Did that just happen?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The most important part of the story is the end, and horror films definitely know this.
00:05Even though it's hard to recall a film's plot if you haven't seen it in a while, a
00:08shocking climax can stay with you for the rest of your life.
00:11Sometimes we're left reeling because the movie culminates with a jaw-dropping twist.
00:14Other times, the conclusion leaves a huge impact on us since it went in a direction
00:18that we just didn't see coming.
00:20Once in a while, the final scene stays with us because it was just, well, stupid.
00:24Whether it was for better or worse though, I'm Josh from WhatCultureHorror and these
00:27are 10 horror movie endings that made you say, what?
00:31Number 10, Krampus.
00:33Krampus begins with the Engel family preparing their house for the Christmas season.
00:37However, the younger son, Max, hates the entire Christmas season, but no one quite knows the reason.
00:43As a result, Max's disillusionment causes Santa Claus's dark twin Krampus to unleash
00:48his legion of monsters on the family.
00:50And even though the Engels put up a valiant fight, they are all eventually slaughtered
00:54by the evil monsters, sadistic toys, and carnivorous gingerbread men.
00:58With Max being the sole survivor, he then begs Krampus to undo all of the evil he's committed.
01:04And even though Krampus punishes those who turn their back on Christmas, you assume here
01:08that he might spare Max since, well, he's a decent kid.
01:12But nope, that's not how it turns out, as despite Max telling Krampus that he takes back
01:16his wish and apologizes for not appreciating his family, the darker creature sends him to hell anywhere.
01:22In a strange twist though, Max then suddenly wakes up in his house to see that his family
01:26are all safe and sound, implying the horrors he experienced were all just a dream.
01:32But surprise, this moment turns out to be a double fake-out.
01:35As Max embraces his family, the camera zooms out to reveal that the whole Engels house is
01:40sealed in one of the many snow globes which reside in Krampus' lair.
01:45The Bedine Saint Maud Saint Maud follows a care worker who seeks redemption
01:49after accidentally killing a patient. After being hired by a terminally ill atheist called
01:54Amanda, Maud believes that she can save her own soul if she convinces her new patient to
01:58accept God, as God is apparently talking to Maud directly.
02:03But after acting erratically, Maud is fired, causing her instability to worsen.
02:08After confronting Amanda once more near the end, she is seemingly possessed by a demon, urging
02:12Maud to kill her. In doing so, and believing that she has fulfilled her task, Maud walks onto
02:17a beach and then sets herself on fire so that she can ascend into Heaven.
02:21As she ignites the flames though, her angelic wings appear on her back, causing onlookers to
02:27then suddenly kneel before her to bask in her angelic glory.
02:30Throughout the movie, Maud comes across as an unreliable narrator, so it's kind of hard in the
02:35moment to tell whether she did speak to God, or maybe the Devil, or if it was just in her own mind.
02:40But upon watching her take on the appearance of an angel at the end, the audience then wonders
02:44whether she was actually chosen by God all along. However, in the final, final seconds the rug is
02:50swept beneath our feet yet again. In the very last shot, the screen cuts to Maud screaming in agony
02:55as the flames char her body to the bone. It's a jarring, powerful shot, and one that definitely
03:00leaves an impression. Number 8, American Psycho. American Psycho centers around a Wall Street nutter
03:07called Patrick Bateman. He's handsome, he's successful, and astoundingly rich, but unfortunately,
03:12he also likes to dissect girls, and is utterly insane. Even though Bateman is usually able to
03:18separate his love of murder from his personal life, he becomes more unhinged as the story progresses.
03:24After seeing him try to feed a cat to an ATM machine, I mean, hey, who hasn't done that at 2am
03:30during a big sesh, and then hacking a woman to pieces with a chainsaw, alright that one's a little
03:34bit more unique, viewers naturally assume that the movie is going to conclude with the titular
03:38psychopath performing the most unspeakable act of evil possible. But in the final scene,
03:43his lawyer informs him that Paul Allen, who Bateman supposedly killed earlier, is actually
03:48alive and well, and was spotted just the other day. In that moment, Bateman, and the audience,
03:54has no idea what to think. Did he imagine the murder of Paul Allen? Has he ever killed anyone?
04:00Were all of his psychotic moments just in his head? We don't know. Before the viewer has a chance to
04:04process this revelation, the screen suddenly cuts to black. Number 7, The Neon Demon.
