Of course, most times theres a good reason why those endings were changed, but every once in a while an alternate ending comes along thats actually far better than the one that made it into the finished film.
Today here on Shock, we take a look at 10 of those alternate endings that were pretty damn awesome, in most cases completely changing the outcome of the movies they were at one point going to be tacked onto.Ultimately, none of this stuff is canonical, but its nevertheless fun to take a peek at what couldve been!
Alternate Horror Endings
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The Descent
It’s not uncommon for foreign or independently-made films to be butchered for their stateside theatrical release, which is precisely what happened to exceptional creature feature The Descent. When the British film was released into theaters here in the states, the ending was completely changed, with final girl Sarah making it out of the cave alive. In Neil Marshall’s original conclusion, included on the Unrated DVD release, Sarah only imagines that she makes it out of the cave, and we see that she’s actually still stuck in there, hallucinating a reunion with her deceased daughter. The implication in the original ending is that Sarah dies in the cave, which was apparently too depressing for American audiences. And, of course, it would’ve killed any sequel potential, which is a big time no-no in Hollywood.
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28 Days Later
Speaking of originally depressing endings that were made a bit more uplifting, 28 Days Later suffered the same fate, ending on the note of Jim, Selena and Hannah surviving the events of the film, and possibly even being rescued. Originally, Jim was supposed to die and the other characters’ fates left off on a much more unclear note, with Danny Boyle’s self-proclaimed ‘true ending’ seeing Jim dying on a hospital bed after being shot, followed by Selena and Hannah returning to the outside world. Boyle felt this ending brought the film full circle, since it kicked off with Jim waking up on a hospital bed, but test audiences found it to be far too bleak. The original ending was eventually tacked on to theatrical prints of the film, as a ‘what if?’ post-credits sequence.
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The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect is one weird ass movie, chock full of some pretty wild shit – Eric Stoltz as a child molester, anyone? Unfortunately, the theatrical version of the time-travel movie came equipped with a cop out of an ending, which saw Ashton Kutcher’s character going back in time and verbally abusing the future love of his life, so that the two would never go on to develop a relationship - thereby making life better for everyone. Lame, right? Well, in the Director’s Cut ending, Kutcher’s character takes more extreme measures to accomplish the same goal, traveling back to when he was a little baby in his mother’s womb and strangling himself to death with his umbilical cord. Needless to say, it’s not hard to see why New Line didn’t want to end the theatrical release with a baby suicide scene, though you’ve got to love the balls it took to actually film it!
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Carrie
Last year’s remake of Carrie was pretty pointless, bringing very little to the table and mostly just re-hashing Brian De Palma’s classic. Even the ending was lame, replacing the original’s jolting jump scare with a dull finale that simply saw Carrie’s tombstone cracking. The alternate ending including on the Blu-ray release, however, was totally awesome, giving the original film’s jump scare a run for its money. Rather than visiting Carrie in the cemetery, Sue instead has a hospital nightmare sequence wherein she literally gives birth to Carrie, her bloody hand reaching out of Sue’s vagina and grabbing her arm. Wouldn’t have made the overall movie any better, but certainly would’ve ended it on a much more memorable note!
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Little Shop of Horrors
Director Frank Oz was originally dead set on ending his 1986 adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors much the same way the musical did, with Audrey and Seymour dying, and Audrey 2 rampaging through New York City like the Cloverfield monster. And in fact, this grand ending of the film was shot, costing a reported $5 million. Though test audiences loved the majority of the film, they absolutely hated the grim ending, forcing the filmmakers to shoot a much happier replacement, with Audrey 2 being destroyed and everyone surviving. The original ending was included on a recent Blu-ray release of the film, at long last restoring Oz’s original vision.
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Paranormal
When Paramount picked up Oren Peli’s independently-made Paranormal Activity, they decided to toss aside original plans of remaking it and simply release the already made film into theaters. But there was a catch. Peli’s original cut of the film ended with a possessed Katie being shot dead by police, many hours after murdering Micah. Of course, the idea of Katie not surviving the events of the film left little room for sequel potential, and so they shot a brand new ending that saw her lunging towards the camera after killing Micah, her human face morphing into a poorly CG’ed demon face. There’s no questioning that Peli’s original ending was superior, largely thanks to a lack of shitty Hollywood effects, but I suppose the change ended up working out for the best. Yea, I’m a fan of the Paranormal Activity sequels. What of it?!
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Friday the 13th Part 3
The third installment in the Friday the 13th franchise features a dream sequence ending that’s clearly meant to replicate the awesome jump scare from the original film, with the corpse of Mrs. Voorhees (how the hell did she get her head back on?!) jumping out of a lake and grabbing hold of final girl Chris Higgins. I don’t mind the scene, but the alternate versions were much cooler, one of which was to show Chris having a dream sequence wherein Jason decapitates her with his machete. The scene was shot but to this day has never been seen. Another idea Paramount shot down was to have Jason’s stomach cut open at the end of the film, his guts spilling out in three glorious dimensions. If only!
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Dawn of the Dead
Though all previously mentioned alternate endings on this list were filmed, the original ending to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was never actually shot, though behind the scenes photos such as the one seen to your left reveal that the scene did at least reach the testing stage. In the cut of the film we all know and love, survivors Peter and Fran fly off the roof of the mall in a helicopter, their fates literally hanging in the balance. In Romero’s original script, both characters were to commit suicide, with Peter shooting himself in the head and Fran decapitating herself with the helicopter’s blades. Yea, I shit you not. Romero ultimately decided the ending was a bit too bleak, even for a movie about the zombie apocalypse. Interesting to note that the cast of Fran’s head for the planned suicide scene was used as the head of an African America male in the finished film, memorably blown to pieces in the opening sequence. So I guess you could say Fran ended up meeting a brutal end after all!
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Alien
Though I’m glad that Ellen Ripley survived the events of Alien, killing the titular creature and going on to kick some more ass in the awesome sequel, there’s no denying that an originally planned alternate chain of events sounds pretty damn cool. Though never shot, one of the original ideas was to have the Xenomorph creature bite Ripley’s head off and then communicate back down to Earth, in her human voice. Producers ultimately scrapped the bizarre idea when they decided that the creature had to be killed off at the end of the movie, leaving me to forever wonder what such a crazy scene would’ve looked like. Another idea for the ending would’ve had the monster becoming sexually aroused by Ripley, which is too weird to even think about!
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Hostel
Few horror movies end on a more satisfying note than Hostel, with Paxton brutally murdering the Dutch businessman that brutally murdered his best friend. It’s hard not to cheer when Paxton cuts off the dude’s fingers and slashes his throat, as it’s a moment we were all hoping to see at the end of the film. But Eli Roth almost didn’t end the film on that note, at one point in time considering – and filming – a far more disturbing ending. In the alternate ending, Paxton doesn’t kill the businessman but rather kidnaps his young daughter, thereby inflicting more pain on him that simply murdering him ever could. Test audiences found the ending to be too dark and unsatisfying, as it wasn’t clear if Paxton was going to hurt or help the little girl. Roth re-shot the ending, which was admittedly for the best.
