Unhappy Endings

[john]

>and maybe even this show called Are You Afraid of the Dark.

 Great little show! Some goofy episodes, but some were pretty good too. I wish Nick would play the final season of it again. I only saw like 3 episodes because it was almost never on when it was supposed to be,

[Rev. Darkstar]

The Quiet Earth

it starts off with an unhappy begining and ends with the mother of all unhappy endings.

[Lee]

I'm convinced. Where do I find this gem?

[Drezzy]

I used to love this show. And Roundhouse. Ah, Roundhouse...

My favorite episodes were "The Ghastly Grinner" and the one where the kid stole the clown's nose from inside the funhouse, and the clown's ghost stalked him. That show genuinely made me scared on a weekly basis (except for the really, really, REALLY cheesy episodes) when I was little. The first season still is spooky...

[J.R.]

Roundhouse was cool, except for the dance sequences. They considered sitting on the ground kicking their feet and slapping their foreheads hot moves. I want one of those mobile recliners. I watched probably every Are You Afraid Of The Dark ever, but it was never really scary.

[Lee]

Yeah I watched both of those shows.  They made my Saturday Nights!

[slax]

any HK/Asian love story
None of their movies end with lovers kissing in front of the sunset
they always end with one lover in anothers arms with one of them with a sword through their chest :)

[AndyC]

Lots of really good responses. I'd forgotten Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That was another early unhappy ending that really surprised me.

I noticed a few people are also simply listing their favourite unhappy endings. Forbin, Body Snatchers and The Thing are all great. Another one that really blew me away was The Hitcher. Did anyone see that ending coming?

Any other examples of the best unhappy endings?

[john]

How about Invasion Earth, the British miniseries? It ends with them learning that they can't destroy the inter-dimensional invaders after all, so they just nuke the town to show that they're willing to destroy themselves rather than let the invaders win.

[AndyC]

That reminded me of Failsafe, which reminded me of Dr. Strangelove.

Actually, Strangelove might belong in a different category - an unhappy ending that was funny.

[Vermin Boy]

The opposite of this for me would be Texas Chainsaw Massacre: I had gotten so used to downer endings in indie horror films of that era that I was genuinely surprised when the heroine actually got away. I still wouldn't exactly call it a HAPPY ending, as there's no real resolution, but it wasn't unhappy either.

[Offthewall]

Back when SNICK was cool.

The orginal line up

Carissa Explains it all
Roundhouse
Ren and Stimpy
Are you afraid of the dark

Later Roundhouse would be pulled for Pete and pete. And Clarissa for All That

The Ghastly Grinner eposide is a classic. I also really liked the one where the comic book villian came to life, but I'm a comic book fan so maybe it's just me

[AndyC]

Actually, the idea of a happy ending in a slasher movie,or any horror movie for that matter, is kind of weird. The heroine gets away, but virtually everyone she knows is dead and she's psychologically scarred for life. It's very hard to say that the good guys won or that the bad guy lost - especially since there's usually a clue that he'll come back.

At least the survivors appear shaken in most endings. The ones that really get me are the movies that have people laughing and cheering because they beat the monster/killer/villain, in spite of the fact that their families or friends or whole society has been decimated brutally before their eyes.

Then there's some of the Nightmare on Elm St. series, in which Freddy is defeated, but then comes back and grabs somebody in the epilogue.

[Flangepart]

Another reason i don't watch this kind of film series. You know the monster can't be killed, so it's pointless to get involved, espchualy if they make characters that you can care about. The Tremors franchise understood this. They Made success by the heros possable, so since you were concentrating on them, it mattered what happened. The monster was just the "McGuffin" as it were. Sorry, but with real evil in my daily news, i prefer movies where the Villian/monster gets it but good. Tremors Three not only makes Burt Gummer (Of all characters), the hero, but pulls it off. And, Burt gets the last laugh! Oh, sorry...was that a happy ending i mentioned? My Appologies.

[Neville]

I can't really remember the first time I saw an unhappy ending. Could it be "Bonnie & Clyde"? Funny thing is that most of the must stunning unhappy endings I can remember are from thrillers. However, I rather like movies where the unhappy ending is not just a cheap last-second twist, but the ultimate and logic conclusion to the story. Here are my favourites and why:

1) Carlito's way (Brian DePalma). Just wonderful (and logic) ending. I showed the movie to my best friend and he inmediately reached for a kleenex, while he called me all sort of names.

2) The wild bunch: OK, one or two survive, but do you really think these people have a future? They are dinosaurs, cowboys in the XXth Century. They only can expect to make noise before they extinct, just as the others did.

3) John Woo's A bullet in the head: It speaks for itself.

4) Screamers: OK, it is a cheap last-second twist, but I love the ultimate irony of it: Hendrikson killed by the first and only spontaneous act he has performed in the whole movie, and the ship heading to the headquarters of the people who started the whole thing.