10 Final Horror Movie Scenes That Changed Everything
When the closing moments flip the whole movie on its head.
There's nothing more important in a movie than how it ends - get it right and it places a neat cherry on top of an already great film, but screw it up and it can undo all the hard work leading up to it.
A movie's final scene is often used to introduce new information which drastically re-frames the context of the entire story, and that's perhaps never more common than in the horror genre.
Horror absolutely loves pulling the rug out in the closing moments, providing viewers with vital last-minute information which offers an entirely new perspective to everything they've just seen.
At their best, these moments will make you want to immediately rewatch the film with this closing reveal in mind, given how radically it changes the meaning of, well, everything. And in the very least, they'll make you rethink the entire experience for better or worse, that the story and characters weren't quite what you expected going in.
It's a risky trick that doesn't always pay off - and sometimes studios just disregard its implications in the sequel anyway - but when it works, it really works...
10. Final Destination 5
Final Destination 5 was certainly one of the better entries into the franchise, but what transformed a solid horror sequel into something truly memorable was its game-changing final scene.
As Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) and Molly (Emma Bell) seemingly cheat death and board a plane at the end of the movie, it's suddenly revealed that they've boarded Volée Airlines Flight 180 - the doomed flight from the original Final Destination.
Basically, though audiences understandably assumed the film was set in the present, it's actually a secret prequel set in the year 2000.
And while it wasn't exactly a shock that Sam and Molly were claimed by Death at film's end given that this is basically the outcome of most Final Destination movies, looping back to the first film was a genuinely rattling rug-pull.
Considering that this marked the end of the original run of Final Destination movies - though a sixth film is currently in development - it was incredibly fitting, if unexpected, for its climax to bring everything full circle.