10 Horror Movies That Should’ve Ended 5 Minutes Earlier

Ending a movie on a jump scare isn't always a bad thing. As a concept, the final scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street is a great idea. After Nancy realises the dream-controlling demon, Freddy Kruger, is powered by fear, she turns her back on him to prove she's not afraid of him. After he vanishes into thin air, we cut to a scene of Nancy's mother waving her daughter out of the house as she enters Glen's convertible. Since we saw Freddy slaughter Glen and Nancy's mum, we know something is amiss.

As the car locks Nancy in and drives off by itself, she realises that she is trapped in one of Freddy's dreams. The last shot has Freddy dragging Nancy's mother through the door's window before cutting to black.

On paper, that ending works fantastically. In execution, it's unintentionally hilarious. When Freddy drag's Nancy's mum through the window, the actress is replaced with a blatantly obvious dummy. (You can even see her rubber arm crinkle.) Even though this is a solid climax, it wasn't needed. If the production couldn't make the dummy look realistic enough, they should've just left the scene on the cutting room floor.