There is nothing like a good thriller to totally capture the audience's attention. When done well, a thrilling pulls the viewer in so they are on the edge of their seat wondering how the compelling story is going to end. The all-time great thrillers achieve this while also delivering a satisfying ending. Then there are the ones that can't quite stick the landing.
These thrillers have been praised by critics and audiences for delivering an overall good movie, but looking back, the endings stand out as anti-climactic or generally unsatisfying. While it might not ruin the who movie, it stops it from being a classic.
No Country For Old Men (2007)
The Coen Brothers' dark thriller No Country for Old Men won a handful of Oscars, including Best Picture, and has been called one of the best movies of the 21st century. It's hard to argue with the praise as it is a brilliant crime story. However, some fans were let down by the unexpected ending.
After following the cat-and-mouse chase between Moss and Chigurh for most of the movie, Moss is abruptly killed off-screen by some third-party players. The movie then shifts focus to Sheriff Bell who contemplates his future. It is a thoughtful ending, but some felt robbed of the payoff.
The Night Of The Hunter (1955)
While The Night of the Hunter failed to get much recognition when it was first released, it has since been praised as one of the best thrillers ever made. It is also noted for delivering one of the most memorable movie villains.
The movie follows a pair of children who are stalked by a murderous criminal named Powell who is after stolen money he thinks the children know about. After tracking down the kids, Powell is shot by an old woman and locked in a barn until the police come to arrest him, which seems like an unceremonious end for such a great villain.
The Birds (1963)
Alfred Hitchcock is often seen as the greatest thriller director of all time and The Birds is praised as one of his best movies. Hitchcock does a great job making ordinary birds more terrifying than audiences could have imagined.
After the birds suddenly start terrorizing a small town and killing people, the main characters hide out in a house. In the morning, they walk out to the car, seeing the birds eerily watching them until they drive away. Why did the birds start attacking? Why did they suddenly stop? The movie never explains.
Joker (2019)
Taking a gritty and grounded look at the famous Batman villain, Joker became one of the most talked-about movies of recent years. It went on to become a massive box office hit and won Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar for Best Actor.
The final act of Joker finds Arthur Fleck murder talk-show host Murray Franklin on live television before being embraced by the mob. The movie then abruptly cuts to Arthur in an institution, launching at a joke he thought of, suggesting the whole movie was in his head, which makes it seem much less impactful.
The French Connection (1971)
The French Connection is another Best Picture winner and has been called one of the greatest crime thrillers of all time. It follows the tough and immoral cop Popeye Doyle as he tries to take down a drug smuggler.
In the final sequence, Doyle and the other cops track the smuggler to a warehouse where Doyle accidentally kills a fellow officer. The movie then ends with text explaining that the bad guy got away. While Popeye losing is an appropriate ending, there was a more effective way to do it.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Taking a new approach to the classic horror monster movie, The Invisible Man is an incredibly intense horror thriller. The movie surprised many critics and audiences while being named as one of the best movies of 2020 by many people.
However, the movie peaks following the infamous restaurant scene and goes downhill in the third act. While it does not ever become a bad movie, it's disappointing that it just becomes a standard monster movie with a predictable conclusion given how exciting and clever it was previous to that.
It Follows (2014)
It Follows is one of the best horror movie concepts in recent memory. It centers around a curse transferred through sex in which the carrier is relentlessly pursued by a dark force that can take the form of anyone.
The movie capitalizes on its great concept for much of the runtime but the final plan to defeat the monster is pretty goofy. In the end, a gunshot to the head seems to stop it, which is oddly easy. At least the final shot ends the movie on a creepy high note.
Signs (2002)
Back when M. Night Shyamalan was still being praised as one of the best modern thriller filmmakers, Signs was one of his most acclaimed movies. It follows a family fighting to stay together in the midst of an apparent alien invasion.
The movie is packed with some very effective moments of suspense and terror, but it is all botched at the end. When the CGI aliens show up, it is revealed that water is their weakness and they are defeated by a baseball bat and some glasses of tap water.
Sunshine (2007)
The sci-fi thriller Sunshine is a beautiful and compelling movie about a mission into space to attempt to reignite the sun and save the earth.
For most of the runtime, the movie is a fascinating survival story with clever and grounded twists as well as characters the audience cares about. However, the final act takes an abrupt turn and becomes a pretty standard "monster loose on the spaceship" movie which is a lot less interesting than what came before.
War Of The Worlds (2005)
After tackling friendly aliens in E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Speilberg finally made a movie about evil aliens. War of the Worlds was a box office hit and a critical success. Speilberg delivered the big thrills and set-pieces like only he can.
However, after making the aliens such unstoppable terrifying monsters, they are suddenly killed by germs. Along with the forced happy ending, the movie ends in a pretty lackluster way.