10 Recent Horror Movies That Broke All The Rules

Rule Break: Evil wins, and it’s jaw-droppingly glorious.

The third horror gem in Polish director Bartosz Kowalski’s Netflix run, Hellhole might just be his best - a lean, stylish, and nerve-racking descent into religious terror that flips the script right when you think you’ve got it figured out.

Kowalski’s no stranger to upending genre expectations. His Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight sequel controversially turned its Final Girl into the slasher villain, which was bold, if divisive stuff. Here, he starts with a classic pulp premise: a brooding monastery, creepy monks, and a cop with a dark past investigating whispered occult activity. For most of its runtime, it plays things straight, confidently building atmosphere and unease.

Then the third act hits.

Without giving too much away, the film’s prophecy about the Antichrist’s return doesn’t unfold the way you'd expect. What begins as slow-burn religious horror gets a sudden whiplash in black humor, before detonating into an unholy crescendo of cosmic dread, resulting in a final ten minutes that are at once frightening, baffling, and strangely beautiful - all with a badass practical creature to boot.

The ending doesn’t offer catharsis; quite the opposite. Evil triumphs. The world ends. And the final image? It's the kind of stuff that'll that will etch itself inside your brain for weeks.