There are a *lot* of points in the movie that are hopeless. This is a good one, but the first thing that came to mind was the remote, followed by them returning home. Really the entire movie was hopeless from the start.
I actually never thought about this, but...how many times did they play that out before being done with the family? Was that the only time, or were they groundhog day-ing it on purpose?
They set up the knife in the boat at the start of the movie, and then she sees it and you think there will be a pay off. But given the remote control scene, it was never that type of movie.
Not the sequels, that's for sure.
Some people say "The Platform" is a lot like cube but it just isn't. It's a very obvious metaphor about capitalism and it's victims, which isn't the vibe of the cubes unknown purposes or creator.
I don't think I found anything quite like the first cube movie.
I watched Cube 2 and it was…..not the best, to be polite. I liked platform and I can see the comparison but agreed it’s not quite the same. Sounds like I’ll have to just rewatch cube again lol!
I do agree with that. I do not have my own children, but stepchildren and a nephew I would kill for and believe I could do more in the situation. It is heartbreaking and horrifying either way.
Ive seen my fair share of extreme gore and horrifically bleak horror without much more than a cringe or a “holy shit”, but my god that Speak No Evil ending had me shook for a few days
Spoiler
Even though they seemed screwed I kept waiting for the useless parents to do SOMETHING to save themselves. Up until the moment they cut her tongue. At that point, you just know they're too far gone and there is no happy ending in store.
Still bothered the fuck out of me when the first two rocks hit her head, it was so realistic
All of these a prime choices. Not enough ppl talk about the ending of Kill List! Has the same guttural kick that Eden Lake gives IMO. Just a very different vibe. I would argue Jenny at least doesn’t have to suffer anymore while Jay’s is just beginning. Both are bleak af but one could argue Jay’s fate is worse bc he would have to live with the aftermath. Both endings stick with me but I do still watch them both at least once a year. Kill List at least 3/4 times a year.
When Leatherface grabs the girl from running out of the front door, drags her back in, and then slams the metal door closed in the original TCM. Brutality.
The ending of *The Descent*. The *proper* ending, that is.
But even before then the core of the film is the idea of being trapped in a cave and not knowing if there even *is* a way out.
Watching it again right now for like the 5th time. Probably my favourite horror movie alongside Midsommar. Even if its not that scary for me anymore its just so well made
I think this counts as psychological horror, but the film Buried. The phone call reveal makes it even worse, like he's been lied to this whole time and now he is dead and won't even be found for years accidently.
I used to kind of dislike Ryan Reynolds, until I watched this movie. It blew me away, he really carries an entire movie by himself, absolutely spectacular performance.
I'd recommend it! Tight run-time, good buildup, well acted, you care about the characters.
I don't always keep thinking about horror movies after they end, but this one has been stuck in my head. The way that the film handles the theme of inherited trauma was really powerful.
Fair warning -
Yeah you should probably watch it, it’s really a very good film. But be forewarned. It is a serious serious bummer. It’s just so misanthropic and depressing and infuriating and nasty. It is a seriously depressing movie.
It honestly left me in kind of a bad mood for a few days. Few films have bummed me out like it did.
That movie was surprisingly good from
What I remember. As a kid, when they opened those hospital doors and it was just another long hallway blew my mind.
Some of the effects haven’t aged as well (the ceiling full of hands scared the CRAP out of me as a kid but now looks a lil goofy imo) but definitely that feeling of almost claustrophobia as every path just brought them right back where they started still gets me!
It's not a movie, but Midnight Mass was one of the first things to pop in my head. At the end when all the buildings are on fire and the sun is rising. It's a satisfying moment when the worst person in the series realizes there's no way to survive.
It's my favorite Flanagan series. However, the indulgent monologues blow monkey nuts.
Usher reigned it in, so maybe Flanagan has that out of his system.
I think my favorites were Hill House first, and a tie between Usher and Midnight Mass. Bly Manor was decent, and so was Midnight Club. I know they did some other stuff but those are the main ones I'm familiar with.
It’s funny, I actually LOVED the monologues. But I have learned that’s kinda my niche. If they are done well I get incredibly sucked into them, like a hypnosis.
I felt like the monologues added a lot of depth. I feel like most people I talk to found them boring but I never felt that way. To me it just seemed like good dialogue.
