10 Movie Moments That Were Almost WAY Darker

On top of the horror genre typically finding bold new ways to leave you wincing in your seats, other corners of the movie sphere have increasingly made a habit of taking a walk on the dark side in modern times.

And while it may seem as though certain filmmakers have thrown some of the most unsettling and graphic material possible at their audience in everything from anti-superhero outings to bizarre horror comedies, this list is here to remind you that they sometimes actually had to resist the urge to unleash a far darker version of events in their finished picture.

Now, in some cases, it's not hard to see why the call was made to keep a scene from taking a more sinister turn, with said development perhaps taking things down an unnecessarily horrifying road just for the sake of it.

But in other instances, something as simple as a lack of time kept certain sequences from really heading into more gruesome and startling territory.

So, with all that being said, prepare yourself for an alternate universe where iconic hallway scenes were taken up a notch and beloved characters didn't actually make it out of their movie alive...

SPOILERS AHEAD!

As the dust settled on the 169-minute onslaught that was John Wick: Chapter 4, Donnie Yen's Caine had earned his freedom and was seemingly set to reunite with his daughter.

What a lovely ending for an all-round badass, eh?

Only, as revealed in that post-credits scene depicting Caine heading towards his child in Paris, the blind assassin looked to be walking straight towards a vengeful, knife-wielding Akira (Rina Sawayama) before the scene cut to black.

Had director Chad Stahelski stuck to his original plan for the post-credit conclusion, though, things may not have ended on such an ambiguous note.

As revealed during a chat with Collider, Yen's character would've actually been stabbed by the daughter of Koji, the friend he had to kill during his quest to take out Wick. And not only that, Caine would've then been at the centre of a "whole death scene."

But Stahelski was eventually convinced by his editor, Nathan Orloff, that it would be a stronger and more intriguing conclusion to have the audience simply wonder whether Akira actually went through with the kill instead.

It's a good thing to, because losing both Yen and Keanu Reeves in one movie would've been too much for even the most bloodthirsty Wick fan to handle.