The Best Endings

I actually have to agree with zahra on The Sixth Sense (though I personally hesitate to use absolutes like "best ever"). I wasn't expecting a twist, either. Now, that's all I expect from Mr. Shyamalan).

In lit., I do like the ending to M.R. James's "Canon Alberic's Scrap-book."

Not an ending but a continuing to exist in living hell situation as in the human "thing" in Malraux's ROYAL WAY.

Cathedral Goth said:

I actually have to agree with zahra on The Sixth Sense (though I personally hesitate to use absolutes like "best ever"). I wasn't expecting a twist, either. Now, that's all I expect from Mr. Shyamalan).

In lit., I do like the ending to M.R. James's "Canon Alberic's Scrap-book."

Click to expand...

I say things like 'best ever' because I regress to the age of an eight-year-old sometimes. Just humour me, it'll go away...

No problem. Perhaps I'm just indecisive. My favorite candy is boxed chocolates.

When it comes to horror, I think the best endings are really beginnings.

To me a good horror ending is one where you finish the story as the character realizes just how bad things are, and that they will never get better.

I Am Legend has my favorite horror ending. It's ending just seemed so...right...

I'd agree with Pet Semetery if we were using the criteria: "made me sleep with the lights on when I finished it" kind of ending.

I prefer horror endings, especially in books, that don't end on too positive. I don't mind when the good guys win, but I prefer if there's some indication that they've been profoundly changed by what they went through. You can't be the same person you were before the hordes of zombies, after all.

Film-wise, I have to go with "The Thing." If they'd somehow managed to get out of there with a happy ending, it really wouldn't have fit at all. "Sixth Sense" might have made the list... except I saw that one coming.