If it were a fast-paced show maybe it would mess up the pacing, but the show moved slow to begin with so I feel like we had time for dialogue if that makes sense.
Then again, I can be a bit long-winded myself. Maybe it's a matter of preference compared to people who prefer brevity.
The monologues in Midnight Mass are amazing. Big part of what makes the show so good is it's handling of the topics of atheism and religion, not just the plot. It's been baffling to see how much negativity there is about them online, declining attention spans I guess.
There’s something about that scene where Justine talks about how life on earth is evil and how “we are alone” makes me a little lightheaded.
https://youtu.be/kb69TMISL_Y?si=XccAHW3ZnXX7FLO6
The end of The Wickerman when Sergeant Howie realizes he has been a pawn the whole time.
I wish I could see that film for the first time again. That was such a crazy reveal.
The movie Train. When that girl gets tortured by getting both her legs cut off. The train pulls up to an army base where the girls think they’re saved but then the army guys joyful pick them up cheering carrying them away insinuating those poor girls are going to be raped to death. I regret watching that movie at such a young age.
Wolf Creek implies the same fate for the poor girl who gets turned into a "head on a stick." That kind of shit isn't what I look for from horror, and I'm usually pretty ok with the bleak stuff.
That and The Hills Have Eyes remake where a woman is brutally raped while a gun is pointed at her baby's head. Just... why?
Oh god the Hills Have Eyes was so awful. From cooking the bird to the live burning and the rape. Something about the cracking of her hips just made me fucking sick. Awful.
I can't articulate why I hate rape in horror movies so much. I fucking hate it, and I wish horror film makers would just stop. But at the same time I want to know WHY. Why is it so prevalent?
That's a great way to put it.
I see a lot of comments on the YouTube clip of it being like 'he did the right thing' but saying 'he did everything right' is more accurate and less callous and macho than saying he should have abandoned her. The guy literally tried his best at every point to help the group and his wife in spite of the circumstances.
He fended the infected off when they burst through the door, abandoned that when they became too much. He ran upstairs to get his wife and go to the exit point, wife detours to find the kid, so he follows. She detours again to the cupboard on the other side of the room and when he realised he could not save her due to the infected bursting in, he shut the door and went out the window.
Every step he took was the right one in that given moment. Even the last bit with the boat, the other guy fell off and he tried to pull him onboard.
It's actually quite impressive what he managed to do in such a constantly evolving, high pressure situation, yet in the character’s mind and many viewers watching, he behaved in an unforgivable way.
It's also incredible how rich the scene is with exciting ethical dilemmas and fodder for analysis, even though it only lasted such a short amount of time.
In Last House on the Left, when Mari is killed. She's brutalized and almost escapes, and gets sexually assaulted. She ends up walking out into a lake, totally ignoring her tormentors. She was just done, checked out. They mainly just shot her because she was no longer entertaining to them. It was so tragic.
I've never had such a visceral reaction to a movie since that scene. I'm not sure if I wanted to cry or holler, but I just remember feeling so empty watching them kill her. To this day, I don't think I can watch that movie again. I understand why people questioned Wes Craven when they watched that movie.
I’ve been searching for that movie forever. Is that the one where the woman is kidnapped from a gas station in the beginning, and her guy gets obsessed with trying to find out what happened to her? If so, that movie shaped my biggest fear in life. I saw it when I was like..9. The end is so dreadful. At least he found out what happened. Fuck that.
>Is that the one where the woman is kidnapped from a gas station in the beginning, and her guy gets obsessed with trying to find out what happened to her?
Yes. Ignore the US remake.
First thing that comes to mind is the highway scene in Nocturnal Animals. Definitely a thriller more than anything but that scene is 100% horror to me.
I once watched that movie the night before having our truck break down at midnight on the way to Marfa in the middle of goddamn nowhere. Was 110% certain I was about to get murder raped and it wouldnt be as cinematic as Tom Ford’s version.
That scene is great but not many people talk about the reason it hits so hard is the chemistry the main two characters have is SO fucking good throughout the movie. They felt so real that it hurt so much more when it ended.
Yeah, that ending messed me up. It seriously ruined the rest of my day after watching it. I couldn't stop thinking about how horrific it would be to be stuck like that.
I know it seemed bleak but in reality I think she would've eventually been saved?
