While twist endings can be great, some movie endings are so frustrating that they render the entire proceeding plot pointless in retrospect. Some movies can have incredibly uplifting, hopeful endings (like director Frank Darabont’s classic Stephen King adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption). Other movies have cruel endings that stun audiences but are undeniably fitting in of theme and tone, such as Darabont’s later King adaptation The Mist. Then there are the movies that have endings that make their whole story seem like an exercise in futility. These endings aren’t always necessarily surprising, but they do leave the viewer feeling oddly cheated.
While some movies change their original premise halfway through the story to focus on new characters or another plot, this sort of playful experimentation can be rewarding. However, movies that wait until their last scene to lose all interest in their characters are much more annoying. These movies set up intriguing plots and compelling characters only to leave viewers feeling shortchanged when they end without coming to any meaningful conclusion.
13 The Devil Inside
2008’s Paranormal Activity was a sleeper hit that eventually turned into a box office success, prompting a string of found footage knock-offs to follow in its wake. The most infamous of this batch was The Devil Inside, a found footage mockumentary that followed a journalist investigating the murders her mother committed while allegedly possessed by a demon. In a truly brazen meta-moment, The Devil Inside’s story ended midway through an action set-piece and urged viewers to visit a now-dead web link if they wanted any clarity.
12 I Am Legend
While the I Am Legend 2 will reinstate the 2007 movie’s alternate ending, the ending that theatrical viewers got was a disaster. Thanks to the decision to jettison the book’s brilliant original twist, I Am Legend ended with Will Smith’s taciturn Dr. Robert Neville sacrificing himself to wipe out the Darkseekers and save humanity with his experimental vaccine. There was no moving allegory for xenophobia or a perspective shift that proves the villains weren’t really monsters after all. Instead, this dud went out with a predictable whimper.
11 Jurassic World: Dominion
2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion began with a news brief about Earth’s human population acclimating to the presence of dinosaurs in the modern world. The proceeding story ignored this plot entirely in favor of a cringe-worthy mash-up of Fast and Furious involving motorcycle chases, espionage, and bioweapons. Jurassic World: Dominion’s ending then revealed that the dinosaurs learned to coexist with humans after all, a much more interesting storyline that presumably took place offscreen.
10 Eden Lake
2008’s grim, unrelenting horror movie Eden Lake saw a pair of yuppies terrorized by stereotypical working-class kids while they tried to enjoy a relaxing vacation. After her fiancée was mercilessly murdered by the cartoonish-ly evil children, the heroine narrowly escaped the bloodthirsty gang of kids only to find refuge in the house of their parents. Eden Lake’s plot became utterly pointless as viewers realized she couldn’t possibly escape with her life.
9 Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part Two
While the entire Twilight franchise got a lot of flack from critics, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part Two’s ending did earn its bad reputation. The sequel ended with a gory, epic battle scene where half of the Twilight saga’s main cast all died. Then, this sequence was revealed to merely be a vision of what might have been. Everyone was actually fine and nothing of note happened.
8 Right At Your Door
Right At Your Door is a grim 2006 indie thriller about a paranoid suburbanite attempting to avoid contamination when he discovers a deadly virus has flooded the city’s air. Ironically, the movie’s lead character accidentally incubated the killer airborne virus by sealing up his home and refusing to let his loved ones inside. As such, Right At Your Door’s ending sees troops mercy kill the lead as his wife watches in horror.
7 The Woman In Black
The Woman In Black, is a brutally effective chiller for much of its runtime, but the ending is more exasperating than scary. After earnestly trying everything imaginable to appease her spirit, the hero is inexplicably killed by the Woman in Black regardless. What was clearly intended to be a last lingering shock instead makes the entire movie feel like an aimless shaggy dog story.
6 Play Dirty
1969’s Play Dirty isn’t well ed, but this might be because it boasts one of the most gut-wrenching war movie endings of all time. This unbelievably grim WWII movie ends with its two British heroes getting gunned down by fellow Allies as they try to explain that they are just wearing Nazi uniforms as a disguise. The two lead characters are dead before they can get a word out, and any momentary sense of triumph dies with them in the dirt.
5 Switchblade Romance
Initially an unbearably tense thriller, 2003’s Switchblade Romance becomes a comically inept affair when one of its heroines is revealed to, somehow, be the killer. This leads to questions as to who they have been running from this entire time, how the heroine pulls off kills that involved hefting around concrete saws and bookcases, or why the movie’s main characters didn't try to escape the girl who killed her entire family. All these questions and more are left completely unanswered.
4 Brazil
Brazil’s ending is momentarily cheerful as Sam escapes his captors, overthrows the dystopian government, and wins the day. Then, the movie reveals none of that happened, and he has really lost his mind thanks to constant torture. A rare instance of this ending working well, Brazil’s bleak coda is thematically fitting even though it does make Sam’s journey feel entirely pointless. 2010’s Repo Men even retooled this in a rare twist ending that saved an otherwise bad movie.
