20 Horror Movie Happy Endings Nobody Saw Coming

By its very nature, the horror genre taps into the darker, more twisted aspects of the human condition and beyond. 

And so, it's little surprise that so many horror movies serve up unfortunate endings for their central characters, ensuring the horror carries on long past the end credits - and possibly into a wider franchise.

In fact, downer endings feel so ingrained in the DNA of the horror genre that it can be genuinely jarring when a film actually ends well for the central characters, as was certainly the case with these 20 horror movies.

No matter how dire the circumstances seemed for our embattled hero, and how unlikely they appeared to triumph over the forces conspiring against them, these horror movies all served up an unexpectedly sunny, even downright triumphant ending totally out of nowhere.

Few could've seen it coming from the utterly grim vibes of the first two acts, which ultimately only made it that much more satisfying. To see these characters put through hell and then emerge out the other side in one piece was nothing if not massively cathartic...

Considering that George A. Romero's two previous zombie films had bleak and ambiguous endings respectively, few were expecting much of a hopeful outcome for the survivors of Day of the Dead.

And while the film certainly has plenty of gooey grimness to go around, it does nevertheless end on a fairly solid note for the central characters.

After the vile Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) is torn apart by the undead, John (Terry Alexander), Sarah (Lori Cardille), and Bill (Jarlath Conroy) get to a chopper and fly it to a tropical island.

While the world has still been torn apart by an undead apocalypse, the trio seem quite safely siloed off on an island with a steady supply of fresh fish to catch. 

We can't know for sure what the future will hold for them, but considering everything leading up to that ending it's a surprisingly fortuitous outcome for the central survivors - almost jarringly so, in fact.