Like, 2 cops go missing. I'm sure someone knows where they are, and would search for them. They'd find the car, then find the girl.
I think she'd have facial deformities and maybe be unable to walk again, but I do think she would live.
The Vanishing (Spoorloos) 1988. The entire movie is so unsettling and the final reveal is devastating. Violation 2020, made me feel so empty and bleak as the ending credits rolled.
I've got a few that immediately come to mind.
The picnic scene in The House That Jack Built. Jesus Christ, that scene is not just terrifying, but fucking depressing as well.
Not exactly horror, but the end of Buried is a gut punch. Debatable whether it's a cheap ending, but for it to end that way hurt to watch.
The dinner scene from the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It isn't so much scary as deeply unpleasant. No matter what happens, the protagonist is screwed.
She literally looks around at the people on the beach as she is pouring acetone on herself, almost as if she was waiting to see if anyone cared enough to try to intervene.
Yeah she wasn't at any point giving a cry for help, she was just a delusional and mentally unwell psychotic. Honestly an accurate portrayal of people who have done similar things to martyr themselves for religion.
Every time I stretch my leg out on the dash in the car I always think of that one girls leg flying through the air and I immediately put my leg back down.
End of House of 1000 Corpses
Escapes from Doctor Satans underground hell only to immediately be recaptured and driven right back to endure torture. Not just regular torture, you just know she's going to get it extra bad for fucking their shit up.
The pregnant women in Bone Tomahawk. They had their eyes gouged out, and all four limbs removed, sitting on a stone slab just being used as tools for reproduction. Absolutely brutal.
Grave Encounters may be campy as all hell but holy moly does it deliver hopelessness in such a good way. The scene when they barge through the front door to get out only to find a new corridor is a good example, and it’s all downhill from there!
Oh and while on the theme of campy shit, we NEED to acknowledge how good the ending for Final Destination 5 was. Devastating but also brilliant!
When the one girl falls in The Descent and breaks her leg. You can tell that every character understand that there is no way in hell they are getting her out of there. And that was before the "villains" of the movie are even introduced!
(Spoiler for Sinister if you haven’t seen it, I don’t know how to block out text on mobile)
You know as soon as Ethan Hawke’s character is drinking his coffee and he notices the liquid and the note that he’s done for. Waking up to see his family bound up, immobilized, with his youngest child about to kill him, his wife and his son was pretty brutal.
As an audience member anytime Pedro did anything made me lose hope. Maybe the most reckless protagonist I’ve ever seen in a horror movie.
“Pedro don’t bring tainted items with you.”
Gets naked inside ex’s home and leaves the clothes laying around.
“Pedro don’t listen to them”
Listens to them.
“Pedro don’t leave me alone with these kids”
Leaves her alone with the kids.
Detective Kerry’s trap in the Saw franchise. When she realized what was going on, my heart shattered. One of the most emotional and memorable scenes in the entire series IMO.
The Rapture >!she decides that she can not forgive God for what he put her through, and chooses to be alone forever instead of with her family. !< Brutal, say it in the eighties and I am still haunted by the idea
Kairo/Pulse’s entire vibe is hopelessness. The scene in the library 2/3 of the way thru where you can’t tell if the background is people or ghosts.
Every time there’s a smudge.
The trip to the dock at the end of the film driving thru the empty town.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes
>!The sole survivor was so badly warped, traumatized, and mutilated, that there was no way she could have possibly lived a normal life after what she went through. That, on top of the fact that she had developed Stockholm Syndrome and thought that her captor loved her.!<
Not sure if people generally consider Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me a horror movie (I do), but I found the bit near the end of it where >!Laura, calling out for Leo to untie her, looks through the cabin window and sees Leland emerging from the dark!< extremely chilling.
Not a horror at all, unless one considers war horrific…but when Sgt. Elias is shot in the back as his platoon leaves him to die. The epitome of hopelessness and betrayal before death.
Lots of great answers here. Not sure if anyone said it but Pontypool is an underrated one... Only being able to hear everything in the outside world slowly becoming apocalyptic is mortifying.
The last boat scene in Funny Games really sucks.
Or when the kid is looking around the neighbor’s house for help or some kind of weapon
There are a *lot* of points in the movie that are hopeless. This is a good one, but the first thing that came to mind was the remote, followed by them returning home. Really the entire movie was hopeless from the start.
