10 Movies Which Were Completely Changed After Test Screenings

9. The Descent

If there's any genre of film which can surely get away without having a happy ending tacked on the end, it's horror. Given that the entire point of horror is to try and instill a sense of fear, dread, apprehension and discomfort in the audience, a happy ending runs at odds with the purpose of the film. UK audiences who went to see the claustrophobic horror film The Descent understand the power of a downbeat ending - having watched the protagonist finally claw her way out of the monster-infested network of underground caves, she suddenly reawakens in a cave, back to the nightmare. Apparently US test screening audiences didn't like this "uber-hopeless finale" so the decision was made to switch the ending, allowing her to get away with her life. Director Neil Marshall made a valid point about the ending switcheroo when he compared it to the end of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in which the heroine also gets away. But while he's right that this isn't necessarily a "happy" ending, it doesn't change the fact that The Descent's US ending is definitely much happier.