10 Horror Movies Where The Last Scene Is The Best
8. Eden Lake
2008's critically acclaimed Eden Lake is a film built on despair. While James Watkins' film received rave reviews upon release, the movie has an utterly desolating effect on anyone who happens to witness it - as exemplified by its harrowing final sequence.
Eden Lake follows a couple on holiday who find themselves ruthlessly pursued through the British woodlands by a gang of murderous youths. Michael Fassbender's Steve duly bites the dust first following an appalling session of torture. That leaves Kelly Reilly's Jenny left alone as she attempts to escape the group of sadistic teenagers, led by Jack O'Connell's psychopathic Brett.
The film's blood chilling conclusion sees a dazed Jenny awaken in a room full of concerned strangers, having crashed her escape vehicle and knocked herself unconscious. Unbridled horror swiftly sets in as Jenny realizes that her apparent saviors are none other than the parents of the abhorrent hoodlums who have been pursuing her.
Said hoodlums arrive on scene shortly after, pinning the blame for the appalling crimes they committed over the course of the film on the petrified Jenny. Despite a valiant attempt to barricade herself in a bathroom, Reilly's doomed protagonist is overpowered and presumably murdered shortly afterwards offscreen. The traumatic audio of her muffled screams of despair set against Brett staring blankly into a mirror, combine to serve up one of horror's most brilliantly soul-destroying final scenes.
It's an ending that sucks the life out of you. Flawless despair.