10 Incredible Endings To Otherwise Terrible Horror Movies
They're secretly dead! It's all in their heads! We've been on earth all along! (Okay, not that one)
Some movies stumble at the finish line and screw up a few hours of audience goodwill via a few minutes of ill-advised twists (looking at you, Hills Have Eyes director Alexandre Aja's Switchblade Romance).
Sometimes it's a misjudged over-the-top ending or a depressingly flat and anticlimactic one, but often times particularly in horror films the culprit of this last minute disaster is a too ambitious reveal. Intended to leave the audience reeling, these endings instead leave viewers howling with laughter at their silliness.
But what about the nothing-special, two star efforts which elevate themselves through some classic endings?
It's a phenomenon which is rarely highlighted, so here's a list of the horror flicks which weren't much cop until their killer final moments and great last minute twists. Some rely on cerebral surprises, some lean into their silliness to great result, and some simply shocked viewers by being meaner than the preceding film, but in every case here are ten times that otherwise passable horror flicks really nailed their landings.
10. The Forest
Released in 2016, The Forest was by and large a forgettable horror effort from director Jason Zada.
Set in the infamous Aokigahara forest in Japan, the titular woods which is well-known worldwide as a popular suicide destination, the flick follows a young woman who pursues her troubled twin sister into the forest whilst processing her childhood trauma around the tragic death of the pair's parents.
This largely disappointing chiller is helped out by a great dual role for Game of Thrones starlet Natalie Dormer, and this device also facilitates its surprisingly devastating twist.
Spoilers!
At the last second the viewer learns that the supposedly disturbed sister has safely left the forest unharmed, whilst her seemingly stable twin, aka our heroine, is dragged down by spirits and succumbs to a brutal fate.
Didn't think you had it in you, The Forest.