Evil Dead. (Yeah, Ash comes back, but as of the first one, he died at the end)
Vision of Escaflowne. The heroes survive, but the bad guy acheves everything he set out to do, and more . . .
If you count Genzo as the villan in Neon Genesis Evangilon (Which wouldn’t be a bad idea) he pretty much wins that one, too.
Manos, the Hands of Fate. (“I am Micheal. I look after the place while The Master is away.”) And Touch of Satan,, now that I think of it. IF you want to call those movies, and not some kind of fungus or tapeworm.
At the end of Merlin’s shop of Mystical Wonders, Merlin escapes to wreak terror on 80’s America once again. Could say the same about Michell, but for some reason, the makers of both movies seemed to think that their characters were good guys, so I’m not sure they count.
And of course, not all movies have heroes and villians . . . loads of 40s movies, HK action or crime movies, and samurai movies have either questionable “heroes” win, or pyhric victories for one side or another . . . It looks like those are finally showing up in holywood movies again, thankfully . . .
Servants of Twilight, after a story by Dean Koontz. A private detective’s hired to protect a boy from some religious cult. The cult members believe the boy’s the antichrist and want to kill him. (If you really want it spoilt, read the plot at IMDB.com.)
Oh, and I forgot, (or possibly blocked out) In the Mouth of Madness, which made Stone Cold look like finely crafted cinema, but did have the bad guys win.
I’ve heard that the original version initially closed with Kevin McCarthy shouting in vain to the traffic. But this ending bothered early audiences so much that they pulled the movie long enough to tack on an additional scene. In the version that persisted for decades, as the cops are hauling McCarthy away to the loony bin they hear a report that confirms his story. They call the Pentagon and the movie implies that they’ve caught the invasion in time.
In the new Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows (a pretty trippy movie if you ask me) evil wins in a manner of speaking. I don’t want to give anything away though since it just came out a couple days ago.
The ending of Miracle Mile can’t be called a victory.
The end of John Carpenter’s The Thing is pretty ambiguous, but you’ve got to think the alien isn’t down and out.
Das Boot.
Talk Radio.
The Great Escape (sort of).
Bulworth.
(Hmm, has anyone done a thread where we nominate movies that should have had a downer ending? Where the movie obviously chickened out, and a good-guy-loses ending would have been more satisfying?)