12 Downright Bleakest Endings in the History of Scary Movie Cinema

In any discussion of the bleakest films in any cinema, "The Mist" must be mentioned. The movie is downbeat and has little hope, but that ending takes it to another level of desolation. It was so effective that people got angry at the film, and some people are probably still angry, but even Stephen King had to admit that Frank Darabont came up with a better finale.

Ben Wheatley's film "Kill List" is a devastating watch for the entire film. The film whipsaws between vicious violence to a lyrical, mysterious vibe. But the ending symbolically revealed earlier in the film, is a huge gut punch and a wild yet logical 360 plot twist. The film stars Neil Maskell, in an almost unbearably intense performance, Michael Smiley, MyAnna Buring, Emma Fryer, and Struan Rodger with equally strong performances. You won't be the same after watching it.

Neil Marshall's film, "The Descent," is an uneasy journey centered on an all-female cast. If you have claustrophobia, it will hit you hard, but not everyone knows that the original ending, which was only shown in the U.K. and not the United States, was much more depressing. In the film, Sarah, played by Shauna Macdonald, is shown to have escaped from the caves. In the car, she what seems like the ghost of her friend Juno who died earlier. The screen goes black, and we find that Sarah never got out, and the creatures are massing to attack. This ending was considered too grim for U.S. audiences, and they cut it from the version shown in the United States.

David Prior's film "The Empty Man" is a film that got lost in the panic of the first year of the pandemic. It's a shame because people would have gone wild for this surprising and genuinely frightening movie at any other time. It stars James Badge Dale and Marin Ireland, who turn in two stunning performances. The film's opening sequence will knock you for a loop, but the ending leaves the character in such a godforsaken situation that it takes your breath away.

George Romero's "Night Of The Living Dead" is undoubtedly one of the bleakest films ever. The film starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, and Marilyn Eastman, hit the audience over the head as it completely recreated the idea of a zombie. After that, horror would never be the same. However, the ending was the cherry on the top of the film. It is the worst possible scenario after everything that has happened and the only conclusion that could hit the audience harder than the rest of the movie.

This Dutch film, directed by George Sluizer, had an ending repeated many times in other films. It is a macabre version showing what happens to someone who fears a premature burial. Gene Bervoets and Johanna ter Steege play a happy couple who are suddenly separated, and the boyfriend, Rex, spends years in an obsessive search to discover what happened to his girlfriend, Saskia. The story's moral is to be careful what you wish for because you might get it.

"Threads," directed by Mick Jackson, was one of three nuclear apocalypse films released all around the same time. "Threads" was the most realistic and, therefore, frightened people the most. The film has gained a large following and has repertory screenings at theaters even now. Like many other films on this list, "Threads" is relentlessly sad, and the ending doesn't hold back from the bleakest possibility in this kind of scenario. Indeed, no one can win a nuclear war.

After the terror of "The Strangers," which doesn't have a happy ending, Bryan Bertino crafted a film that was even more desolate of an experience. In "The Dark and the Wicked," the film's events slowly add up to increased levels of chilling explosions of violence. Two fearsome endings show what happens to the main characters and siblings, played by Marin Ireland and Michael Abbott Jr. Once you see the first one, which is a horrifying psychic wallop, you helplessly watch what happens to the other sibling.

Danish actor, writer, and director Christian Tafdrup's film "Speak No Evil" crafted a movie with a hopeless ending that, much like "The Mist," people were offended and angered by the film. The film is based on a personal experience and makes the point that you should be careful around people who seem to want to be friends but that you don't know very well. As you watch the film's final moments, you will feel like you have a rock in your stomach and an ache in your heart.

Michael Haneke's gutting film "Funny Games," which Haneke was allowed to remake in the United States with a different cast, is about two young men who treat torturing and murdering families as a game. Watching the two torment this family, who was just the next family in the next home close to their last victims, is horrifying. They do not seem capable of remorse while the family weeps and struggles to live. The ending makes you feel a dread that is hard to shake.

Pascal Laugier's French film "Martyrs" is filled with terror. From the realistic performances of the actors to the horrifying torture and murders seen within it, it's pretty grim. Even fifteen years later, the film still hasn't lost any of its power among fans. Morjana Alaoui as Anna and Mylène Jampanoï as Lucie earn the audience's sympathy even though you aren't 100% sure that what the abused girls are doing is right or that Lucie is sane. All is revealed in the ending, where no one is left unscathed, even the villains.

John McNaughton's "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" is a film with a well-deserved reputation as traumatic to the people who watch it. It is one of those films that seems utterly realistic with such an excellent lead performance from Michael Rooker, who is now quite famous as a regular in James Gunn films where he plays a grumpy but much more cheerful sort of dude. If you want a shock to the system, watch "Henry" and then "Guardians Of The Galaxy" and prepare to have your mind blown. I remember feeling somewhat ill after watching it. For all of the terrible things that happen during the film's runtime, nothing quite compares to the utterly hopeless ending. That's saying something.