10 Most Shocking Horror Movie Endings
6. Night Of The Living Dead: A Case Of Mistaken Identity
The horror genre has more than its fair share of moronic characters and most of them get exactly what they deserve.
Night of the Living Dead hero Ben is an exception to that rule. He's a strong, intelligent leading man whose sensible actions should have seen him through to the end credits, but a tragic case of mistaken identity downed him in the final scene.
After riding out the zombie plague in the cellar of the farmhouse, Ben is shot dead by a member of the cavalry, who assume he's one of the walking dead. They throws his corpse onto the fire along with the other slain zombies.
The tragic irony of Ben's demise is difficult to stomach after rooting for him throughout the film, but it's the powerful visual metaphor his death represents that highlights the true genius of the late George A Romero.
A strong black leader gunned down by a group of white men and then thrown onto a fire would no doubt have made uncomfortable viewing in 1960s America. Romero held a mirror up to the dark underbelly of the era's zeitgeist and made the kind of statement most filmmakers back then were afraid to.