10 Great Horror Movies Where The Heroes Lose

WARNING: Spoilers for multiple horror movies ahead.

Some truly great horror movies end with evil emerging victorious as the heroes are left dead, despondent, or otherwise unable to defeat the villains. Horror movies have to strike a tricky balance when it comes to tone. Although the genre is designed to scare viewers, if things get too bleak and hard to watch, a significant portion of the audience will inevitably be put off finishing the story. As such, many great horror movies offer viewers a concession by providing a comparatively hopeful ending. The Final Girl usually triumphs over the slasher, no matter how many of her friends he has killed.

Some horror movies subvert this, refusing to provide any resolution. There are movies where the killer is never revealed, leaving viewers unsettled and uncertain and movies where the hero turns out to have been the villain all along. However, none of these are quite as brutal as the horror movies where the hero straight-up loses. Plenty of low-rent horrors have used this bleak twist as a cheap surprise, but there are a handful of genuinely great horror movies that lean into the genre’s darkest side with endings that obliterate any hope and let evil triumph.

10 Sinister

A last-second twist makes this 2012 chiller much nastier than it seems

For most of Sinister’s runtime, it looks like Ethan Hawke’s true crime author Ellison is playing with fire by staying in a haunted house with his family. When he uncovers boxes of snuff movies in the attic, Ellison discovers that the monstrous demon Bughuul has been possessing children and forcing them to kill their families. Miraculously, Ellison manages to get his family out of the haunted house before this fate befalls his children, only for Sinister’s brutal twist ending to reveal that moving only made things worse as Ellison’s daughter becomes possessed, drugs her entire family, and kills them.

9 The Strangers

This home invasion horror never gives its heroes a chance to fight back

2008’s home invasion horror The Strangers is one of the subgenre’s most painfully effective entries since the heroes have no idea why they are being targeted and no way to defend themselves. When Liv Tyler’s Kristen answers the door to a mysterious stranger, she doesn’t realize she and her boyfriend are in for a night of terrifying chases, torture, and eventual death at the hands of these masked murderers. Although Kristen might make it out alive, the heroes never kill the Strangers or unmask them, let alone learn why they attacked them.

8 An American Werewolf in London

This classic horror-comedy is a lot bleaker than viewers may remember

For much of its runtime, An American Werewolf in London focuses on its hero David, and his seemingly doomed attempts to cure his lycanthropy. The tone of this horror-comedy is relatively dark, but most of David’s story does nothing to prepare viewers for one of the most tragic horror villain deaths ever. Not only does he never find a cure, but David ends up dying in the arms of his love interest before An American Werewolf in London’s ending abruptly cuts to black.

7 Spoorloos (The Vanishing)

This infamous Dutch thriller has a truly hopeless, haunting ending

1988’s Spoorloos (The Vanishing) is a hypnotic, uniquely terrifying horror movie that follows Rex, a man who becomes obsessed with his girlfriend’s disappearance. When he finally meets her kidnapper, Raymond, the placid sociopath tells him he will show Rex what happened to her. Desperate to know, Rex ends up drinking the drugged coffee Raymond offers him and wakes up inside a coffin six feet below the ground. It’s a brutally nihilistic, cruel ending to a painfully effective horror story.

6 Dead Silence

This underrated killer doll movie leaves all of its heroes dead

2007’s Dead Silence sees its hero return to his small hometown and confront a curse that has lasted generations after it claimed the life of his wife. While this setup might sound familiar, what makes the movie notable is the hero’s complete failure to defeat the demonic villain targeting him. By the time Dead Silence ends, the heroes are all dead and their tormentor, the spirit of puppeteer Mary Shaw, is more powerful than ever in a uniquely dark twist ending few viewers will see coming.

5 Fallen

This supernatural thriller’s hero comes painfully close to beating the villain

1998’s Fallen follows Denzel Washington’s beleaguered detective as he attempts to work out the connection between a series of seemingly unrelated murders. When he discovers the culprit is a body-hopping demon, he manages to lure the demon’s current host out into a remote cabin before shooting them and himself to ensure they can’t escape. The demon then simply hops into the body of a nearby cat. Admittedly, this ending makes the movie a waste of time, but the twist is so brutally clever and cruel that it still fits Fallen’s hopeless tone perfectly.

4 Oculus

This haunted mirror horror has a terrifying, hopeless coda

Before Mike Flanagan became famous for his ambitious Netflix horror shows, the writer/director created 2013’s haunted mirror horror Oculus. This time-shifting chiller sees a pair of siblings try to uncover the mystery behind a cursed mirror that killed their parents. The duo brings the mirror back to the scene of the crime and, instead of destroying it for good, ends up tricked into doing its bidding. By the end, Oculus‘s hero is blamed for his sister’s death while the mirror’s powers are undimmed.

3 Cult of Chucky

The killer doll reigns supreme by the end of this 2017 effort

While the Child’s Play movies vary in terms of quality, one thing that the franchise always has is a sick sense of humor. As such, it was no surprise when Chucky’s 2013 comeback saw him pin a string of murders on Curse of Chucky’s helpless heroine. What is more surprising is that he gets away with it, only for 2017’s Cult of Chucky to reaffirm this bleak reality. By the end of this slasher sequel, Chucky successfully transfers his soul into another body, killing all the heroes and surviving to see another day.

2 Smile

This 2022 horror hit has a truly crushing twist ending

2022’s Smile sees a disturbed psychologist, Rose, slowly realizing that she is being targeted by some sort of paranormal entity that feeds off pain and fear. While Rose relies on her boyfriend, co-workers, sister, and eventually even her ex for support, no one can stop this entity from pursuing her, and few even believe that her ordeal is happening. Eventually, Rose faces off against the monster in a remote cabin and seemingly overpowers it, only for Smile’s ending to reveal the seemingly happy ending was all a mirage that forces an exhausted Rose to let the demon possess her.

1 Hereditary

This dark horror drama’s demonic villain eventually wins the day

Ari Aster’s 2018 debut Hereditary sees the Graham family gradually fall apart after a tragic accident claims the life of their youngest member, Charlie. While the teenage slacker Peter is the focus of Hereditary’s opening half, the movie slowly shifts its attention to his grieving mother Annie in its final acts. However, none of the cast is spared when the demon Paimon successfully possesses Annie, uses her body to kill Peter, and then possesses Peter’s body to gain human form in this horror movie’s unremittingly bleak ending.