10 More Alternate Horror Movie Endings You Didn't See

Even more of those horror finales that never made it to the silver screen.

Freddy vs. Jason Alternate Ending
New Line Cinema

When it comes to the world of cinematic horror, this is a corner of film like few others.

Horror offers itself up to franchises, to remakes, to reboots and to spin-offs like no other genre does, as has been highlighted across the decades. And one other element that horror seems to bring to the table more than most, is the idea of alternate endings.

There are so many great and not-so-great horror pictures that have had potential film-closing sequences changed or removed before a movie makes it to the silver screen. Whether that's by design or solely down to budget, there are numerous examples of horror endings that we never got to see as part of a film's big release.

The "more" of this article title refers to the fact that this is a sequel to our previous 12 Alternative Horror Movie Endings You Didn't See from earlier in the year. As such, that rules out the alt finales for Army of Darkness, Blade, 1408, Fatal Attraction, Get Out, 2013's Carrie, Se7en, Underwater, Hannibal, Dawn of the Dead, Leatherface, and The Fly.

With that in mind, then, here are ten other horror pictures that had endings that we never got to see play out on the silver screen.

10. Ben Lives - Night Of The Living Dead

Freddy vs. Jason Alternate Ending
Continental Distributing

The death of Duane Jones' Ben is one of the most depressing in horror history. Having seemingly survived against all odds as the "ghouls" of Night of the Living Dead run rampant, Ben is shot and killed after being mistaken for one of the shuffling undead.

Originally, writers John Russo and George A. Romero envisioned an ending where Ben survives to live another day. Instead, they ended up settling on an ending where Ben was shot and thrown on a fire with the ghouls.

Why we didn't get this ending, that all comes to down to Duane Jones. As he explained to The Wrap back in 2010, he was the one who petitioned Russo and Romero to not have that happy ending. For Jones, he thought Night of the Living Dead would be more impactful and memorable if his character died at the end.

As Jones put it:

"I convinced George that the black community would rather see me dead than saved, after all that had gone on, in a corny and symbolically confusing way. The heroes never die in American movies. The jolt of that, and the double jolt of the hero being black, seemed liked a double-barrelled whammy."
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.