Most movies end happily, or at least satisfyingly; that's what audiences typically crave, after all. Crowd-pleasers are a fan-favorite for a reason; who wants to see a bleak ending on the big screen, when we seemingly have enough of those in real life? The saying is "and they lived happily ever after" for a reason.

A great ending is one thing, and plenty of horror movies have great endings. Some of the movies mentioned below also have great endings, but the focus here is on how those endings themselves end. The focus is on the very last shot you see before the end credits begin, or before the movie reads “The End,” if it’s an older horror film (from a time in cinema history when opening credits, rather than end credits, were the norm).