10 Best Slasher Horror Movie Fakeout Endings
2. Edge Of The Axe
Initially released in 1988, Edge of the Axe stands as a so-so slasher from a time when the subgenre had long become formulaic and the bloom was off the rose. Still, one of the more impressive elements of José Ramón Larraz's picture, is that it does a nice job of directing its audiences in one direction, before then pulling the rug out from under them with a cracking fakeout.
Plot-wise, as like so many slashers, the film centres on a small US town that's terrorised by a masked killer. With the townsfolk trying to decipher who this rogue really is, the prime suspect soon becomes Charlie, the distant cousin of our central character Lillian and someone who has just escaped from a mental asylum.
Edge of the Axe's second half has more dead bodies pile up as the hunt is on for Charlie, and the movie's closing act sees oddball computer nerd Gerald erratically, aggressively tell Lillian that she is really the killer and that Charlie is all a figment of her imagination. Like, seriously, the dude throws Lillian arounds his apartment, has the classic creepy eyes going on, and is intense as intense gets as he figuratively beats our final girl around the head with this supposed truth.
Complete with an axe - the film's weapon of choice for its villain - in hand, Gerald frantically chases Lillian outside of his apartment, where the cops are thankfully waiting to shoot and kill him.
In a marvellous fakeout, the final shot of Edge of the Axe has the weeping Lillian let out a crazed smile as she's being embraced by a cop, revealing that, yes, she was indeed responsible for the horrors seen in the film.