The weirdest notes that horror flicks have ever ended on.
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00:00When it comes to closing a horror movie, there's no one right way for directors to go.
00:05Some films finish on a happy note where the protagonist gets out alive, some strip their
00:09hope away at the last possible second, and some end on a final scare to catch audiences
00:14off guard one last time.
00:16However, there are some horror flicks out there where the endings are so bizarre that
00:20they deserve an entire category of their own.
00:23So with spoilers ahead, I'm Ellie with What Culture, here with the 10 weirdest endings
00:29in horror movies.
00:3110.
00:32Barbarian Sound Studio When unassuming sound engineer Gilderoy is
00:37hired by an Italian production company to create the soundtrack for a film he assumes
00:41to be about horses, he's shocked to discover the project is a graphic splatter flick.
00:47Throughout the gruelling and strange process that's chronicled in underappreciated horror
00:51gem Barbarian Sound Studio, viewers watch as Gilderoy gradually loses his grip on reality.
00:58While audiences never see any footage of the fictional horror flick, they do witness
01:02the sounds being created.
01:04Whether he's hacking vegetables to create the sound of a body being stabbed, or pouring
01:08water into a pan to simulate someone being scalded, it's the sound which brings the
01:13violence to life, and it's too much for the engineer to handle.
01:17Gilderoy's grip on reality dissolves as the production takes its toll on his mental
01:21health.
01:22He starts to hallucinate to the point where his sanity disintegrates like old celluloid,
01:27and when tensions in the studio come to a head, resulting in him hurting an actor to
01:31induce an authentic scream, the engineer becomes entirely enveloped in the light of the projector
01:37as he watches the screen.
01:39It's an appropriately offbeat ending that encapsulates the hypnotic power of cinema.
01:449.
01:45The Neon Demon The film picks up with upcoming teenage model
01:49Jessie moving to LA to become a model.
01:52She has that indescribable factor that immediately catches the eye of industry insiders, which
01:57sets her career ablaze.
01:59Her arrival on the scene is likewise noticed by makeup artist Ruby, who introduces Jessie
02:04to her model friends Gigi and Sarah.
02:07Although it seems the women have the teenager's best interests at heart, it transpires that
02:11they have malicious intentions towards her.
02:14To preserve their own beauty, they plan to consume Jessie in what's suggested to be
02:18a pagan ritual.
02:20And after Jessie is unceremoniously killed by being pushed into an empty pool, viewers
02:24see her killers bathing in her blood after the deed's done.
02:27But the ending only gets weirder from here.
02:31Consumed with guilt about her actions at a photoshoot, Gigi vomits Jessie's eye before
02:35killing herself, observing unfazed Sarah eats the eyeball.
02:40A mixture of the grotesque and surreal, this literal representation of the dog-eat-dog
02:45nature of the fashion world will put viewers off their dinner.
02:498.
02:50Baskin A phantasmagoric and blood-drenched Turkish
02:54horror, Baskin follows a group of police officers called as Backup in an area steeped in superstition.
02:59However, a vision of a bloodied figure in the middle of the road causes the driver to
03:04send their van careening into a lake before they arrive.
03:08When the group eventually do make it to the abandoned police station they were summoned
03:12to, they realise that they've stepped through the gates of hell.
03:15From here in, Baskin only gets more excessive as the men journey further into the building.
03:21Disturbing rituals, gory orgies and hellish cultists are all part of the experience from
03:25this point onward.
03:27Baskin is a strange film by any definition, but nothing prepares viewers for the ending
03:32in which the surviving officers are captured and tortured by the malformed cult leader.
03:37Torturing and eye-gouging ensues before one of the men is forced to perform a sex act
03:41on a monstrous creature.
03:43The climax is unapologetic in its depraved insanity, but there's still one last bit of
03:48strangeness to come.
03:50When a sole survivor escapes to witness the car crash from earlier, a final twist suggests
03:54that our hero is now forever trapped within purgatory.
03:577.
03:58Don't Look Now
04:01Based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, classic chiller Don't Look Now follows grieving
04:06couple John and Laura travel to Venice sometime after their young daughter drowned.
04:11Feel shaken from their loss, the pair begin to believe that their daughter is trying to
04:15contact them from beyond the grave.
04:17John, though initially sceptical, even begins to spot what he believes to be apparitions
04:21of his daughter wearing the same bright red coat she died in.
04:25When John finally catches up with what he suspects to be the ghost of his child, he's
04:29shocked to discover the hooded stranger is in fact an old woman serial killer.
04:34Shaking her head, she pulls out a cleaver and kills him.
04:37Church bells dominate the soundtrack as images of his life, family and death flood the screen.
04:42Pulling the rug from under viewers at the last second, this sensory-shattering ending
04:46is a cinematic representation of John's dying thoughts as he processes what's just
04:51happened.
04:52Though weird, this ending is nevertheless powerful.
04:556.
04:57Mother
04:58In writer-director Darren Aronofsky's critically-acclaimed Mother, a husband, played by Javier Bardem,
05:03and wife, Jennifer Lawrence's domestic status quo is uprooted when an unnamed couple, played
05:09by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer, arrive at their beautiful rural home unannounced.
05:15The husband, a poet struggling to write anything, is delighted to have company and encourages
05:19their intrusive behaviour.
