10 Horror Movie Scenes You Didn't See (Thanks To Test Audiences)
2. Tree (Possibly) Dies For Real - Happy Death Day
Happy Death Day ends in relatively concrete fashion, with protagonist Tree (Jessica Rothe) having captured and killed the masked murderer and consequently escaping the focal time loop.
But writer-director Christopher Landon actually shot a bleaker original ending where Tree breaks the loop but ends up in hospital, where she's killed by Stephanie Butler (Laura Clifton), the wife of the professor (Charles Aitken) Tree is having an affair with.
Stephanie kills Tree in revenge, ending the film on an ambiguous note where she's either dead for good this time or caught in yet another time loop. Basically, if the film made no money she would be dead, but if it did, the sequel-bait was firmly laid.
Test audiences loathed this because it denied Tree a cathartic happy ending, prompting Landon to throw it out and end with her and Carter (Israel Broussard) happily reunited.
This cleared the path for the sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, to have the Butlers actually appear as the killers. That original ending sounds pretty fun, though, so it's a shame it never got released as an extra.