20 Horror Movie Endings That Are Practically Perfect

8. The Lighthouse - Prometheus

The Lighthouse, a horror masterpiece from the great Robert Eggers, is a glorious slice of insanity. This story of two lighthouse-keepers - Thomas Howard (Robert Pattinson) and Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) - descending into insanity while isolated in their lighthouse is an unhinged fever-dream of a movie that's similar to Eraserhead. It's another ambiguous, vibes-led work with an ending we could debate until the cows come home. 

By the end, Howard has completely lost it, and he's also become obsessed with the lighthouse's mysterious light, which Wake obsessively guards. In a final, blisteringly intense confrontation, Howard - who's implied to have murdered someone before coming to the island - kills Wake and then goes up to the top of the tower, where he looks into the light at last. Whatever he sees, it completely overcomes him, and he falls down to the bottom of the tower. We then cut to him naked on the rocks with his innards being eaten by gulls, a horrible image no viewer will forget in a hurry. 

You can interpret this how you like; many have pointed towards the clear allusions to the story of Prometheus from Greek Mythology. Anyhow, regardless of what each viewer takes away, this is a visually-perfect and gut-punchingly uncomfortable denouement that burrows into your brain like one of Khan Singh's mind worms, and audience members will feel the paranoia, the anxiety, the madness right in their veins. With such masterful filmmaking, a clear explanation isn't needed.