10 Movie Endings That Left A Sour Taste In Your Mouth

7. The End Of All Things - Melancholia

Well, it's not really all that surprising that a film about the end of the world - written and directed by Danish provocateur Lars von Trier, no less - leaves a sour taste, is it?

Melancholia is just about the most melancholic film ever made, and takes place at a wedding reception out in the country, where Kirsten Dunst's Justine, the Bride of the occasion, slowly comes to realise that the end of the world is coming when a planet - named "Melancholia," of course - soon collides with Earth (despite the fact that her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgard, keeps telling her that it won't happen).

The film ultimately concludes with a rather beautiful sequence, in which Justine, her sister and her nephew hide inside a teepee as Melancholia hits the Earth, killing everyone.

Despite the fact that Justine adopts a relatively calm attitude as the apocalypse weighs in, this is still the sort of ending that leaves you stuck in a bout of quiet disorientation. Lars von Trier clearly goes out of his way to make the end of all things weirdly hypnotic, a neat antidote to the way the apocalypse is usually depicted in most Hollywood films, but at the same time Justine's apathy makes for an uneasy mood.

We knew how it would end, of course; we're shown the collision at the start of the picture. When it actually happens, though, it's difficult to accept, a result, perhaps, of it all feeling strangely real - and who, really, wants to be made to feel like the world is ending?