There are some horror movies that keep the tension levels high throughout the movie, but the final scenes are the scariest parts of the horror film. This is a big deal because when people leave the theater after an ending that shocks and terrifies them, it leaves a lasting impression that all the jump scares in the film never will.

These movies save the best kills or most shocking moments for the final scenes. Weapons (2025) ending was like that. Although the final scene wasn’t scary, it was a brilliant exclamation point for the entire story. However, other horror movies offer scenes so frightening that they haunt the viewers even as they leave the theaters.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project was a fascinating horror movie when it was released in 1999. The film tells the story of a group of amateur filmmakers who wanted to make a documentary about the mythical Blair Witch, only to discover that the truth is more terrifying than they ever believed.

The movie helped popularize found footage movies and was even promoted as a true story, which was intended to heighten the fear level for the audience watching it. While most of the film had the filmmakers hearing things and growing increasingly terrified as they progressed, the ending gave it an exclamation point.

The Blair Witch Project ended with Heather finding the bloody remains of Josh and then discovering Mike in an old basement. Then something attacks Heather, and she screams as the movie ends, without answering any questions. It was polarizing, but for anyone who lived in towns with wooded areas, it was terrifying.

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Don’t Look Now was a horror movie, but it was almost more of a psychological thriller about loss and trauma. Directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, the film follows a couple following the accidental death of their daughter.

As they try to move on, a clairvoyant tells them their daughter is trying to warn them of a danger coming their way. Sadly, they misinterpret the warning, and when John (Sutherland) sees someone who looks like his daughter, wearing a red coat similar to the one his daughter died in, he becomes obsessed with finding her.

The scariest moment came at the end, and it delivered a depressing end to the psychology of grief. When John finds the person, it isn’t a child at all, but a little person who is also a serial killer, and she slashes his throat, killing him as he stands shocked at what he found. His death was the greatest tragedy of all.

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

If anything, Sam Raimi knows how to make horror movies that entertain and shock audiences. After becoming a cult legend thanks to The Evil Dead franchise, he returned to horror in 2009 with a new horror film called Drag Me to Hell. Alison Lohman stars as Christine, a loan officer at a bank.

When she makes the “hard decision” to reject an elderly woman’s mortgage, the woman places a curse on her. The film then shows Christine start to see strange things and realize something isn’t right. As her friend Clay (Justin Long) tries to help her, they believe she has finally broken the curse.

The Drag Me to Hell ending shows Christine never escaped the curse. Sam Raimi never lets his heroes off in his shocking movie endings. Here, Christine and Clay are at the train station, and the ground opens, with hands dragging the young woman straight to Hell. It came out of nowhere and was brilliant.

Midsommar (2019)

Midsommar was another horror movie about trauma and how it defines a person’s life and experiences. Directed by Ari Aster, Florence Pugh stars as Dani, a young woman traumatized when her sister kills her parents and then takes her own life, leaving her living with survivor’s guilt.

One big problem is that Dani’s friends all seemed self-absorbed and didn’t seem to understand that she needed help. Instead, they all went on a vacation to Sweden to celebrate a nine-day midsummer festival at an ancestral commune. What they discover is that the community has deadly plans for these visitors.

The Midsommar ending delivered the scariest moments of the entire film. All of Dani’s friends are murdered in horrific ways, and she is forced to watch as her boyfriend is stuffed into a disemboweled bear’s body and burned alive as she cries, before slowly smiling as the film ends. It is scary and somewhat cathartic.

Sinister (2012)

Sinister showed how a person exploring dangerous supernatural phenomena can not only destroy himself, but also those who love him. Directed by Scott Derrickson, Sinister stars Ethan Hawke as a true-crime author named Ellison. He moves his family into a house where a family was murdered, without telling them its past.

As the movie goes on, Ellison starts to learn more and more about the murders and finds video footage that actually shows the deaths of the former occupants. He keeps searching for clues as to what actually happened until he realizes there is a supernatural presence at work here.

