In many ways a film is only as good as its ending. How many times have you, in the horror genre especially, been on board with a flick up until the final few moments, only to be thoroughly disappointed by a finale that makes you wanna hurl large objects at your screen? We’ve all experienced it all too often. Which is why we’re looking at the most awesomely unpredictable horror film endings. Snap finales, shocking twists, surprising revelations, whatever the case may be, here now is the Top Ten conclusive Best Horror Movie Twist Endings!
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
Not only is Psycho the forerunner of the modern day slasher film, Alfred Hitchcock’s inimitable low-budget tour de force is one of the finest films ever crafted. But even more bold than killing off the female lead halfway through the picture (a movie superstar in Janet Leigh no less) is Hitch’s highly disturbing denouement, where we learn Norman Bates has long ago killed his mother and since developed a split personality mental illness that propels him to commit brutal acts of murder. It’s pretty amazing how well the film holds up all these decades years later, the ending being no exception. When you consider the film’s place in history and how utterly shocked and revolted the last reel must have rendered audiences in 1960, there’s no wonder why Psycho is awarded our gold trophy.
In terms of craft and quality, Robert Hiltzik’s 1983 sexual-slasher joint Sleepaway Camp would probably rank dead last on this list… but if we’re strictly talking awesome twist endings, this movie is positioned right about where it should be. In one of the all time most jaw-dropping final reveal shots, we learn the spree of brutal slayings have been committed by innocent-looking Angela (Felissa Rose), who was born male but has been forced to live as a female by a crazy aunt. Sleepaway Camp‘s finish is precisely the kind we yearn for. It’s a truly hair-raising, unpredictable, downright unsettling ending that’s hard to shake.
The renaissance of French new wave horror we experienced twenty years ago can be largely attributed to Alexandre Aja’s splendid 2003 slasher flick Haute Tension / High Tension, a film infamous for its polarizing love-it or hate-it climax. I for one love it, even if I found it a bit annoying upon first viewing. You know the gist, when Marie and Alexa vacation at the former’s parental abode in the country, they become stalked by an axe-wielding maniac. It’s a small, intensely gritty film with a star-making turn from Cecile De France, and the entire picture works up to a shocking, reality-bending twist. Your reaction to the overall film is totally dependent on that last piece of startling exposition. If that pay off doesn’t work, the whole thing falls flat.
I vividly recall watching M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense for the first time on video when I was a teenager. Funnily enough, about halfway through the picture, I turned to my sister and said, “Dude, what’s up with Bruce Willis? He looks dead.” Little did I know that was the exact literal narrative device on which the film is centered. In what’s probably M. Night’s finest hour, I think what becomes equally instrumental to the power of the film’s final twist is the precocious performance of Haley Joel Osment. Despite all the hints and dead giveaways (pun?) that become obvious during repeated viewings, we become so heavily invested in the little boy’s ethereal torment that we hardly even notice what’s going on below the surface.
As far as superhuman slasher-villains are concerned, I’m a Jason Voorhees man through and through. Of course, we all know it wasn’t the murderous man-child dispatching many a lakeside teen in Sean Cunningham’s 1980 original Friday the 13th, it was his psychotically overbearing mother Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer, despite insert shots of man hands and feet to the contrary). When the maddened matron deems a cadre of promiscuous punks responsible for the drowning of her little boy (Jason), a gruesome bout of recompense is served. The fact that Jason’s mother is the killer is in itself a shocker, but even that penultimate tell is outdone by the film’s final twist. When heroine Alice (Adrienne King) awakes in a canoe amid a serene lake, only to be startled one last time by a zombified adolescent Jason leaping from the water to take her under… dream or no… that rules!
One could argue Kevin Spacey’s last minute involvement is David Fincher’s 1995 masterpiece Se7en was quite a shock in its own right (remember, he was cast a mere 2 days before filming), but it really, who wasn’t rendered mouth agape by the films unflinchingly nihilistic finale? Brad Pitt famously refused to partake in the film if New Line opted for an altered ending, a stance of integrity we can all appreciate. We all know the details: when Spacey’s John Doe directs detectives Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mills (Pitt) to the desert to lay witness to his final bout of homicidal handywork, a shattering twofold truth is unearthed. Not only has Somerset’s wife (Paltrow) been decapitated; Mills’ unexpected child was consequently victimized. In every way conceivable, Se7en is a superlative film, the conclusion of which heightens its sense of evil.
What I love so much about Robin Hardy’s 1973 cult-classic The Wicker Man is how difficult it is to codify. Is it a horror film? A police procedural? A psychological thriller? What the hell is it? The answer is that the film is an enigmatic mélange of all those genre tropes, the result being an extremely unpredictable and at times discombobulating experience. As we follow Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) looking for a missing girl on the Scottish island of Sommerisle, we slowly get an unnerving sense that something’s amiss. Meandering in and out of sleazy pubs and eateries, we gradually begin to feel as lost as Howie does. By the time the film unleashes its brazenly downtrodden pinnacle, the audience is left as stunned by what transpires as Howie is: A pagan ritual sacrifice in which most of the townsfolk are complicit.
Anyone who hasn’t seen Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 Venice-set spookster Don’t Look Now must do so stat! Deftly fusing arthouse tenets with intense psychological drama, Roeg’s film deals with a grieving couple (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) who retreat to the canals of Italy to cope with the loss of their daughter. There, after meeting some awfully shady characters, including psychic sisters, Sutherland’s character becomes plagued with eerie visions and clairvoyant flashes that make him think his daughter is alive and well in Venice. Meanwhile, a rash of grisly murders are taking place. The final twist? It’s not the couple’s daughter that Sutherland is spotting about town, it’s a murderous dwarf, decked in a red raincoat creepily reminiscent of the daughter’s own. A truly gut-punching finish!
Perhaps not as circuitous or even as cool as some of our other twist endings, what really strikes you about Frank Darabont’s conclusion, which strays from the Stephen King source material, is how the man we’ve come to identify as a hero (Thomas Jane) is the one ultimately responsible for his family’s undoing. It’s a sad, soul-crushing capper to an otherwise standard monster movie. Standard in its structure, the movie lulls you into a false sense of knowing what comes next. Then, just as we think an inevitable escape is on the brink, Darabont bucks convention altogether to give us something far more effective.
I almost wrapped up the list by throwing a little love to the 1986 pseudo-slasher April Fool’s Day, but in the end, Wes Craven’s self-reflexive reinvention of the genre pushed its way on here. From the masterful opening sequence (which still holds up today), Craven instantly sets up a post-modern slasher whodunit, cloaking his killer(s) in what’s now become an iconic piece of global pop culture. Fresh, funny, self-aware, Scream has so many synergistic facets at work that we never really get the chance to even ponder the film’s bold final revelation: an elaborately murderous “game” has been played with two assailants working in tandem. It’s a conclusion as innovative and hip as the rest of the movie.
What is the most shocking horror movie ending?
Psycho (1960) is widely considered the most shocking due to its groundbreaking final reveal.
What makes a horror twist ending effective?
A great twist recontextualizes the entire story while still feeling earned.
Are twist endings common in horror movies?
Yes, especially in psychological and supernatural horror, where perception and reality are often blurred.