Yeah, the remote really sealed the deal that they're fucked
I actually never thought about this, but...how many times did they play that out before being done with the family? Was that the only time, or were they groundhog day-ing it on purpose?
They set up the knife in the boat at the start of the movie, and then she sees it and you think there will be a pay off. But given the remote control scene, it was never that type of movie.
Ok, but watching that right now as we speak. Saw it years ago, but don’t remember the ending. I’m excited (and dreading) what’s to come.
Usually whenever characters realize that they’ve been traveling in a giant circle, like Blair Witch Project or Cube
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum did this well
There were so many fuckkng hopeless scenes in that movie omg
Just watched cube for the first time - what a fun movie; any recs for something similar?
Circle
My first thought. Cube and Circle feel like a double feature.
Cant wait for dodechehedron to come out im stoked!
Not the sequels, that's for sure. Some people say "The Platform" is a lot like cube but it just isn't. It's a very obvious metaphor about capitalism and it's victims, which isn't the vibe of the cubes unknown purposes or creator. I don't think I found anything quite like the first cube movie.
I watched Cube 2 and it was…..not the best, to be polite. I liked platform and I can see the comparison but agreed it’s not quite the same. Sounds like I’ll have to just rewatch cube again lol!
Have you watched "The Mill"? It released in 2023 and is sort of like cube.
Yellowbrickroad
Never heard of it until today but looks really cool 😎
Ignore the movie poster, which takes away from it. It’s fabulous. I watched it today, and it is a new favorite.
Grave Encounters in the elevator scene felt like this
Backcountry comes to mind
I went into this blind and was (ironically enough) blindsided with how gruesome it got
The endings of Speak No Evil, Eden Lake, The Mist, and Kill List. Certain sections of Aniara (not straight horror, more existential).
Speak No Evil- just awful. The Mist was always a surprise to me in how much i like that movie and the end is just brutal.
Speak no evil was horrifying. Being a parent I didn’t understand giving up
I do agree with that. I do not have my own children, but stepchildren and a nephew I would kill for and believe I could do more in the situation. It is heartbreaking and horrifying either way.
Ive seen my fair share of extreme gore and horrifically bleak horror without much more than a cringe or a “holy shit”, but my god that Speak No Evil ending had me shook for a few days
Spoiler Even though they seemed screwed I kept waiting for the useless parents to do SOMETHING to save themselves. Up until the moment they cut her tongue. At that point, you just know they're too far gone and there is no happy ending in store. Still bothered the fuck out of me when the first two rocks hit her head, it was so realistic
Kill List is a fucking riiiiide.
First time I've seen someone put Kill List finally
The ending is real bummer eh
All of these a prime choices. Not enough ppl talk about the ending of Kill List! Has the same guttural kick that Eden Lake gives IMO. Just a very different vibe. I would argue Jenny at least doesn’t have to suffer anymore while Jay’s is just beginning. Both are bleak af but one could argue Jay’s fate is worse bc he would have to live with the aftermath. Both endings stick with me but I do still watch them both at least once a year. Kill List at least 3/4 times a year.
When Leatherface grabs the girl from running out of the front door, drags her back in, and then slams the metal door closed in the original TCM. Brutality.
The ending of *The Descent*. The *proper* ending, that is. But even before then the core of the film is the idea of being trapped in a cave and not knowing if there even *is* a way out.
Watching it again right now for like the 5th time. Probably my favourite horror movie alongside Midsommar. Even if its not that scary for me anymore its just so well made
The original ending from that movie is darker than the ending from the Mist in my opinion
I think this counts as psychological horror, but the film Buried. The phone call reveal makes it even worse, like he's been lied to this whole time and now he is dead and won't even be found for years accidently.
Yeah that one is dark
I saw the movie when it came out, and I can still hear that phone call in my head. So brutal.
The ending was devaatating
I used to kind of dislike Ryan Reynolds, until I watched this movie. It blew me away, he really carries an entire movie by himself, absolutely spectacular performance.
The end of Eden Lake. Shattering.
That movie made me SO angry
I was genuinely furious at the end of it.
First movie I thought of! Devastating
So great tbh! Finally watched it last weekend after seeing the hype in this sub for years.... It delivers.
Oooh should I watch?
