13 Scariest Movie Endings That Kept You Up All Night
2. The Vanishing
Endings don't come much more nightmarish than that of this 1988 Dutch/French thriller from director George Sluizer, famously declared the most frightening film ever by no less an authority than Stanley Kubrick.
Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) are a Dutch couple whose vacation in France is cut short when Saskia suddenly disappears at a service station. Rex searches frantically for her with no success, and years later his search has still proved fruitless.
However, things take a turn when Rex is contacted by Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), a coldly detached sociopath who admits to having kidnapped Saskia. However, as he's been very careful, there seems to be no evidence linking him to the crime.
Ultimately, Raymond tells Rex the only way he'll find out what happened to Saskia is to experience it for himself, and gives him a drugged drink. Desperate for the truth, Rex drinks - and later wakes to find himself trapped in a coffin, buried alive. Raymond, meanwhile, gets away scot-free.
It's a harrowing conclusion, made all the more potent given how realistically the film plays out. Annoyingly, the 1993 US remake (also directed by Sluzier) plays it safer, tacking on a happy ending in which the good guys escape and the bad guy gets his. Better to ignore that one, and stick with the bone-chilling original.