04:10The Neon Demon follows a teenager called Jessie who moves to LA to pursue a modelling career. Because
04:15of her striking features, Jessie finds herself catapulted to the highest ranks of the fashion
04:20industry almost immediately. She's on top of the world, oblivious that her competitors,
04:25Ruby, Gigi and Sarah, are actually preparing her downfall. So what do the other models do? Do they
04:31ruin her career? Do they get her fired? Do they mess up her looks? Well, no. They literally decide to
04:39eat her. They convince themselves that they can absorb Jessie's beauty by devouring her flesh,
04:43and so they chop her up, gorge on her flesh, and then bathe in her blood. Ruby then completes the
04:49ritual by urinating a torrent of blood on Jessie's grave. While at her modelling shoot the day after,
04:55Gigi becomes overwhelmed with guilt and suddenly vomits up Jessie's eyeball. She then gouges her stomach
05:00open, desperate to get her out of me. Sarah, on the other hand, has absolutely no qualms about
05:05her actions and eats the regurgitated eyeball hoping to absorb even more of Jessie's beauty.
05:11It's a totally unhinged finale and one that leaves you thinking about what the hell you just watched.
05:16Number 6, The Devil Inside. In The Devil Inside, a filmmaker called Isabella decides to put a
05:22documentary together to understand why her mother killed three clergymen 20 years ago. Upon investigation,
05:28Isabella comes to the realisation that her mother's actions were caused by, what else,
05:32demonic possession. Because The Devil Inside was set to remix elements of The Blair Witch Project
05:36and The Exorcist, it looked like it had potential at the time. The fact that the story was also
05:41supposedly based on true events also encouraged millions of viewers to flock to see the docu-horror
05:46in its opening weekend. As a result, the film recouped a hundred times its budget, but The Devil
05:52Inside became infamous for its ending, or, well, lack thereof. See, in the final scene,
05:57Isabella becomes possessed while in a moving car. As the demon transfers itself into the driver,
06:02he then crashes into an oncoming vehicle, killing everybody inside. Then, the screen suddenly cuts
06:08to black with a title card advising viewers to check out the website, quote,
06:12for more information on the ongoing investigation. Although there's a lot of horror films that leave
06:17viewers scratching their heads, it's usually because of a last minute jumpscare or a shocking twist,
06:22not because the film itself was too lazy to have an ending.
06:255. Suspiria 2018
06:28Like the 1977 version of Suspiria, the 2018 remake follows an American dancer called Susie who joins
06:34a ballet academy, unaware that it is a coven of witches. Even though Susie is happy when she excels
06:40in her training, the matriarchs intend to use her body as a vessel for the High Witch Marcos, who claims
06:45to be the fabled Mother Suspiriorum. As the story draws to a close, Susie is invited into the coven's secret
06:50chambers where she comes face to face with Marcos, a vile creature composed of puss-leaking skin,
06:56fetal limbs, and a whole lot of other creepy, creepy stuff. And then, somehow, the ending gets
07:02weirder. In fact, people who've watched the original Suspiria will be even more shocked by
07:06the remake's climax. See, in the 1977 version, Susie confronts Mother Suspiriorum and then kills her,
07:12but in the remake, Susie reveals to the witches that she has secretly been Mother Suspiriorum the entire
07:18time while Marcos is a fraud. To punish the coven for following a false prophet,
07:23she caused all of Marcos' followers to explode in spectacularly gory fashion. Even though the film
07:28has a lot of deeply disturbing imagery, nothing could prepare viewers for this gruesome but
07:33admittedly awesome conclusion. Number 4, In the Mouth of Madness. In In the Mouth of Madness,
07:40John Trent is an investigator who's tasked with tracking down pulp horror writer Sutter Cain,
07:44who has vanished on the eve of his new book's release. Believing Cain's disappearance to be
07:49only a publicity stunt to promote his new book, Trent is certain that he will find the writer in one
07:54piece. But as Trent stumbles upon all sorts of otherworldly horrors, he becomes terrified that
07:59he may lose his life, his mind, and his soul, as it turns out that he's actually a character created
08:04by Cain whose stories are now coming to life. After Trent encounters Cthulhu-esque monsters,
08:10demon children, and tentacled motel keepers, it's no surprise that he ends up in a psychiatric
08:15institution by the end. He eventually gets out though thanks to monsters taking over the entire
08:20world. Upon learning that he has basically woken up in the apocalypse, Trent does what any normal
08:25person would do in that situation. He goes straight to the cinema to see the movie adaptation of In the
08:30Mouth of Madness. Watching himself on the big screen and everything that's already happened in
08:35his life, Trent maniacally laughs to himself before breaking down in tears. So what happened? Is
08:41Trent crazy? Is he a character in Cain's novel? Is it a little bit of both or something in between?