The Sinister ending is not only scary, but absolutely terrifying. The demon Bughuul possesses young daughter Ashley and has her show up with an axe, and she dismembers her entire family while filming it with an 8 mm camera. Having the child murder her family was terrifying, but seeing Bughuul claim the child’s soul was even worse.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Rosemary’s Baby was a brilliant Satanic horror movie released in 1968 by director Roman Polanski. The film starred Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, a woman who moves into a large apartment building with her husband. While her neighbors seem nice up front, there is something always strange about them.

There are small moments of terrifying images in the movie, such as when Rosemary gets pregnant, but the shot indicates there is something involved other than her husband. That turns out to be true, as she learns her husband made a deal with the cult, and she might be pregnant with the Antichrist.

The final scene is the scariest, as she goes over to look at her baby and then gasps in horror at what she sees. It appears Rosemary did indeed give birth to the Antichrist, as she asks what is wrong with her baby’s eyes. She eventually resigns herself to her fate in one of horror cinema’s most shocking endings.

Cabin In The Woods (2011)

Cabin in the Woods always let viewers know something was going on behind the scenes, and it was more than just another film about teens getting killed by monsters. There were scientists who released these monsters upon people to ensure that the apocalypse never began.

The movie then flipped to the youngsters heading to the cabin in the woods and then dealing with the monsters who killed them one by one, like in any horror movie of the past. However, the ending flipped everything on its head.

The young adults then found the scientist’s labs and all the monsters, and they decided to put a stop to it. That then led to the most shocking and scary moment in the entire film, when they decided just to start the apocalypse and doom all humankind in an over-the-top decision that ended the story with a bang.

Hereditary (2018)

Ari Aster has perfected the scary movie endings. Just as he did with his movie Midsommar, Aster ended his breakout debut film Hereditary similarly. Both of these horror movies were about trauma and the loss of a loved one. In Hereditary, it was a young woman losing her entire family. In Hereditary, it was a mother losing a child.

However, the ending of Hereditary was even more shocking since it turned out the daughter’s death was planned out by an evil cult that had been involved in this family’s life for decades, and they weren’t finished with the one death. They wanted to bring a demon to life, and the mom learned at the end that it was through her surviving son.

What made this ending great was that, once it was over, viewers could rewatch Hereditary and see the clues that Aster had laid out throughout the film to show how the cult had laid out the plan and executed it step by step. It made the scary ending have an even deeper meaning when all was said and done.

The Mist (2007)

The Mist had one of the most controversial and horrifying endings of any horror movie in cinema history. Even better is that it is based on a Stephen King novella, and director Frank Darabont changed the ending to be even more tragic. King said he loved it and said that every generation needed a movie that ended in tragedy.

The story had a man and his son trapped in a supermarket when a fog rolled into town and monsters came out of the mist, trying to kill any humans they encountered. The people in the supermarket then developed rabid religious cult-like tendencies and decided God wanted a sacrifice and tried to find someone to kill.

Just when it seemed like the man and his son were going to escape, he realized that there was no hope. He sadly then took out his gun and mercy killed his son before turning it on himself. However, that is when soldiers arrived to rescue them, and for this father, it was too late. It was a depressing and terrifying moment.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was one of the scariest and most terrifying movies ever made when it hit theaters in 1974. It has a reputation for its violent moments and bloodshed, although almost every kill was made offscreen, and the blood was nowhere near as plentiful as people might believe from watching it.

However, while the entire movie was scary, with the family killing these young travelers, with plans to use them to make meat, the ending was the scariest moment. This was thanks to two people: Marilyn Burns as Sally and Gunner Hansen as Leatherface.

Sally was the only person to escape alive, and as she ran from the house, Leatherface gave chase. He killed one rescuer before a second let her in their truck and raced away. Her panicked expression and Leatherface dancing with his chainsaw resulted in one of the scariest endings to any horror movie.