10 Horror Movie Sequels That Were Just Too Cruel
2. The Descent Part II
Now in fairness, The Descent's original ending was itself incredibly bleak, revealing that protagonist Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) was in fact still trapped inside the monster-infested cave, seemingly confining her to a grim fate.
But The Descent Part 2 instead took the sunnier US ending as canon, where Sarah indeed escapes, only for her to suffer another unsavoury fate by sequel's end regardless.
Indeed, this is a takes-no-prisoners follow-up which makes the brave/stupid decision to kill off the original film's two surviving characters in its climax - as well as the remaining new hero.
Returning character Juno (Natalie Mendoza) ends up being fatally wounded by one of the crawlers, before Sarah sacrifices herself, distracting the crawlers so the only other survivor, new character Rios (Krysten Cummings), has a chance to escape.
That might seem like a fitting end for Sarah, except that the final scene shows Rios being knocked out by an old man, Ed (Michael J. Reynolds), and dragged back into the cave, making it all feel a bit pointless and, well, tiringly nasty.
And finally, if you haven't seen The Exorcist: Believer yet, MAJOR SPOILERS will follow...