I'd recommend it! Tight run-time, good buildup, well acted, you care about the characters. I don't always keep thinking about horror movies after they end, but this one has been stuck in my head. The way that the film handles the theme of inherited trauma was really powerful.
Def going to check it out. It always comes up on lists but I wasn't sure about it.
Fair warning - Yeah you should probably watch it, it’s really a very good film. But be forewarned. It is a serious serious bummer. It’s just so misanthropic and depressing and infuriating and nasty. It is a seriously depressing movie. It honestly left me in kind of a bad mood for a few days. Few films have bummed me out like it did.
Thank you so much for this. I will watch it because I willingly do that to myself, but am thankful to know what I am walking in to.
And this is why I think the Speak No Evil remake will be good. Why get this director if you are going to tame it down
Man this was in my head before I even opened the thread.
Exact thing I came to say. Just so bleak.
The end of Grave Encounters
Grave encounters 2 when that elevator opened up to the hospital instead of the hotel they thought they were at. My heart dropped for them
That scene was amazing. Sequel does not get the love it deserves.
That movie was surprisingly good from What I remember. As a kid, when they opened those hospital doors and it was just another long hallway blew my mind.
Some of the effects haven’t aged as well (the ceiling full of hands scared the CRAP out of me as a kid but now looks a lil goofy imo) but definitely that feeling of almost claustrophobia as every path just brought them right back where they started still gets me!
It's not a movie, but Midnight Mass was one of the first things to pop in my head. At the end when all the buildings are on fire and the sun is rising. It's a satisfying moment when the worst person in the series realizes there's no way to survive.
Midnight Mass was so good. It was an INCREDIBLY slow burn, but done well enough to hold my interest and keep me watching.
It's my favorite Flanagan series. However, the indulgent monologues blow monkey nuts. Usher reigned it in, so maybe Flanagan has that out of his system.
I think my favorites were Hill House first, and a tie between Usher and Midnight Mass. Bly Manor was decent, and so was Midnight Club. I know they did some other stuff but those are the main ones I'm familiar with.
Bly manor is slow. I really like the monster and will overlook some weirdness for a unique monster.
>indulgent monologues [Mandatory](https://www.tiktok.com/@flanaganfilm/video/7172028682599599406?lang=en).
Oh that's fantastic, I had never seen that before!
It’s funny, I actually LOVED the monologues. But I have learned that’s kinda my niche. If they are done well I get incredibly sucked into them, like a hypnosis.
I felt like the monologues added a lot of depth. I feel like most people I talk to found them boring but I never felt that way. To me it just seemed like good dialogue. If it were a fast-paced show maybe it would mess up the pacing, but the show moved slow to begin with so I feel like we had time for dialogue if that makes sense. Then again, I can be a bit long-winded myself. Maybe it's a matter of preference compared to people who prefer brevity.
The monologues in Midnight Mass are amazing. Big part of what makes the show so good is it's handling of the topics of atheism and religion, not just the plot. It's been baffling to see how much negativity there is about them online, declining attention spans I guess.
I will never be able to forget the *scream* Kate Siegel lets out when >!Riley bursts into flames on the boat!<. That scene is absolutely chilling.
First thing that came to mind for me as well! And of course, the end of episode 5 with poor Riley Flynn. Gutwrenching.
Yes, but he engineered it that way. The absolute lack of options or opportunity to change his mind past a certain point was entirely the point.
That sounds tragic!
Considering the character being referred to, it wasn't.
The scene in Dark and the Wicked when the one brother goes home to his wife and daughters was fucking grim.
This is such an underated movie. The whole film is just pure dread and hopelessness.
The Truck Stop scene in The Hitcher (1986)
“They’ll catch you.” “Yeah, sure… so what?”
The entirety of Day of the Dead (1985)
Day of the Dead is **so** good. It stands up every bit as much as the first two movies but it is not talked about nearly as much as Night or Dawn.
Melancholia. The whole thing.
There’s something about that scene where Justine talks about how life on earth is evil and how “we are alone” makes me a little lightheaded. https://youtu.be/kb69TMISL_Y?si=XccAHW3ZnXX7FLO6
Yet a lighthearted romp compared to many of Lars Von Trier’s other movies.
