20 Horror Movie Endings That Are Practically Perfect

18. Martyrs - A Whisper From Beyond

Martyrs' ending is one of those conclusions that will completely break you, but that's in a good way. 

Conceived by writer-director Pascal Laugier during a time when he was severely depressed, Martyrs is all about pain. When Anna (Morjana Alaoui) comes to help her friend Lucie (Mylene Jampanoi) clean up a crime scene, she discovers a horrific secret society who have made it their mission to subject their victims to such pain that they see into the afterlife. 

Eventually, Anna becomes their latest subject and, after a while, she is revealed to have been surgically flayed alive in what is surely one of the most disturbing scenes in any 21st-century horror flick. She has apparently achieved transcendence, and she whispers what she sees into the ear of Mademoiselle (Catherine Begin). What did she say? We'll never know, as it's not revealed and Laugier has kept it appropriately ambiguous. 

After this exchange, Mademoiselle shoots herself, just after telling her assistant to keep doubting what lies ahead after death. So, what did any of this mean? Was Mademoiselle so disillusioned with Anna's visions that she wanted to die? Did Anna lie to her in order to drive her to suicide? Or did Mademoiselle kill herself in order to experience the afterlife Anna described? Every viewer can take a different meaning away, reaffirming this as an undeniably powerful and uniquely devastating piece of horror storytelling.