20 Horror Movie Endings That Are Practically Perfect
7. Saint Maud - A Harrowing Cut
2020's Saint Maud, one of the decade's first great horror films, features a particular cut that, quite arguably, should be listed among the finest in cinematic history. Seriously, it's up there with Lawrence of Arabia's match cut and the bone/spaceship cut in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
It also happens to be the final cut of the movie, with the last shot lasting about a second at the most. Nonetheless, one second is all it needed to traumatize you.
This one tells the story of a pious, mentally unstable nurse named Maud (Morfydd Clark) who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her terminally ill patient, Amanda (Jennifer Ehle). Their relationship and Maud's psyche deteriorate more and more until a hallucinating Maud ends up killing her patient, before deciding to commit suicide by self-immolation.
She does this on a beach, surrounded by onlookers, and hallucinates herself ascending to Heaven as an angel while the spectators kneel in awe. And then... it briefly smash-cuts to the reality: Maud being burned alive and screaming in agony.
Once again, it's only a brief shot, but that makes no difference. It's a harrowing second of film you'll never forget, as well as a faultless conclusion to this horror tragedy.
Maud's instability and delusions finally destroy her, and it's a testament to the strength of the picture's writing and Morfydd Clark's outstanding performance that Maud still feels like the story's true victim even after all the terrible things she's done.