10 Best Slasher Horror Movie Fakeout Endings
3. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
A slasher movie with a whole dollop of supernatural chicanery thrown in for good measure, Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street was famously the launching point for one of horror's most iconic characters. In addition to introducing the world to Freddy Krueger, this first Elm Street offering also had one of the most memorable fakeout endings in horror history.
Given the trippy nature of what Freddy and his dream attacks bring to the table, audiences were initially lulled into a false sense of security in the closing minutes of this 1984 offering.
Despite her friends, boyfriend and mother having been dispatched by Krueger throughout the film, final girl Nancy Thompson awakens in a reality where all of these people are alive and well once she's managed to defeat Freddy. Here, her beau and pals are in a car outside Nancy's house, waiting to give her a lift to school, and her mom is happily stood on the front porch to wave the kids off on their drive.
This all proves to be bogus, though, for the claw-gloved hand of Freddy bursts through the Thompson house's front door and attacks Nancy's mother Marge, just as the group's car likewise becomes possessed by Krueger.