05:21As the film progresses, her situation becomes increasingly precarious and nightmarish as
05:26more people begin to arrive, which only results in more paranoia and destruction.
05:31The tension is gradually wound until it explodes into an intense and violent climax which comes
05:36to a head when the frenzied mob occupying the home kill and devour Mother's newborn
05:40baby.
05:41Enraged by the transgression, Mother sets the house ablaze, killing the crowd and mortally
05:46wounding herself.
05:47Whether understood as an allegory for religion or the godlike arrogance of artists, this
05:53ending will spark debate.
05:555.
05:56Shepherd
05:57An under-seen gem that released last year, writer-director Russell Owens' Shepherd
06:02is an atmospheric chiller that takes viewers to a miscovered remote island in the Scottish
06:07Highlands where Eric has taken a job as a shepherd.
06:11Still reeling from the death of his pregnant wife, Eric believes the isolation is just
06:15what he needs to process his grief.
06:17However, his situation is only made worse by a shadowy presence that watches him from
06:22the mist.
06:23As more is divulged about the shepherd's dark past, it becomes less clear if the hauntings
06:28are a result of the supernatural or a figment of Eric's broken mind.
06:33These answers are even less clear by the end when, after inexplicably escaping the island,
06:38he receives a call informing him that his punishment isn't over.
06:42He exits the room to find himself back on the island, and everything viewers thought
06:46they knew is consequently flipped on its head.
06:504.
06:51Eraserhead
06:52Starring Jack Nance as mild-mannered protagonist Henry, the film chronicles him as he struggles
06:57to look after his newborn son, a monstrous garbling creature wrapped in bandages.
07:03The entire film plays out like an insane fever dream, set against the backdrop of an oppressive
07:08industrial cityscape.
07:10The film's conclusion is as abstract and provocative as everything that preceded it.
07:15Unable to bear his child's screams, Henry cuts open the bandages to reveal that they've
07:19been the only thing containing its organs.
07:22Henry then proceeds to kill the child, which results in a mind-bending sequence of hallucinations
07:28before Henry is embraced by the woman who sings in his radiator.
07:31Viewers have speculated that Lynch's film is an allegory of the fear of becoming a father,
07:36though the filmmaker has remained consistently vague about the intended meaning.
07:413.
07:42The Lighthouse
07:43Set in the late 19th century, Robert Eggers' critically adored The Lighthouse follows newly
07:48recruited lighthouse keeper Winslow as he undergoes his first job under the supervision
07:53of gruff seaman Thomas Wake, who refuses to let Winslow anywhere near the light.
07:59And when a ferocious storm cuts off access to the island, both men are left stranded
08:03as their supplies begin to dwindle.
08:06As drunkenness and paranoia set in, madness takes over as tensions between the men escalate.
08:12It's clear that this situation was never going to end well, however audiences weren't prepared
08:17for just how weird this period horror would become.
08:20The finale enters another level of madness when Winslow finally gains access to the light.
08:26Upon approach, the hatch opens itself to allow Winslow to reach into it.
08:30The light washes over him as his laughter changes to agonized screams.
08:35He pulls away and falls down the stairs, his dying body devoured by seagulls.
08:39Whether the events are propelled by madness or superstition, the ending will have audiences
08:45transfixed.
08:462.
08:47Lamb One of the most unique horror films in recent
08:50years, director and co-writer Vladimir Johansson's Lamb takes viewers to a picturesque farm in
08:56rural Iceland.
08:58Here we meet spouses Ingvar and Maria.
09:00They work the farm and tend to the sheep themselves, though a tragedy in their recent past still
09:05lingers over them.
09:07However, when Maria becomes enamoured with one of the lambs, the couple raise it as if
09:11it were their own child, naming her Ada.
09:14However, Ada's soon revealed to be a human-lamb hybrid.
09:17By the time the ending rolls around, the couple couldn't be happier with their new family,
09:22but it's here the filmmakers hit audiences with an unexpected curveball.
09:27While Ingvar and Ada are out walking, he's shot by what can only be described as a humanoid
09:31ram, who's presumably Ada's real father.
09:35The ending is a fittingly strange conclusion to a very peculiar film.
09:401.
09:41Men Following the death of her husband, Harper
09:44rents a house on the outskirts of a quaint English village in a bid to escape her guilt.
09:48However, her trip descends into a nightmare when she's tormented by the men who live there,
09:53all of which are played by Rory Kinnear.
09:56Spawning from the mind of writer-director Alex Garland, Men is as bold and bonkers as
10:01expected from the filmmaker behind Ex Machina and Annihilation.
10:04Moving at a slow burn pace, Harper's initial encounters with a naked stalker, a lustful
10:10vicar and an unhelpful police officer slowly give way to pervasive pagan symbolism and
10:16surrealism as the film nears its climax, in which Harper is besieged by the men, who all
10:21share the same wound she recently inflicted on the stalker.
10:25It's here where Men gets shockingly weird.
10:28The stalker has transformed himself into the pagan figure seen on a stone carving, and
10:34in a graphic sequence, gives birth to himself multiple times until Harper's husband emerges.
10:40Whether understood as an allegory of toxic masculinity or historic misogyny, Garland
10:45has kept the endings meaning ambiguous.
10:48And that concludes our list.
10:50If you can think of any we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:53And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
10:57Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:01just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:03I've been Ellie with What Culture, I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you real
11:07soon.