# Most horrifying movie finale you have ever seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 27, 2023, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155 "2023-06-27T03:18:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/101 "2023-06-28T16:43:09Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > But for the movie that I’m thinking of, I think that it would be a spoiler and that it would diminish the film to reveal that it has such an ending. That film is one of my favorites, but it’s ending comes from a long tradition in war films going back at least as far as _All Quiet on the Western Front_. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/102 "2023-06-28T17:12:39Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > How about the ending of _1984_, either the 1956 or 1984 version, take your pick. I was going to mention that. I don’t know how many people saw the movie 1984 without reading the book, but there is not even a glimmer of hope in either case. ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/103 "2023-06-28T18:05:25Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > It’s a fantasy of mine that someone will turn up an uncut version of _Freaks_ in a Hollywood vault and it gets a release. I’d be the first person in line to buy tickets for this! ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/104 "2023-06-28T18:25:02Z")
Re Freaks- I’ve long wanted a remake. It would be done with special effects rather than actual sideshow performers and The end would reveal not simply how horribly mutilated she is, but that she’s much happier this way. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/105 "2023-06-28T18:33:10Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry” has an ending that certainly slaps you in the face, same for “Bonnie and Clyde”. Both of those films I watched aged around 11 and I found them very disturbing at the time in their bleak and violent nature. Wasn’t something I’d much experienced up to that point Wasn’t there an entire genre of late 60’s/ early 70’s films that adopted that sort of ending as a nihilistic statement? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/106 "2023-06-28T18:42:49Z")
_Vanishing Point_ ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/107 "2023-06-28T18:47:57Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > _Vanishing Point_. Yeah, and @xizor mentioned “Easy Rider” upthread (I’m reading this thread backwards for Reasons). ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/108 "2023-06-28T19:02:08Z")
[_Atonement_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonement_%282007_film%29?wprov=sfla1). ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/109 "2023-06-28T19:18:25Z")
_ **The Ring** _’s the ending is pretty dark. Naomi Watts and the kid driving off with a bunch of copies of the tape, dooming who knows how many more people to save themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/110 "2023-06-28T19:58:43Z")
Slight hi-jack - I love this movie and think it’s almost perfect - but for the final scene when Morgan Freeman says tro Lee Ermy -‘whatever he needs’ etc. as Pitt is loaded into the back of the police car. Just a soppy ill-fitting coda that for me, doesn’t belong at all. Mim ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/111 "2023-06-28T20:33:19Z")
The ending to _Splice_ is pretty messed up. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are scientists who create a fast-growing human-animal hybrid that they basically raise like a daughter. Brody ends up having sex with it. It later switches genders to male and rapes Polley, impregnating her. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/112 "2023-06-28T20:37:48Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Wasn’t there an entire genre of late 60’s/ early 70’s films that adopted that sort of ending as a nihilistic statement? yeah, you may be right. You could think of “The Wild Bunch” as being a part of that movement as well. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/113 "2023-06-28T21:08:16Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Thought of another one: Catherine Breillat’s _À ma sœur!_ Ah, yes. I haven’t thought of her in a while. My first thoughts when I was watching her works in art houses was she doesn’t like sex much and men even less. On further reflection it was more what society expects of young women damaging them. Either way her films tend to be in the ‘want to look away but cannot stop’ variety. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/114 "2023-06-28T21:13:33Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Wasn’t there an entire genre of late 60’s/ early 70’s films that adopted that sort of ending as a nihilistic statement? _ **Le Salaire de la peur** _ (1953). Four very desperate men are hired to transport nitroglycerin in two trucks to put out an oil well fire 300 miles away. They face numerous hazards, and every bump in the road could end their lives in an instant. Only one of them survives the trip. As he’s driving back to the start point, he’s weaving gleefully across the road, crashes through a guardrail and is killed. Not just nihilism, _French_ nihilism. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/115 "2023-06-28T21:20:20Z")
> [@Fish\_Cheer](#): > > [_Atonement_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonement_%282007_film%29?wprov=sfla1). This made me think of _Brazil_, where the hero is rescued by Harry Tuttle minutes before he is about to be tortured. After a bizarre pursuit by government agents, he is again rescued by the woman he loves. And as they drive happily out of the city… …the scene returns to the torture chamber, where he is still strapped into the chair and has gone completely insane. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/116 "2023-06-28T21:57:55Z")
A German film called “The Seventh Continent” had a pretty horrifying ending, too, but that was not surprising all along. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/117 "2023-06-28T23:41:16Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Maybe this could also go in the “movie moments that are only effective in the theater” thread, because I found the ending to be kind of underwhelming (Brad Pitt’s acting was a bit corny and I didn’t really see anything shocking). I saw it in the theater, and, no, it didn’t work there either. I totally agree on Pitt in that scene! His whiny voice “What’s in the bo-o-ox?” was like a little kid asking mommy where his milk and cookies were. Actually, I thought the entire movie was predictable, and I knew pretty much how it was going to end from nearly the very beginning. I don’t see why so many people liked it. It was fairly stylish, but dumb and formulaic. I do agree with _Atonement._ So desperately sad. I recently started watching it again (got called away and didn’t finish), and I’d completely forgotten that creep who married her cousin was Benedict Cumberbatch. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/118 "2023-06-29T03:49:12Z")
For your reading pleasure, here’s a (gift) link to a New York Times article from a few days ago that discusses the impact of _Freaks_ in disability representation. Why the 1932 Movie ‘Freaks’ Is a Touchstone for Disability Representation [Why ‘Freaks’ Is a Milestone for Disability Representation - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/movies/freaks-disability-representation.html?unlocked_article_code=EWGJjgKmwmo03iwz4-LEuFUrJ94lp7NWZsUREyVmZGsLONesissq_UlWjmpkaqxrnLMq3NFBCbSEQoB0K2MVN_VXdTbzxOWmZ9rrsHm9io95xZVBs8M3gDC1hz2U45hS21uyv0TVDvWEYZRcQ4lC5wepk4CRtKvcfb6cb4MGNW6G58GGao-CvwEIMGsSyWrz_z7kxcgcBpH1Voe19DLQwsTsrU4KWpbBjB6_UkFGHNFoUfxg4hNqd1eboq-Wnnt8RmhJyvmW5-fxjDSEaOTC6Im5PyU2QE82LxTL7_JgcZGmTkN3Rq9CdM7OkQ3qlZhB9cxB57LlpKgqW8s_3-a8X0ojWZPIwwsucN8&smid=nytcore-android-share) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/119 "2023-06-29T04:40:15Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Thought of another one: Catherine Breillat’s _À ma sœur!_ I just saw that for the first time a couple weeks ago! The ending comes out of _nowhere_ and is such a complete departure from the rest of the film. It felt like it was from some other film. I really am not sure what meaning I was supposed to get from it. I love films with endings that leave you stunned. **Seven** is one of my favorites of all time. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155/120 "2023-06-29T06:49:07Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > I totally agree on Pitt in that scene! You didn’t like the part at the end where he’s vacillating between grief and vengeance, with pistol in hand? Mind you, I don’t think it’s the best of performances, but going back and forth between those extremes over 20 or 30 seconds can’t be easy for any actor. I thought he pulled it off convincingly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-horrifying-movie-finale-you-have-ever-seen/986155.md?page=7)