Sometimes there isn’t a happy ending for every movie. Other times there isn’t even a final girl left standing. Here are 5 horror movies where everyone dies at the end. In some of these films, characters die one by one. In others, everyone dies at the end all at once. What’s your favorite film where no one is left alive?
1. Sinister
This seriously frightening movie is mentioned by film connoisseurs frequently as being particularly nightmare-inducing, Sinister is about a true crime writer who moves his family into a murder house.
Most horror film fans know the image of the family who was killed by hanging and left dangling from a tree in the backyard. The Stevenson family’s 10-year-old daughter was never to be seen again and Ellison hopes to figure out what happened to her. He, his wife Tracy, and their two kids Trevor and Ashley are none the wiser to their father’s expedition.
As Ellison slowly uncovers a truckload of killings he discovers a box of various old footage in the attic. After consulting an occult professor he is told that the symbol he keeps seeing belongs to a spirit called Bughuul who takes out whole families and keeps one child to eat the soul of. Ellison is undeterred until his daughter paints the missing 10-year-old from the Stevenson family on her bedroom wall and he starts seeing lots of other really scary stuff.
Unbeknownst to him, burning the films he found and moving away from the house has marked him and his family as Bughull’s next victim. The whole family is killed by Ashley with an axe before Bughuul whips Ashley away into the Sinister box.
Sinister Trailer
2. Chernobyl Diaries
What better way to spend your time backpacking across Europe than to travel to a Chornobyl nuclear disaster site? Said no one ever. In the spirit of extreme touring rivaled to similar tourist horror attractions like McKamey Manor, Chris, Natalie, and Amanda do just that. One of the best movies where everyone dies at the end.
In Pripyat sits a nuclear power plant just ripe for eager young people to gape at. When they get there they are joined by Aussies, Zoe, and Michael. None of the groups is deterred by being taken in a back way by a shady tourist guide.
It doesn’t take long for the film to descend into all types of horrific scenarios. This includes maiming, mutant fish, and injury as well as glimpses of weird-looking people that are seemingly living in the toxic village. At the end of the Chernobyl Diaries, the audience is treated to a sigh of relief as Amanda seems to awaken in a hospital. Of course, the moment of solace is halted when her rescuers let the mutant patients swarm her into blackness.
Aside from the alternate ending for Chernobyl Diaries where Amanda is given another reprieve. However, it can only be assumed she eventually dies of radiation poisoning despite being shown alive at the end. Skip to the end for a YouTube video of the alternate ending for the Chernobyl Diaries movie.
3. House of 1000 Corpses
Released in 2003, the House of 1000 Corpses movie was directed and written by Rob Zombie. The horror movie was considered a failure by rating aggregators at the time it came out. House of 1000 Corpses nonetheless has slowly gained favor over time to become a cult classic.
Captain Spalding kills an armed robbery duo as they attempt to rob the gas station horror museum he owns. Meanwhile, another group of travelers is headed for the same gas station. The gas station is delightfully called The Museum of Monsters and Madmen. As they hit the road, they pick up a hitchhiker called Baby. When the group’s car tires are mysteriously shot out, Baby offers to take them to her family’s house which just so happens to be nearby.
Once at the eclectic home full of oddities and random disfigured characters, the group of travelers, Jerry, Bill, and Mary who were led by Denise in the hopes of writing a horror book are picked off captured, and tortured or killed by the inexplicable family. When the group fails to return home, Denise’s parents and some local police head off to investigate only to be killed and used to torment the remaining teens further.
Denise almost survives her ordeal. She makes it to the main road only to be recaptured by Captain Spalding and Otis. Denise’s final moments are marked as the House of 1000 Corpses ending with her strapped to an operating table surrounded by Dr. Satan and Earl who was supposed to already be dead. The perpetrators survive in this film, but I still like to think of this title as a movie where everyone dies at the end.
4. Cabin in the Woods
One of the best horror movies ever, and one for the list of movies where everyone dies at the end, is Cabin in the Woods. The story is about a group of students who head off to a cabin in a remote forest. The title was released in 2012 but it’s well-known as must-see cinema. Painstakingly run by laboratory professors they have reset the cabin after a recent failure in their experiments.
The students are treated like puppets once inside the cabin. They are given drugs that inhibit their sexual desires as well as how they behave. While under the influence, others within the laboratory take bets on what sort of attacks the group will fall victim to. Of course one of the group discovers the camera equipment but is dragged away by a zombie before he can tell anyone.
It’s revealed that the cabin is set up to follow a horror movie trope ritual that orders how and when each of the cast should die. There is even a nominated survivor in the group who’s a virgin, though they can also die as long as they are last.
The ending of Cabin in the Woods sees one of the lab employees turn on her constituents and join the remaining teens. Dana and Marty declare that humanity isn’t worth saving right before a giant hand descends on them and the world ends.
5. Open Water, Movies Where Everyone Dies At The End
One of my favorite shark attack horror movies and also a film where no one survives to tell the tale is Open Water. A simplistic tale of human survival. The story for Open Water is based on real events. In 1998 Tom and Eileen Lonergan went scuba diving only to be left stranded at sea in the Great Barrier Reef by their tour boat.
There is not much to tell regarding the story of the two divers named Daniel and Susan in the film. Open Water is still a riveting and tense 79 minutes. Daniel and Susan remain optimistic that the boat they were on will realize their mistake. However, the audience is let in on the fact that everyone else has returned to shore and no one knows they are even missing.
By the time the crew realizes Daniel and Susan have been left at sea, sharks have begun to appear. Daniel is taken out by a shark feeding frenzy during a storm. Susan resigns herself to death. Shortly after and goes underwater to drown hoping to not be killed by the sharks.
Movies Where Everyone Dies
This marks the end of 5 movies where everyone dies at the end. Mother of Movies hopes you enjoyed this list of firm horror favorites. We’ll leave off the promised alternate ending for the Chernobyl Diaries.
