20 Most Intense Movie Endings Of All Time

9. The Wicker Man (1973)

Despite being almost a half-century old, The Wicker Man's twist ending bolsters the thriller as a timeless, white-knuckle masterpiece.

Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward) spends the movie roaming a remote island in search of a missing child, and at the end of the film learns from sinister island leader Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) that the missing persons case was just a lure to bring Howie to the island.

Howie is intended to be a pagan sacrifice in order to save the island's failing harvest, resulting in him being forced into a gigantic wicker man effigy, which is then set on fire. The islanders cheerfully watch the statue burn as a terrified Howie is helpless inside it, left to pray to Christ in vain. The end.

Little of the film's power has been diluted in the decades since its debut, serving up a bracing, unshakably disturbing capper to a film that was otherwise mostly quiet and deliberate.