10 Alternate Endings That Almost Ruined Classic Horror Movies

The Proper Ending: After the killer troglodytes have picked off the group of all-female spelunkers one by one, only protagonist Sarah and frenemy Juno remain. Sarah stabs Juno in the leg with a pickaxe – well, she did have an affair with her dead husband after all – and leaves her for the flesh-hungry cave-dwellers but is knocked unconscious before she escapes.

Sarah swiftly awakens, however, and manages to get the hell out of dodge and drives away only to be startled by a ghostly apparition of Juno next to her. The scene cuts back to the cave where Sarah awakens apparently having hallucinated her escape while unconscious and the camera pans out as we hear the terrifying screeches of the cave creatures advancing upon her.

The Awful Alternate Ending: If you had the misfortune of seeing The Descent in an American cinema then the film actually ended after that ghost of Juno jump scare when Sarah escapes the caves. The reason? The remaining footage that shows Sarah back in the caves and about to be eaten alive was deemed too depressing and dark for American audiences.

A fair point but the original British ending packed far more of a punch and it didn’t leave the movie wide open for its subpar sequel.