10 More Alternate Horror Movie Endings You Didn't See

10. Ben Lives - Night Of The Living Dead

The death of Duane Jones' Ben is one of the most depressing in horror history. Having seemingly survived against all odds as the "ghouls" of Night of the Living Dead run rampant, Ben is shot and killed after being mistaken for one of the shuffling undead.

Originally, writers John Russo and George A. Romero envisioned an ending where Ben survives to live another day. Instead, they ended up settling on an ending where Ben was shot and thrown on a fire with the ghouls.

Why we didn't get this ending, that all comes to down to Duane Jones. As he explained to The Wrap back in 2010, he was the one who petitioned Russo and Romero to not have that happy ending. For Jones, he thought Night of the Living Dead would be more impactful and memorable if his character died at the end.

As Jones put it:

"I convinced George that the black community would rather see me dead than saved, after all that had gone on, in a corny and symbolically confusing way. The heroes never die in American movies. The jolt of that, and the double jolt of the hero being black, seemed liked a double-barrelled whammy."