10 Weaknesses Of Great Horror Films

Following a refreshing take on the werewolf subgenre with 2002's Dog Soldiers, Neil Marshall cemented himself as one of modern horror's most promising figures with his universally acclaimed The Descent. One of the film's strengths is its bleak and hopeless ending, in which it's revealed that Sarah's triumphant escape from the cave system has all been a hallucination. She snaps back into her grim reality, and envisions her dead child sitting in front of her as one final comfort. The shot pans out as we hear the screeching of the Crawlers, about the descend upon our broken and defeated heroine. It's a great ending, is it not? Well - Lionsgate didn't think so.

Poor feedback of Marshall's intended ending after an American test screening prompted intervention from the US distributor, who didn't think the film should end on such a depressing note. Subsequently, Marshall's brilliant final moments were trimmed for the US release, instead ending as Sarah flees in her car, stops by the side of the road to compose herself, and is confronted by a vision of Juno's bloody ghost. That's it - fade to black.

While it's not necessarily a bad ending, it's far cheaper and certainly less powerful than the UK version. Essentially, Lionsgate insulted its American audience by assuming that they wouldn't appreciate the bleaker conclusion. It was a hugely patronising call. As it happens, fans of all nationalities seem to share the opinion that the originally intended ending is vastly superior. Never underestimate your audience - we can handle it.