BAD ENDINGS… SPOILERS AHEAD…

I have to admit, I’m a fan of writer Jim Emerson who pretty much stirs some interesting topics in his blogs about film. One of my favorite new entries in his blog is his examination of films that are rather good but plagued with bad or tacked on endings that ruin the films sometimes. It’s much lengthier and complex than how I describe it, but I was thinking about some films that were pretty much given terrible or displeasing endings that I still ponder on.

“28 Days Later” is one of those films for sure. I’ve seen the film about a hundred times, I have the DVD, I have the lines memorized, and I’ve written fan fictions about it, and I simply can not wait for the sequel, but one of the things that’s always bugged me about the Boyle masterpiece was the climax.

Now, I bought Jim’s descent into darkness, and the true presence of the infection being more man’s rage than an actual disease, but the climax in which Jim, Hannah, and Selena are living in a cottage, assemble a sign, and eventually get discovered was inspiring…

…and then I saw the DVD.

In it, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland explore all three endings. One featured the same cottage scenario except with a chicken in place of Jim, one featured an elaborate blood transfusion with Frank, and the other was truly bleak.

In this climax, once Jim is shot by Eccleston’s character, he’s then taken into a hospital where Selena attempts to revive Jim on a stretcher. This leads to a frantic attempt of Selena to revive Jim, ending in Jim’s sad demise, as Hannah whimpers in a corner. They then pick up their guns, and walk off into a pitch black hallway, as the doors close.

Jim’s journey begins and ends on a hospital stretcher. Making the sacrifice that was likely in vain.

This ending inspired in me two reactions: Anger and regret.

I was angry because there simply was no hope evident in this final conclusion, and likely Selena and Hannah were walking off to their dooms. I loved these characters, I rooted for these characters, and the likelihood of their imminent demises angered me. But then, I realized that this ending was the best one that could have fit the mold for “28 Days Later.” And I was sad we never saw this utterly bleak finale, instead of what I (now) admit is a tacked on happy ending for the masses.

“28 Days Later” is still one of the best horror films I’ve ever seen, and I wish we could have had this alternate ending. It’s only fitting. Romero’s zombie flicks never had happy endings.

And then there’s the awfully overblown “Dead Man’s Chest,” a film that was really nothing but a two and a half hour preamble to the third film. What’s most irritating about this movie is that it feels like two concepts rolled into one.

There’s the first hour based around Jack Sparrow, escaping a tribe, and endless ridiculous stunts, and then we’re finally given the plot involving Davy Jones, which was a plot that was awfully tedious and dull, but then as Jack Sparrow is eaten by the poorly animated Kraken, we’re led into the finale in which an old enemy pops by segueing into the crew’s rescue or search for Sparrow.

I felt cheated. I was cheated.

In the past, Full Moon Pictures were criticized for creating franchises with endings that were mere segues into the next film, and yet “Dead Man’s Chest” didn’t receive much criticism for it. Sequels like it have left the door open with a resolution, but “Dead Man’s Chest” was nothing but a preamble, a cheap gimmick to bring people into theaters. And I hated it for that.

“High Tension” is an infamous horror film for bringing about an utterly illogical, absurd, and jaw dropping second half that reveals our heroine to in fact be the actual killer. Which brings about a slew of questions that I still have difficulty answering. It’s still a damn good horror film, but that ending was insane.

There’s also “Wolf Creek” which was an awful film in every sense of the word, but pretty much didn’t seem to know how to end. So instead, we have the subtitles explaining the fate of the only surviving character, and Uncle Mike trailing off into the horizon for a sequel. As well as “Hostel,” a mediocre horror film with a second half that begs us to put disbelief on hold. No one would actually notice a bloody woman with her eye missing in a crowded train station? Brotha, please.

One of my biggest pet peeves involves “The Exorcist” redux, still a juggernaut of a horror film that was given a brand new finisher that brought the tension and momentum to a halt with our priest looking up the infamous steps in which Karras dives to his death, which then oddly drifts into a conversation with Lee J. Cobb. While it is an entertaining conversation, its inclusion is still completely unnecessary.

And there’s of course the infamous explanation of Norman Bates’ psychological problems in Hitchcock’s “Psycho” which was repetitive, drab, and brought the film to a screeching halt, especially since it was all basically self-explanatory once we see Norman in his mother’s clothing.

So, come on you cunts and runts, share yours, would you?