10 Scariest Horror Movie Endings Of All Time
1. The Wicker Man
There's two classic versions of The Wicker man. One is a classic for its lasting impression on psychological horror movies, an intense dive into one man's search for a missing girl that results in uncovering a fanatic Pagan ritual. The other is a classic because it has Nic Cage screaming about bees as a method of torture as his head is stuck inside a honeycomb helmet.
Concentrating on the first one this time then, the original Wicker Man has an ending that leaves a lasting chill running down your spine, depicting the titular effigy burning into the sunset with our protagonist trapped inside. Failing to see his investigation into the missing child was actually a ruse, Police Sargent Howie is taken by the residents of the island as a sacrifice to appease their old gods, desperately praying for comfort as he's burned alive on a giant pyre in front of willingly sadistic islanders.
Whilst we've had plenty of terrifying movies since - some gorier, some riddled with jump scares, and some far more brutal - there's nothing that compares to the deeply unsettling death of Howie through this religious extremism. There's a reason this film has lasted through the ages.