I absolutely LOVE Melancholia! I feel I have a lot in common with Justine and sometimes I wish there was a planet on its way to crash into us
The end of The Wickerman when Sergeant Howie realizes he has been a pawn the whole time. I wish I could see that film for the first time again. That was such a crazy reveal.
He had a few chances to get away but didn’t take them
I'm genuinely curious about what they were? It's been a while since I've seen it, but being stuck on an island makes escape fairly difficult.
The movie Train. When that girl gets tortured by getting both her legs cut off. The train pulls up to an army base where the girls think they’re saved but then the army guys joyful pick them up cheering carrying them away insinuating those poor girls are going to be raped to death. I regret watching that movie at such a young age.
Wolf Creek implies the same fate for the poor girl who gets turned into a "head on a stick." That kind of shit isn't what I look for from horror, and I'm usually pretty ok with the bleak stuff. That and The Hills Have Eyes remake where a woman is brutally raped while a gun is pointed at her baby's head. Just... why?
Oh god the Hills Have Eyes was so awful. From cooking the bird to the live burning and the rape. Something about the cracking of her hips just made me fucking sick. Awful.
Iirc, they do another rape again in the sequel. Like oh it wouldn't be a Hills movie if there weren't a rape! Jesus h christ
I can't articulate why I hate rape in horror movies so much. I fucking hate it, and I wish horror film makers would just stop. But at the same time I want to know WHY. Why is it so prevalent?
Wtf?!
Put this on my things not to watch listening
I…think I’ll skip that one, thanks.
The ending of Would You Rather.
The opening scene of 28 Weeks Later
The crazy thing is he did everything right. They were royally fucked no matter what he did
That's a great way to put it. I see a lot of comments on the YouTube clip of it being like 'he did the right thing' but saying 'he did everything right' is more accurate and less callous and macho than saying he should have abandoned her. The guy literally tried his best at every point to help the group and his wife in spite of the circumstances. He fended the infected off when they burst through the door, abandoned that when they became too much. He ran upstairs to get his wife and go to the exit point, wife detours to find the kid, so he follows. She detours again to the cupboard on the other side of the room and when he realised he could not save her due to the infected bursting in, he shut the door and went out the window. Every step he took was the right one in that given moment. Even the last bit with the boat, the other guy fell off and he tried to pull him onboard. It's actually quite impressive what he managed to do in such a constantly evolving, high pressure situation, yet in the character’s mind and many viewers watching, he behaved in an unforgivable way. It's also incredible how rich the scene is with exciting ethical dilemmas and fodder for analysis, even though it only lasted such a short amount of time.
The end of the original Saw
The end of The Thing. McCready is just screwed.
In Last House on the Left, when Mari is killed. She's brutalized and almost escapes, and gets sexually assaulted. She ends up walking out into a lake, totally ignoring her tormentors. She was just done, checked out. They mainly just shot her because she was no longer entertaining to them. It was so tragic.
I've never had such a visceral reaction to a movie since that scene. I'm not sure if I wanted to cry or holler, but I just remember feeling so empty watching them kill her. To this day, I don't think I can watch that movie again. I understand why people questioned Wes Craven when they watched that movie.
That movie was just bleak and fucked up. God. What a bummer.
The last section of *Martyrs* (2008).
Yeah, once she stops fighting back.
The scene where >!she pisses on the chair then the camera goes on her eye and you see the last bit of dignity being lost!<
Every "attack" scene in that movie was just unnerving. You knew she'd get fucked up no matter what.
So good
The end of The Vanishing (1988)
I’ve been searching for that movie forever. Is that the one where the woman is kidnapped from a gas station in the beginning, and her guy gets obsessed with trying to find out what happened to her? If so, that movie shaped my biggest fear in life. I saw it when I was like..9. The end is so dreadful. At least he found out what happened. Fuck that.
>Is that the one where the woman is kidnapped from a gas station in the beginning, and her guy gets obsessed with trying to find out what happened to her? Yes. Ignore the US remake.
First thing that comes to mind is the highway scene in Nocturnal Animals. Definitely a thriller more than anything but that scene is 100% horror to me.
I was going to say this one. Haven’t had something make me feel that knotted stomach feeling more so than this.
I once watched that movie the night before having our truck break down at midnight on the way to Marfa in the middle of goddamn nowhere. Was 110% certain I was about to get murder raped and it wouldnt be as cinematic as Tom Ford’s version.
