10 Horror Movie Endings That Leave You Speechless

Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream is not what most people reach for when they're settling in for a good scare, but this psychological horror features more disturbing imagery and full-system shocks than many big Hollywood horrors released today.

All these years, and several ground-breaking, showstopping films later, and Requiem for a Dream still remains Aronofsky's best work. It's also his bleakest. Based on Hubert Selby Jr's novel, this story of thieving, relapsing drug addicts and their dire influence on the world around them doesn't let up, maintaining a near-painful tension throughout. Sara (Ellen Burstyn) is an NYC widow dreaming of gameshow stardom; her son Harry (Jared Leto) and his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) are heroin addicts hoping to get out of the ghetto and kick their habit; and Harry’s girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connolly) plans to open a clothes shop selling her own designs. Each chases their own portion of the consumer-capitalist dream, and each fails diabolically. 

Several scenes throughout the film are difficult to watch, as Sara succumbs to delusions and prescription pills, Harry and Tyrone's addiction overtakes their entrepreneurial abilities, and Marion turns to extreme sex work. But the ending is the clincher: Sara is catatonic after undergoing shock therapy, Tyrone is abused in prison, Marion is pimped out for group sex, and Harry has his gangrenous arm amputated. All the while Clint Mansell's Lux Aeterna squeals away in the background, a melancholic death knell whose warning heard so early in the film, but which we all ignored.