10 Best Slasher Horror Movie Fakeout Endings

by Andrew Pollard

1. Friday The 13th (1980)

Friday The 13th Ending
Paramount

Much like the original Halloween warrants a place on this list, so too does the first instalment in the Friday the 13th franchise.

Released in 1980, this Sean S. Cunningham-helmed, Victor Miller-penned picture famously introduced the horror genre to Camp Crystal Lake and the Voorhees name. Of course, the person slicing 'n' dicing their way through the disposable teens of the day in this first Friday the 13th offering was Pamela Voorhees, the mother of a certain Jason.

As is explained here, young Jason drowned in the camp's lake after counsellors were too busy partying and frolicking. The real kicker of Friday the 13th, though, comes when sole survivor Alice - having beheaded Pamela - takes a nap in a canoe that's resting on Crystal Lake.

To help the audience feel fully at ease upon a first watch, cheery music plays, the scenery is beautiful, and Alice sleepily awakens with a smile at seeing the safety of the law waiting for her at the lake's edge. Just when it looks like we've got a classic happy ending, the decomposed body of Jason emerges from the lake and lunges at Alice - all as that cheery music turns to a shredded score of terror from Harry Manfredini.

One could also say it was an incidental, coincidental fakeout to position Pamela Voorhees as the villain of Friday the 13th, with her son Jason eventually becoming the 'big bad' of what would become a a ten-movie franchise, a crossover with Freddy Krueger, and a 2009 reboot.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.