10 Movies Totally Ruined By Test Audiences

Alright, so expecting two bleak bangers in a row from George A Romero’s endings might be a bit unfair. After all, Dawn’s seminal predecessor, Night of the Living Dead, set the bar for “politically resonant but unbelievably brutal” endings high by killing off the sole surviving cast member as he was mistaken for a zombie by his fellow man.

With a new decade came a new shambling horde, this time invading your local allegorical mall and laying siege on its dwindling inhabitants. In the climax, the last survivors were originally set to abandon their attempts to board a helicopter and kill themselves instead, with one of them jumping into its blades. Cheery stuff it wasn’t but the ending fit the preceding film’s uncompromising vision.

However, test audiences reacted the way they usually do to anything bleak, demanding reshoots. As a result, the film ends with a slow, sombre build up showing the group’s loss of hope—then pivots to a sprightly, successful jog for the helicopter courtesy of our main characters.

It would be another decade and a half before viewers were finally delivered the helicopter decapitation Dawn’s original ending promised, courtesy of The Last Boy Scout.