15 Good Horror Films That Totally Lost It By The End
What is it with horror films and underwhelming endings?
The horror genre might be one of the most fascinating genres there is, but its films suffer from lots of issues. As to what some of the biggest issues are, many often point to excessive gore, jump scares and a lack of atmosphere and suspense. However, there's one problem no-one ever mentions: how many horror films that simply screw up the climax.
The climax is rarely, if ever, the best part of a horror film. The frustrating thing is how many actually good horror films fail to offer a good pay-off. In fairness, this does feel somewhat inevitable.
After all, horror films are a genre which usually needs to keep progressively raising the stakes throughout and keep the momentum going, which is a lot harder than it looks. As well as this, usually an ending will involve revealing the source of the horror fully. If there's one thing horror's long history has taught us, it's that keeping the audience in the dark is the scarier route to go.
So horror films losing it at the end is understandable, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. As these following 15 films show, nothing, not even the classics, is immune.
15. It (2017)
The Film:
The much-hyped new adaptation of Stephen King's brilliant horror epic, which features a terrifying shape-shifting demon chasing and killing kids in a town in New England. This was definitely one of the best studio horror films of recent times and outdid the Tim Curry TV film in literally every single way.
A terrifying villain, strong scares, a funny and involving coming-of-age story and a fabulous young cast helped this remake soar to heights few horror remakes will ever go.
The Ending:
The end essentially involves the 7 kids playing whack-a-mole with the clown and hitting it repeatedly in the sewers, before it falls down a hole. There's far too much CGI and it simply isn't as scary as everything that came before it. As well as this, how can 7 kids defeat an evil, thousand-year-old monster just by hitting it repeatedly?
Given that most of the film prioritized suspense and atmosphere - which is what a horror film should do - this finale just felt far less sophisticated and scary than what came before it. Despite this, there are some good character moments before and after this disappointing final battle, so you won't leave the film feeling too sour.