10 Horror Movies That Left Out The True Horrific Ending

5. The Town That Dreaded Sundown

The Exorcism Of Emily Rose
Orion Pictures

Whilst 2014's The Town That Dreaded Sundown gets a bit weird and self-reflective, the original movie by that name is a fictionalised account of the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders.

Five people were killed by the so-called Phantom Killer who, as you can probably work out from their name, was never caught. The 1976 movie is faithful to this, ending with a tense shootout between cops and the hooded murderer before the latter flees into the night.

What the film fails to mention though, is the rumoured sixth victim of the Phantom.

A few days after the final confirmed murder, the body of Earl McSpadden was found on a set of train tracks. Post-mortems confirmed that McSpadden had been dead when he was dumped, leading some to speculate that the Phantom had struck again.

Imagine if McSpadden was another of the Phantom's casualties? That opens up a whole host of questions about the Phantom's true body count.

The thought of a serial killer who never got caught is scary enough, so it's no wonder this movie chose to omit the fact that his killing spree might have lasted a lot longer.

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.