Ambiguous: Spooky Movies That Leave the Ending up to You

Many things about "Phantasm" are mysterious purposefully. The film, written and directed by Coscarelli, leaves quite a bit to the imagination, which works in its favor. After everything seems mostly okay, the film's ending is a shock and a continuation of the horror. Where the movie ends, it takes your mind on a trip that is worth taking. What does Jody do? What is real? Only you can imagine what happens next.

"It Follows" is a disturbing film where a young woman, Maika Monroe as Jay, is tricked by her boyfriend and infected with a curse. The curse is passed on by people hoping to get the monster away from them. Jay runs with the help of her friends after the beast, which looks like people you know, comes after her. They make a plan to kill the entity and seemingly succeed. The film ends with Jay and her new boyfriend, Paul holding hands with a figure walking behind them. They are in love and willing to share the danger, but is the monster gone?

Many horrors are packed into the 97-minute running time of Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond." But the film has a superb dream-like quality along with the buckets of gore, zombies, and a tarantula attack. The ending leaves a question mark as the film's heroes, Catriona MacColl as Liza Merril and David Warbeck as Dr. John McCabe, find themselves blinded in a mist-shrouded land.

There are mysterious films, and then there is "Skinamarink." It's not just that the ending is ambiguous; the entire movie is cryptic. Director Kyle Edward Ball has intentionally served up a film that gives so few visual clues that the audience must lean into the admittedly sparse narrative so that their imaginations go wild. It doesn't work for everyone, but for those who have the patience for a film that experiments more with the form of a narrative, "Skinamarink" is for you.

John D. Hancock directed "Let's Scare Jessica to Death," a wispy and diaphanous movie that might be about a woman losing her mind, or it might be about an island full of vampires. It stars Zohra Lampert as Jessica, who had a mental breakdown and has just left a mental institution, so you can see people might not believe her terror, and they don't. Barton Heyman, Kevin O'Connor, and Gretchen Corbett play the other leading roles. People think it is a riff on the classic vampire tale "Carmilla" by Sheridan Le Fanu.

"Beyond the Black Rainbow" is Panos Cosmatos's other film, made before "Mandy." It synthesizes the filmmaker's grief and the art his parents both created. Even the music seems to come from a far-off place you've never been to. While there isn't a lot of action, it has a haunting and retro feel that carries the audience along on a river of dreams. The ending seems to resolve things, but the main character Elena, played by Eva Allan, steps out into a world she doesn't know after being held captive in the Arboria Institute. Everything that she had is gone.

"The Night Eats the World," tells the story of a man who is safe when the zombie apocalypse destroys Paris but is so lonely that he starts to lose his sanity. Directed by Dominique Rocher, it stars Anders Danielsen Lie, Golshifteh Farahani, and wonderous French actor Denis Lavant as Alfred, the zombie. It shows how without the company of other human beings, you might not last long in a zombie apocalypse if you can't deal with the crushing isolation. The musician, Sam, finally escapes the building, and the ambiguity is that he hears noises that suggest others might be in the new building he entered. But are they human, and are they friendly?

Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's "The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears" is another film that lacks a traditional narrative but is packed with eye-popping style and ear-popping sound design. The film is a neo-Giallo that traces the attempt of a man to find his wife and the strange and horrifying things that happen to him while trying to solve that puzzle. Like many others on this list, it is a stunning film that deserves a chance. The ending is probably the least enigmatic, but it never answers your questions.

"Messiah of Evil" is one of those films from the 70s that wasn't acknowledged for the classic that it is until most recently. It was directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who are most famous for working with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on films like "American Graffiti" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Judging by that, you might not think they could develop such a beautifully strange horror film with iconic scenes of terror and haunting imagery, but they did. After Arletty, played by Marianna Hill, searches for her artist father in a coastal town, which is always a bad idea, and finds that the Messiah of Evil might be responsible for his disappearance. Arletty only escapes by promising to spread the news but is immediately locked up in a mental institution. Did any of this happen? Watch the movie and make your own decision.

Abel Ferrara has made more than one horror film, and each one has been distinctive. His version of the classic story, "Body Snatchers," takes the story in different directions while following the same basic narrative. It has a great cast, including Gabrielle Anwar, Terry Kinney, Billy Wirth, Forest Whitaker, and Meg Tilly, and many of the actors give their best performances. The enigma of the ending lies with the stoic natures of the two lead actors, Gabrielle Anwar, as Marti Malone, and Billy Wirth, as Tim Young. They seem to have escaped and have returned to their town in a helicopter to destroy everyone and everything there. As they fire the weapons, neither one shows any emotion, which puts a chilling coda on the film.