishing them well.
23:24 "See ya."
23:25 However, things are not as cheery as they seem. Nancy and her chums get carried off in what can
23:33 only be described as a demon car as the familiar nursery rhyme rings out.
23:37 Then, Nancy's mother is grabbed by Freddy, abruptly and without warning,
23:47 and the audience is left in awe.
23:49 It's chilling scenes like this that keep people coming back to the Elm Street movies.
23:53 [Glass shattering]
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24:10 Number 1. Rosemary's Baby
24:14 "We have to make a baby."
24:17 Brave for Rosemary's Baby indeed. Towards the climax of this horror classic,
24:21 the titular Rosemary grows suspicious of both her building's inhabitants and the
24:25 disappearance of her newborn. "What have you done to it? What have you done to its eyes?"
24:31 Upon investigating further, she finds her fellow tenants gathered around her child,
24:35 and then it's revealed that her baby is the literal spawn of Satan.
24:39 "What have you done to him, you maniac?" "Satan is his father, not guy."
24:45 If that reveal plus Rosemary's horrified reaction to the child's appearance weren't enough,
24:49 the film leaves off on a haunting note, complete with unsettling music.
24:53 What terrifying movie ending kept you up at night? Tell us in the comments.
25:03 "Careful. This is the moment when the supposedly dead killer comes back to life
25:07 for one last scare."
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25:18 [Music]