True Horror: 5 Films That End With Villains Coming Out On Top

The horror genre is unique in that the focus is usually on the antagonists, who are developed with much more attention and detail than the protagonists. A villain can make or break a horror story. If they're good, let's face it, we sometimes even forget about their victims.

However, scary movies rarely end with a monster's victory. If anything, big bads like Chucky, Freddy, or Jason barely survive to turn their films into franchises, but they never end up winning. Well, almost never.

In fact, there are several horror flicks that end happily for the antagonists and devastatingly for everyone else. If you feel like plunging into the darkness of true terror, here are five notable examples of such films. Beware of spoilers.

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

IMDb rating: 6.2/10

Victor Salva's film may seem like a typical slasher at first, but its ending is truly refreshing. The leads are two college students, brother and sister, who travel home for spring break and unwillingly find a horrifying murder and feast scene of a blood-chilling flesh-eating monster, the Creeper. Needless to say, the creature sets out to hunt down the siblings.

Creep (2014)

IMDb rating: 6.3/10

Fans of the found-footage trope are sure to love this intense psychological flick from Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass. A broke videographer accepts a job to travel to a remote location to film a weird client who claims he has only days to live and needs to leave a message for his child. But making the video turns into a real nightmare.

Pearl (2022)

IMDb rating: 7.0/10

This is the second installment in the X film series and the prequel to the first slasher starring Mia Goth. Ti West's movie is set in 1918 and follows Goth's villainess Pearl when she is still a young woman dreaming of fame. The film explains how and why Pearl became the psychotic killer we see in X.

Natural Born Killers (1994)

IMDb rating: 7.2/10

Oliver Stone's movie is old, but it still holds up on rewatch and has an army of fans. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as an oddly amusing newlywed homicidal couple, and Robert Downey Jr. plays a journalist who writes about them, glorifying their horrific crimes and making them a sensation with the public.

Funny Games (1997 & 2007)

IMDb rating: 7.5/10 & 6.5/10

Michael Haneke made two Funny Games, an Austrian original and an American remake, and both became horror classics, giving viewers nightmares to this day. Many wish they had never tuned in to the story of the torture of a family taken hostage by psychopathic young men. Especially since the monsters are never punished.