No Survivors: Fright Films Where No One Makes It Out Alive

In "The Return of the Living Dead," it is party time, but it's mainly zombie party time. This offshoot of the Romero zombie films is possibly even more hopeless and certainly more oriented toward comedy. It makes you laugh while ensuring certain doom, not only for all the characters in the film but for humanity as well. It stars, written and directed by Dan O'Bannon, with a story by John Russo, Russell Steiner, and Rudy Ricci. Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, and Linnea Quigley. Most of the cast knows that they are toast pretty quickly but might not be ready to admit it.

" Final Prayer," also known as "The Borderlands," was written and directed by Elliot Goldner and features a hopeless ending. It is not what you are expecting. The film stars Gordon Kennedy, Aidan McArdle, and Robin Hill. Two members of the Church and a technology expert are sent to a 13th Century church that is experiencing frightening supernatural phenomena by The Vatican. They believe that the Church might have been built over the site of a pagan temple, and whatever the force is in the Church makes sure they don't get out.

"Aniara" is a tale of a hopeless voyage of survivors from an Earth destroyed by climate change who are trying to go to Mars but are knocked off course and lose control of all navigational capabilities. These survivors of Earth become trapped in a coffin in space. It stars Emelie Garbers, Bianca Cruzeiro, and Arvin Kananian and was co-directed by directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja based on an epic Swedish poem.

"Chernobyl Diaries" is maybe not the cheeriest film. Directed by Brad Parker and starring Jonathan Sadowski, Jesse McCartney, Devin Kelley, and Olivia Taylor Dudley, a group of tourists makes the unwise decision to go to Pripyat, the town closest to Chernobyl. To their horror, they cannot leave because mutants destroy their van and start picking off members of their group. Mutants are everywhere, and when the situation worsens, they find no one to help them.

"The Cabin In the Woods" starts as one kind of film but ruthlessly becomes another. Directed by Drew Goddard and starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, and Fran Kranz. It turns out that the entire human race's survival hinges on one group of friends' trip to a cabin. The film is hilarious, with lots of meta-commentary about horror films, but at its core is the struggle for individuals to survive versus the need of the whole world for them to die. In the movie, the entire world loses.

This film. Yes, everyone dies, and it is incredibly frightening and sad. The film was directed by Rob Jabbaz and stars Berant Zhu, Regina, and Tzu-Chiang Wang. Jabbaz did the most brilliant thing: he made you care about the central couple before letting the bloodshed and violence rip and rip it does. During the run time, the fates of people who either become infected or those who become their victims are so horrific that the constant threat of destruction of all life on the planet is in the background.

"Thanatomorphose" is not a hopeful film. It is a body horror film from Canada that stars Kayden Rose, Émile Beaudry, Eryka Cantieri, and Roch-Denis Gagnon. Everyone dies, and the way that they go is pretty gross. Éric Falardeau wrote and directed this tale of a woman, Laura, who has gruesome dreams of being operated on and whose body starts to decay. She becomes disconnected from reality and attacks anyone who comes to visit her, usually, men who are looking for sex.

"Bliss," directed by Joe Begos, is more fun but still a vicious tale of an artist looking for inspiration in a new drug and finding she has become a vampire. The worst part is that Dezzy's problem isn't becoming a vampire. Her biggest problem is probably the people she calls her friends. It stars Dora Madison, Tru Collins, Rhys Wakefield, and Jeremy Gardner. No one leaves this bloodbath, including Dezzy, who has a surprising end.

Can Evrenol directed the Turkish horror film about a group of cops who unwittingly go to Hell. They definitely should not have responded to that distress call from the scary and possibly haunted village. The film stars Mehmet Cerrahoğlu and Ergun Kuyucu and has a deeply strange and surrealist quality. The cult leader who captures them tells them that Hell isn't a place but something they carry with them at all times, which is one of the creepiest things I've ever heard. Needless to say, these policemen don't make it.

Grégory Levasseur, who directed "The Pyramid," works with the director Alexander Aja and has co-written quite a few films like "High Tension" and the remake of "The Hills Have Eyes," among other films. In the movie, the explorers, played by Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'Hare, and James Buckley, are chased by strange creatures once they enter the pyramid and find that they are up against the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis. This lowers their life expectancy. The film is seen footage and includes the act that Abubis is famous for, weighing the hearts of the dead before they enter the afterlife.