10 More Movies That Almost Had Much Better Endings

Up there with the likes of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Leatherface as some of the biggest icons in the history of the horror genre is Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). The dream-stalking villain first appeared in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street back in 1984, and has since made eight further cinematic appearances.

All of these sequels were made possible by the fact that the original movie ended with the reveal that Freddy was still alive, allowing him to haunt nightmares for many more years to come. That's not how the director initially wanted things to go, however.

Craven's initial ending focused more on Nancy's (Heather Langenkamp) victory rather than the villain. She had won, and without the final twist of Freddy's survival, the movie ended on a quiet, peaceful note that saw her return to her normal life. Producer Bob Shaye took issue with this however, as there was no potential to build a franchise.

Of course, the scene that made the final cut famously showed the return of Freddy, but this in turn signalled the departure of Wes Craven from the franchise. The legendary director rued changing his ending, as it should have been about Nancy turning her back on Freddy and thus defeating him forever. It may have killed any franchise potential, but it would have been less of a cliché, and like Terminator, none of the sequels have even come close to recapturing that original magic anyway.