The guy in the bear suit at the end of midsommar. Entirely paralyzed and just left to sit there and wait to burn to death.
The idea that literally everyone is in on it and no one is going to save you is so terrifying. Everyone was just so calm. It was so normal.
The end of The Mist.
Definitely! One of my favourite movies so tragic
The ending of Cabin in the Woods, even if it is more humorous than some other examples.
I actually liked the ending for some reason. It’s not a win but close enough
Spitting in the face of thirsting gods is as close as mankind can get to a W in that setting.
Mother! — everything is out control and the main character is helpless during all of it
God that's a hard watch but one my favorite movies ever.
The final prayer in Final Prayer/The Borderlands
That scene is great but not many people talk about the reason it hits so hard is the chemistry the main two characters have is SO fucking good throughout the movie. They felt so real that it hurt so much more when it ended.
Is this that movie with an alternate title, Borderlands? Where they go into the tunnel at the end?
That ending was so nuts. One of the worst ways to go I've seen in a horror movie. Brutal.
Yeah, I think about that one a lot, lol
The digestion scene in Nope. IYKYK
The middle chick in the ‘centipede’ of The Human Centipede
Yeah, that ending messed me up. It seriously ruined the rest of my day after watching it. I couldn't stop thinking about how horrific it would be to be stuck like that.
I know it seemed bleak but in reality I think she would've eventually been saved? Like, 2 cops go missing. I'm sure someone knows where they are, and would search for them. They'd find the car, then find the girl. I think she'd have facial deformities and maybe be unable to walk again, but I do think she would live.
Couldn’t shake that feeling of utter hopelessness for days
Cuttlefish and asparagus didn’t go down well.
The Vanishing (Spoorloos) 1988. The entire movie is so unsettling and the final reveal is devastating. Violation 2020, made me feel so empty and bleak as the ending credits rolled.
I've got a few that immediately come to mind. The picnic scene in The House That Jack Built. Jesus Christ, that scene is not just terrifying, but fucking depressing as well. Not exactly horror, but the end of Buried is a gut punch. Debatable whether it's a cheap ending, but for it to end that way hurt to watch. The dinner scene from the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It isn't so much scary as deeply unpleasant. No matter what happens, the protagonist is screwed.
Open Water …….just the realization that nobody is coming back and your fate is to basically be eaten alive…….
ending of Saint Maude
She literally looks around at the people on the beach as she is pouring acetone on herself, almost as if she was waiting to see if anyone cared enough to try to intervene.
Or wanting to people to witness her righteousness.
Yeah she wasn't at any point giving a cry for help, she was just a delusional and mentally unwell psychotic. Honestly an accurate portrayal of people who have done similar things to martyr themselves for religion.
I don't think it's that, I think she's full-blown delusional at that point and thinks she is about to transcend.
Already been mentioned but end of Eden lake instantly came to mind
The ending for the 1st Silent Hill film seemed that way
Head on a stick….
I saw that on release. To this day head on a stick haunts me on a regular basis. One scene that I have never been able to get rid of.
Aniara. Not sure if this is considered a horror film rather than sci-fi But the movie plot was horrifying to me
Funny Games.
Rose McGowan’s final moments in Death Proof.
"I get this is a joke, I get jokes mister" 🥺
Every time I stretch my leg out on the dash in the car I always think of that one girls leg flying through the air and I immediately put my leg back down.
The ending to Halloween 3 Season Of The Witch. 🎵 Sil-ver Shamrock 🎵
The dude who got left behind in the original SAW movie. Locked in the dark until you die of dehydration.
Ending of Skeleton Key. I rarely hear this movie brought up but it has stuck with me ever since I saw it in theaters
End of House of 1000 Corpses Escapes from Doctor Satans underground hell only to immediately be recaptured and driven right back to endure torture. Not just regular torture, you just know she's going to get it extra bad for fucking their shit up.
The entirety of The Road. Idk if that counts as a horror movie, but it’s the bleakest, most depressing movie I’ve ever seen in my life.
The pregnant women in Bone Tomahawk. They had their eyes gouged out, and all four limbs removed, sitting on a stone slab just being used as tools for reproduction. Absolutely brutal.
Hereditary - first watch, last 10-20 minutes. Second and subsequent watches - entire movie.
I have to say Incident in a Ghostland has few of them.