08:47You decide. Number 3, Evil Dead 2013. Even though the Evil Dead trilogy seemingly wrapped in 1992,
08:55fans of Sam Raimi's iconic ZOMCOMs wanted more. Much like the Deadites themselves, it seemed like the
09:00franchise just couldn't stay buried. So fans were thrilled when another entry was greenlit in 2013,
09:06simply called Evil Dead. Although us fans hoped that the latest edition would have some direct
09:10connection to the original film, 2013's Evil Dead was more of a straightforward remake, although it did
09:16switch up who you thought the hero would be. Anyone who stuck around to watch the post-credits scenes
09:21though had something of a different thought. See, after the credits there is a single shot of the
09:26hero of the original films, Ash Williams, saying his iconic catchphrase of groovy before turning
09:31to face the camera. Now, even though this was probably nothing more than me at fanservice,
09:36many viewers got more excited by this post-credits scene than the movie itself. Many speculated online
09:42that this sequence could prove that everyone's favourite chainsaw-wielding hero would appear in the
09:47sequel, which was furthered by the producers as they were discussing the possibility of a sequel that
09:52merged the original trilogy with the remake universe. But eventually, just like the fabled Evil Dead 4,
09:58it was all for naught. Although Bruce Campbell did reprise his role in a TV series titled Ash vs.
10:03the Evil Dead, Ash Williams has yet to appear in another movie, and thanks to Bruce Campbell now
10:08retiring the role, it's unlikely he ever will. Number 2 Drag Me to Hell
10:13Speaking of Sam Raimi, in his great film Drag Me to Hell, a lone officer called Christine Brown is told
10:19by her boss that she's too soft to get promoted. In order to prove him wrong, she refuses to give
10:24out a loan to a woman called Gnush, resulting in her losing her house. Furious, Gnush places a hex
10:29on Christine's button, condemning her to hell. Although Christine tries to make peace with the Owl
10:34Lady, that becomes impossible when she pops her clocks. After being tormented with hallucinations,
10:39possession and nightmarish nosebleeds, god I hate those myself, Christine learns that she can pass
10:45on the hex by offering her cursed button to another person. Tempted to give the button to a colleague
10:50that she hates, she decides instead to place it on Gnush's grave, seemingly reversing the hex.
10:55But in the climax, Christine realizes that she accidentally gave up the wrong button,
11:00meaning that she's still in possession of the cursed one. Before she has a chance to remedy this,
11:04the horde of demons burst from the ground and cast her down to hell. Even though there are a lot of
11:09horror films where the protagonist winds up dead, viewers really thought that Christine would
11:14make it out of this alive. Number one, The Shining. Yep, could it have been anything else?
11:20In The Shining, struggling author Jack Torrance agrees to a caretaking position at the Overlook
11:25Hotel, unaware that it's haunted. Moving in with his wife Wendy and his son Danny, Jack feels like this
11:30is the perfect opportunity for him to finish his book. Yeah, there's a lot of entries about writers
11:35trying to finish their books and going mad on this list. I don't know what it is about that process
11:38that just makes for good horror, I guess. Anyway, after the spirits of the hotel prey on Jack's vices,
11:43which are, funnily enough, other kinds of spirits, he goes insane and tries to murder his family.
11:48Luckily, Wendy and Danny lose Jack in a blizzard and escape, and unable to find his way back to the
11:53hotel, Jack freezes to death. Just as everything looks like it's wrapping up, we cut to the hotel's
11:58interior, where the camera zooms in on a picture of a party at the Overlook Hotel, with Jack Torrance in
12:04the bottom centre. The camera slowly pans down, showing the picture was taken in 1921, 59 years before
12:10the events in the movie. Theories have raged about what this means for decades, and there is no
12:16question that The Shining has one of the biggest WTF endings in the history of cinema. So that's our
12:23list. I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below. What did you think about these
12:26horror movie endings? Do you have any interpretations for The Shining or anything like that as well?
12:31And are there any that you would have put on here? While you're letting us know, could you please give us
12:35a like, share, subscribe and head over to What Culture Horror for more lists like this on the
12:38regular. Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.