8 Horror Movies Ruined By Last Minute Changes

I’m sure by now you’ve seen plenty of lists of movies fixed by last minute changes, or ones given a whole new meaning and lease of life by a genius final-moment addition. We love a good hero story, a story of something being brought up to scratch when nobody expected it - it’s uplifting!

Unfortunately, as is the nature of both life and the film industry, most of the time changes aren’t made for the best. What is best for a film’s commercial prospects is not often (cite, rarely) the best for its cinematic and cultural value. Studios know what works, what makes a great trailer moment, what actors and directors get audiences down at the cinema buying tickets, and they’ll stick to it like glue.

Horror movies get more remit for being crazy than most others but they're not immune to meddling, and it happens more often than you'd think.

One redeeming thing that can make us feel a bit better though is when cynical studio execs get their comeuppance, losing out on the big bucks because of money-minded changes they forced on films at the last minute. We all love an underdog, but we love to see the Big Wigs fail even more.

I Am Legend is a pretty famous example of how filmmakers shouldn't always trust test audiences. Sure, having test screenings is a helpful way to gauge opinions on lots of aspects of your film, but you’ve got to draw a line somewhere.

I Am Legend is based off a book by Richard Matheson, showcasing his innovative zombie-vampire hybrid type monsters. The book was so inspirational in fact that a good four well-known movies came out of it, from The Last Man On Earth through to Night Of The Living Dead.

The novel has a fittingly thought-provoking ending, in which the survivor protagonist finds that the monsters are the new evolution of the human race. They are sentient as he is, with thoughts and feelings, and they hate him as he has slaughtered their kind. He realises now that he is a relic of the past, of the un-evolved and the world has outgrown him.

Stunning, right? Well instead of sticking with that, test audiences said they’d rather have something easy to swallow. The original ending was binned and replaced with the ‘Will Smith makes a cure then sacrifices himself’ schtick, which is totally meaningless and predictable.