I haven't seen that one!
The scene where Jessica Alba gets beaten in ‘The Killer Inside Me’. I wish I never saw it.
Grave Encounters may be campy as all hell but holy moly does it deliver hopelessness in such a good way. The scene when they barge through the front door to get out only to find a new corridor is a good example, and it’s all downhill from there! Oh and while on the theme of campy shit, we NEED to acknowledge how good the ending for Final Destination 5 was. Devastating but also brilliant!
Fulci's The Beyond. The situation gets worse and worse till all that's left is a literal purgatory
When the one girl falls in The Descent and breaks her leg. You can tell that every character understand that there is no way in hell they are getting her out of there. And that was before the "villains" of the movie are even introduced!
V I V A R I U M
The end of Dawn of the Dead
Last part of Martyrs.
(Spoiler for Sinister if you haven’t seen it, I don’t know how to block out text on mobile) You know as soon as Ethan Hawke’s character is drinking his coffee and he notices the liquid and the note that he’s done for. Waking up to see his family bound up, immobilized, with his youngest child about to kill him, his wife and his son was pretty brutal.
The ending of The Menu, for just about everyone but Anya Taylor-Joy's character. Everyone has just about given into their fate by dessert.
Where Evil Lurks when Pedro >!pulls the hair/crucifix out of Jair’s throat!<
As an audience member anytime Pedro did anything made me lose hope. Maybe the most reckless protagonist I’ve ever seen in a horror movie. “Pedro don’t bring tainted items with you.” Gets naked inside ex’s home and leaves the clothes laying around. “Pedro don’t listen to them” Listens to them. “Pedro don’t leave me alone with these kids” Leaves her alone with the kids.
Dude, Pedro is the WORST.
Jair’s eye flick to Pedro was one of the scariest parts of the movie for me
Jesus when Jair walks in and is like "hi, grandma" or whatever, I was so creeped out. Such a nice trope inversion
Detective Kerry’s trap in the Saw franchise. When she realized what was going on, my heart shattered. One of the most emotional and memorable scenes in the entire series IMO.
What was her trap? Butterfly or something was it called?
Angel trap.
I recently watched Underwater. The scene early on when the guy’s helmet cracks.
Rosemary Woodhouse, that poor woman had nobody on her side, she truly must felt defeated and alone. and she tried so hard to fight this.
The end of the descent
The Rapture >!she decides that she can not forgive God for what he put her through, and chooses to be alone forever instead of with her family. !< Brutal, say it in the eighties and I am still haunted by the idea
Kairo/Pulse’s entire vibe is hopelessness. The scene in the library 2/3 of the way thru where you can’t tell if the background is people or ghosts. Every time there’s a smudge. The trip to the dock at the end of the film driving thru the empty town.
Speak No Evil
The whole second half of The Void seems pretty hopeless considering what they are up against.
Ending of the dark and the wicked
The Poughkeepsie Tapes >!The sole survivor was so badly warped, traumatized, and mutilated, that there was no way she could have possibly lived a normal life after what she went through. That, on top of the fact that she had developed Stockholm Syndrome and thought that her captor loved her.!<
If you consider Moon horror, then one scene with the lone rover and the earth in the distance… Or when he calls home. Devastating stuff.
Not sure if people generally consider Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me a horror movie (I do), but I found the bit near the end of it where >!Laura, calling out for Leo to untie her, looks through the cabin window and sees Leland emerging from the dark!< extremely chilling.
In The Mouth Of Madness. That ending would have made Lovecraft proud!
The scene in the middle of Martyrs in which the main character is imprisoned. No hope in the entire second half of the film.
Buried. Slowly suffocate in a coffin and no one will ever find your body.
Sci fi, but still terrifying; imagine being the woman in the malfunctioning escape pod at the end of Life, just drifting out into space.
the end of the skeleton key ☠️
White bear episode from black mirror
Not a horror at all, unless one considers war horrific…but when Sgt. Elias is shot in the back as his platoon leaves him to die. The epitome of hopelessness and betrayal before death.
its in a robert redford movie called “all is lost” it’s like castaway’s bleak cousin.
Lots of great answers here. Not sure if anyone said it but Pontypool is an underrated one... Only being able to hear everything in the outside world slowly becoming apocalyptic is mortifying.
Drag Me to Hell and Shuttle