10 Horror Movies That Ended Too Soon

Paranormal Activity was the film that convinced Hollywood that low-budget horror was worth investing in on a mass scale once again, while also putting the previously little known Blumhouse Productions on the map. But the film's slightly rushed ending stills shows some room for improvement.

It follows married couple Katie and Micah, who are terrorised by a demonic presence in their home which feeds on fear and gets more and more aggressive with each passing night.

Paranormal Activity works especially well because, even as the jump scares get more frequent, it still knows when to take things slow. The tension remains high even in quieter scenes, like when Katie just stands frozen by herself for hours in the middle of the night, and that is the mark of a truly great horror film.

In the film's climax, however, Katie is fully possessed by the demon and murders Micah in cold blood.

Obviously, Micah has been set up throughout the movie to be the sceptic who often ends up making things worse, but his sudden death here still feels anticlimactic, especially as he had finally accepted that he and Katie should evacuate the house.

Him dying tragically at the conclusion is not an inherently bad thing but it would have been more compelling, and made the character feel as fleshed out as Katie is, if he seriously tried to fight back against the demon and rally behind his wife in an attempt to atone for his mistakes before his untimely demise.