5 Best Horror Movie Climaxes Ever (& 5 That Missed The Mark)

Who doesn’t love a good horror movie? The thrill and the fear factor take us to a different dimension and give us a chance to escape into another world for a while. Even leaving the bed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night seems like a nightmare! On a different note, others have to deal with the fear afterward.

A tight storyline with a good pace is a must-have for a decent horror flick. And what’s better than a good storyline in a horror flick? A great climax! Something that makes sense. Something that justifies all the fear and jumpscares.

10 Best Climax: Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. It is an intense horror movie with oodles of suspense woven throughout. The climax is especially remarkable because it gives a subtle callback to the original The Shining. It has its little dark twist. A perfect sequel to The Shining, this movie will keep you up at night for days to come.

9 Missed The Mark: Child’s Play (2019)

A remake of the 1988 movie of the same name, this movie is a reboot of the Child’s Play franchise. The movie takes off quite brilliantly, but, does not land as expected.

The climax turns out to be rather dull when Chucky holds Karen hostage and Andy and friends destroy his body completely after disabling him. At the end, after the recall of most of the Buddi dolls, the dolls are being packed in their storage boxes. Again, quite predictably, one of the dolls blinks his eye, flickers red, and flashes an evil smile.

8 Best Climax: The Invisible Man

One of the best horror movies of recent times, The Invisible Man revolves around a mad scientist and his ex-girlfriend. The scientist stages his own suicide. He then uses his invention to turn invisible and stalk Cecilia (Elizabeth Moss). Cecilia calls the game off by wearing the invisibility suit and she slits Adrian’s throat. The camera records it as a suicide. The movie is worth watching also because of yet another wonderful performance by the main actress.

7 Missed The Mark: Annabelle Comes Home

The most recent and the 7th movie in The Conjuring franchise, Annabelle Comes Home didn’t hit any major fear bones. The movie managed to whip a couple of good jump scares, but, overall seemed rather monotonous. The paranormal investigators bring the possessed doll home and lock her up in the closet. The doll summons all the evil spirits in the house and wreaks havoc on the investigator’s daughter and her friends. The climax is not remarkable either.

6 Best Climax: The Thing (1982)

The creepy movie The Thing from 1982 still has no rivals in terms of the story, intrigue, and climax. The scares are especially brilliantly executed and the movie remains claustrophobic throughout the two hours.

The antagonist is an extraterrestrial life form that can take the shape of its victims. The topic seems a bit typical sci-fi, but, it’s everything but typical. The movie couldn’t succeed much at the time of release because of two major popular science fiction releases, but garnered a cult following with time.

5 Missed The Mark: Unsane

The psychological horror movie Unsane is a great achievement in itself as the whole film was shot with just an iPhone. The movie revolves around a woman who has been tricked into self admitting herself in a psychiatric institution. There are one too many twists and turns, and the plot unfurls itself in a very predictable manner. The climax is not satisfying either with the end scenes showing Sawyer hallucinating about David.

4 Best Climax: The Exorcist (1973)

The 1973 haunting movie The Exorcist is a masterpiece. The movie had such effects on some viewers that they fainted in the theatre. It is packed with supernatural elements, dark claustrophobic settings, and incredible screenplay. It had a number of gruesome scenes for its time. The climax is reasonable and gives a good closure to the movie along with a subtle cliff hanger as the end scenes show Kinderman, the Lieutenant, investigating the death of Father Karras.

3 Missed The Mark: The Nun

The prequel in The Conjuring franchise, The Nun falls short in the writing department. The story is spun around the investigation of the death of a nun. The plot is feeble and the movie depends heavily on eerie music and predictable jumpscares.

The climax totally lacked any significant reasoning or credibility. It would be sufficient to say that the movie just didn’t fly in comparison to the other better ones in the series.

2 Best Climax: The Shining

Dark psychological horror The Shining needs no introduction among the fans of horror genre. The Shining has been the flag bearer of the entire horror and psychological horror genre. When Jack and his family moved to an isolated hotel (where Jack has joined as a Winter caretaker), Jack started losing himself due to loneliness. The rest of the story follows the aftermath. The climax is power-packed and has a twist of its own (which by the way, totally has the potential of a spin-off of its own). The fact revealed at the end that The Overlook used to call the reincarnated guests from the past makes the movie much more delicious.

1 Missed The Mark: Scream (1996)

The 1996 horror slash dark comedy movie Scream is based on a pretty interesting idea and it does a great job at deconstructing the horror movie genre too. The movie has a female high school student as the lead protagonist, who is getting threatening phone calls from a killer. Suddenly, everyone around her is getting attacked or murdered. Her father and boyfriend both are likely suspects. The climax reveals that the boyfriend was the killer all along. Too predictable!

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