8 Worst Slasher Horror Movie Fakeout Endings

Those slasher movie fakeouts that left us all rolling our eyes.

by Andrew Pollard
Hello Mary Lou Prom Night Ii 1987
The Samuel Goldwyn Company

No genre of film is more synonymous with fakeouts than the horror genre, and likewise no subgenre of horror is more associated with this trope than the humble slasher movie.

So often in the realm of slashers, the audience will be led down one particular path, only to have the proverbial rug pulled out from under them as it's revealed that what they've previously scene was all a ruse. Whereas a standard plot twist can come completely out of left-field and with no indicators, the difference with a fakeout is that it very much establishes something as being absolutely true and definitive, before then deceptively cementing that thing as being utterly false.

Following on from our 10 Best Slasher Horror Movie Fakeout Endings list from earlier in the year, it's only fair to shine a spotlight on those fakeouts that left an extremely bad taste. Whether they were illogical, pointless or just outright 'meh', the swerves featured here are all memorable for how ropey they were.

With that in mind, then, here are eight of the worst fakeouts carved up by slasher movies over the decades.

8. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II

Hello Mary Lou Prom Night Ii 1987
The Samuel Goldwyn Company

The reason Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II's fakeout earns itself a spot on this list, is down to how downright cheesy it all is.

In this 1987 effort, the titular Mary Lou is a highly-sexed young women who ends up burnt alive at her high school prom after she'd mocked wealthy nerd Billy. Skipping ahead 30 years, Billy is now the principal of the school, and the vengeful spirit of Mary Lou has been awakened to cause terror on the students of the day - in particular, possessing Prom Queen wannabe Vicki.

After several dead bodies have been amassed, the Mary Lou-infused Vicki opens a gateway to Hell during Prom Night. Thankfully, Billy is able to appease and vanquish this spirit after he presents her with a crown. And with that, Vicki is released from Mary Lou's grip, and all is once again well with the world.

The kicker here, is that Prom Night II ends with the revelation that this 'happy ending' was a lie, and we bizarrely get a final scene where Vicki and her boyfriend Craig find themselves in a car with the now-possessed Billy... complete with Ronnie Hawkins' Hello Mary Lou playing on the car stereo, and a car license plate that reads MARYLU2.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.