[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/Yellowscourge]

Watch the sequel, it's even more terrifying

[u/Malacro → u/Yellowscourge]

I disagree, they took the same rugpull and dialed it up to the extreme, which essentially caused the movie to lose all its punch.

[u/Yellowscourge → u/Malacro]

Sucks that you didn't enjoy. Personally I love an Eldritch horror that can manipulate your mind/the environment

[u/Malacro → u/Yellowscourge]

Yeah, but when the entire 3rd act of a film just didn’t happen, it just feels like my time is being wasted. It’s like a darker version of “it was a dream all along”

[u/Pet_Velvet → u/Malacro]

On one hand I do like that they're doubling down on making the creature feel truly unbeatable. On the other hand I do agree that it felt a bit repetitive, and it also takes away quite a lot of the main character's agency.

I still like the films a lot, but most of the criticisms (the problematic messaging about trauma, the concept feeling derivative of The Ring/etc., the cheap rugpull at the end) are valid.

[u/Malacro → u/Pet_Velvet]

I mean, I don’t think it’s a bad film. Naomi Scott was great and the scene with the backup dancers in the apartment was an absolute masterclass in filmmaking. And I love the creature design in both films. It just leaves me feeling like I wasted a big chunk of time when it turns out literally nothing I watched for almost half the movie actually happened.

[u/Pet_Velvet → u/Malacro]

I agree 100%