6. Ben Is Mistaken For A Zombie & Killed - Night Of The Living Dead
The Ending: Ben (Duane Jones), the only survivor of the zombie assault on the house, is mistaken for a zombie himself by the sheriff's deputies, and is promptly shot through the head. The movie ends with his body being burned on a pyre along with the actual zombies.
How It Trolled Audiences: It's a zombie movie, so there's gotta be the one good, likeable protagonist who survives, right? Wrong. George A. Romero broke all the rules in his fantastically subversive horror flick, which didn't just upend viewer expectations that Ben had earned the right to live, but also infused his death with a thought-provoking political commentary, especially given the movie's rooting in the Civil Rights era. Romero nor the genre have ever as been as intellectually engaging or mind-blowing as this.