Comments on: Yeah, We Get It, Horror Movies, The ‘Happy Ending’ Is a Fakeout

By: Kevin Bicknell

Kevin Bicknell — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 15:28:11 +0000

Worst for me was the second Dawn of the Dead where a bitten Jake Weber quietly shoots himself as the boat taking the others away sails away into the sunset almost immediately followed (during the credits!) showing the others probably all got eaten anyway. A great Stephen King worthy ending ruined. Thanks Snyder and Gunn!

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 04:04:25 +0000

In reply to John King.

Agreed, John. It worked for the first Nightmare on Elm Street, because it was A. novel and B. a movie ABOUT dreams. But BOY has it been way over used since then. It really is the repetitive nature of it all that gets to me.

By: John King

John King — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 20:55:06 +0000

I would say the worst version of this is “the happy ending was a dream”
it’s been used so often, it’s become a cliché
One horror TV series made the whole final episode turn out to be a dream leaving the protagonists still prisoners of the evil cult. Were they somehow dreaming the events involving the other characters which they weren’t present to witness?

On a positive note, there does seem to be some backlash against this approach in that the ending to the Descent was changed for the American market to remove it (leading to some confusion among British audiences watching the sequel)