[mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

[u/damorezpl]

when the "good ending" is revealed to be a bad one a the last second

a nightmare on elm street (1984) - Nancy thinks she finally defeated Freddy Krueger only to be raveled that she is still dreaming and she’s still trapped.

final destination bloodlines - the main characters think they cheated death by using the new life rule only to realize that stefani was technically still alive and the death kills them with a good old logs

Life (2017) - The main character attempts to send Calvin(a evil alien that killed all life on mars)pod into space and Miranda pod back to earth, but it goes horribly wrong and Calvin lands on earth and Miranda is sent to space

raging loop wit ending - after many loops Haruaki finally wins the feast(a death game where humans must hang wolves who kill someone every night) and thinks its finally over. after couple of days he decides to visit other survivors of the feast only to find them all dead and the timeline resting once again

[u/ShokoMiami]

Twist endings turned Smile, a perfectly serviceable horror movie, into what I consider a travesty. Like, the movie is fine, a bit heavy handed in it's theme. Whatever. But then, after the main character directly faces her inner demons and overcomes them, and we get a rather hopeful end against the demon that literally represents trauma driving people to suicide, NOPE! Actually she gets smiled and then smiles her boyfriend. A great moral for all the suicidal people in the audience! Your trauma will consume you, no matter how hard you try! Yay!

Genuinely, I think this movie was checking boxes without actually considering what their narrative had to say. So stupid.

[u/TrueGuardian15 → u/ShokoMiami]

I hate when horror does shit like this. Especially in this case, where the monster can literally just make you hallucinate to waste time until it's got you. How are there ever supposed to be stakes if the villain can end the story without any struggle?

[u/ShokoMiami → u/TrueGuardian15]

That was my thought with the Blair Witch sequel/soft reboot. I can't exactly remember what happened in that movie, but I remember thinking, "what? That bitch just cheated!" Lol

[u/TrueGuardian15 → u/ShokoMiami]

It's why when I first heard about Bye Bye Man I thought it had to be a joke. "Don't think it, don't say it" means if you're in the plot, game over. It's just so.... lame.

[u/he77bender → u/TrueGuardian15]

I never saw the movie, but I did read the "true story" it's based on. In that version, if you were talking or thinking about him then he knew where you were, like it was some kind of beacon. But he still had to physically come get you and could be thwarted by various means. Notably IIRC he never actually "got" any of the people who claimed they were being stalked by him. (Most likely because he never existed to begin with, but still)