10 Movies You Never Expected To Have A Happy Ending

In killer-plant horror The Ruins, some tourists in Mexico find themselves trapped atop a Mayan temple that's overrun with deadly, man-eating vines. They are kept there by some locals, who will kill them if they try to leave, in order to prevent the vines from spreading to civilization. 

Several endings were considered, and an alternate ending does exist, but, in the end, the filmmakers went for a more upbeat ending in which a single person - Amy (Jena Malone) - does manage to escape from the temple and drives away, apparently uninfected and safe. 

This was an unexpected end in more ways than one. Firstly, many 2000s studio horror films had unhappy endings, and secondly, this one is actually based on a (vastly superior) novel that had a much darker ending. In the source material, no one makes it. 

Director Carter Smith later said, "Our final decision was informed by what audiences found the most satisfying after watching a really punishing film. I love the ending of the book, but if the movie had ended the same way, the audience would have wanted to kill themselves."

Arguably, they made the right call. The Ruins, while not without its moments, is an ultimately unsuccessful venture, and a more positive conclusion did at least offer some sort of reward to the audience, who were no doubt pretty bored by the whole affair.