Author’s Note: This entry contains spoilers to the endings of Hereditary (2018), Jaws (1975), and The Thing (1982). If you haven’t seen these movies, you might want to watch them first before reading this. If you’ve already seen them or don’t care to see them, then go ahead and read on.
So, what kind of ending do you want your short horror story to have? In this post, we’ll discuss the main types of endings you want, or in other words, the Disturbing Ending, the Unsettling Ending, or the Resolved Ending. Finally, we’ll go over the subtypes of endings you want, otherwise known as the Twist Ending, the Orthodox Ending, or the Unorthodox Ending.
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The Disturbing Ending:
The Disturbing Ending is the most common type of ending you’ll encounter when reading or watching horror. In the Disturbing Ending, the outcome is always terrible, as whatever happens concludes in the worst way possible: the main character dies, the main character fails to save everyone, the demon is released, the serial killer somehow reappears after being killed, the plan doesn’t work and the monster doesn’t die, etc. The Disturbing Ending is a staple of short horror, and it’s the go to of most writers.
Let’s start with a premise, an example of a short horror story leading to the end, and I’ll throw in a little exposition to boot:
Gloria repeated the passage from the cursed book that she’d taken from Simone’s body, speaking the ancient words that were never meant to be uttered by a human tongue. If this was the only way Simone’s madness could be stopped, then there was nothing else she could do.
Gloria was the only virgin amongst their former group of nine, now only two, though Ellie was currently unconscious from the brutal ambush by the mannequin Gloria had fought tooth and nail to destroy, that store-mannequin’s limbs still twitching even after Gloria had hacked it apart with the fire axe she’d taken from the hardware department.
Now they had somehow made it to the doll aisle of the toy section, but this was where it was all going to end, a fitting, if not ironic, area of the store to stop this insanity once and for all.
Once she had spoken the last word, she felt a rush in the blood as a strange power coursed through her.
The lights flickered as the last of the animated mannequins appeared at the end of the aisle, its limbs jerking in a strange clockwork motion as the lights clicked on and off, on and off. If something were going to happen, it needed to happen now.
The lights steadied from their frantic dance of ambient visual torture, but that wasn’t important. No, the important fact that held her attention was indeed a welcomed fact: the mannequin had stopped moving. It was now just a lifeless piece of wood, what it was always meant to be.
“Go back to Hell,” breathed out Gloria.
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Now that we have our premise, let’s give an example of the Disturbing Ending:
“No…I don’t think so,” came Ellie’s voice.
Gloria turned to see the formerly unconscious teen rise from the white tiles to shine forth a wicked grin.
Ellie straightened her glasses on her nose and then shook her head no, the curls of her long black hair falling like an ebon stream over those bookish frames.
“What?” asked Gloria.
“Did you honestly think Simone had the brains to put this together?” asked Ellie. “Believe it or not, Miss Blonde Perfect was also a virgin, Glory. She may have read from the book, but she was never the Marionette.”
“Wh…What are you saying?” stammered Gloria.
Ellie’s face turned inwards with a deep and unforgiving scowl.
“None of you believed me when I told you about Eddie and what he did to me,” said the normally quiet nerd. “Oh, but I couldn’t read from the book, could I? Shouldn’t that have been a clue?…He stole my virginity…ripped it from me, but now…now it doesn’t matter anymore. No, they all needed to die, and they did. Now there’s just one loose end to tie up before I kill Eddie and unleash hell on the rest of this trash town.”
Gloria felt her heart pounding out of her chest at this revelation, this treacherous, Benedictal turncoat of tormentous epiphany.
“Y…You did this!” she cried, her voice wavering. “Why! Why would you do this!”
“Are you that dense!” hissed Ellie. “You were the worst one of them all, Glory! You did absolutely nothing when I came to you for help…not one…damned…thing.”
“I tried to help you, Ellie, but—” started Gloria.
“You did nothing!” screeched the insane teen. “You talked about counseling and feelings and moving on!…There is no ‘moving on’!…I don’t want to move on! I want blood! I want BLOOD!”
The previously frozen mannequin jerked forward again, its wooden legs striding forth, the soulless model piece walking up to stand beside its true master, its blank face a mask for the reality of horror welling up inside Gloria’s swiftly breaking mind.
“And I’ll have it,” scowled Ellie. “You didn’t seal them away, Glory, oh, no. No, you just gave me the army I needed…Oh, this is perfect…Oh, it is…I think it’s time to wipe this town off the map.”
Gloria’s heartbeat pitched out of control as the dolls in the aisle began to move, their tiny limbs twitching, their lifeless eyes burning with an eldritch flame set deep within them.
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As you can read from the passage above, we have the most disturbing ending for the plot involved. Gloria has inadvertently sealed her own fate by trusting in Ellie, who turns out to be the villain in the end.
A good example of the Disturbing Ending is the ending to Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018). At the end of that movie, Peter doesn’t escape the cultists by jumping out the attic window. Instead, he survives the fall but succumbs to possession by the demonic spirit of King Paimon, and he goes on to be worshipped by Paimon’s cultists.
The Disturbing Ending is a fan favorite, mainly because it clings tightly to the core of the horror genre, and that core is inspiring fear.
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The Unsettling Ending:
The Unsettling Ending is an ending that is unresolved, leaving the reader or viewer to stew in their own anxiety by wondering what’s going to happen next. The Unsettling Ending works by digging into the deep-seated fears in a person’s psyche, letting the individual worry over what’s going to happen as they lie in bed at night.
Let’s go over the story excerpt above, but this time we’ll put in the Unsettling Ending:
“Go back to Hell,” breathed out Gloria.
“Did…Did you do it?” came Ellie’s quiet voice.
Gloria turned to see the formerly unconscious teen rise from the white tiles, the young woman’s face a portrait of rife concern.
Ellie straightened her glasses on her nose, the curls of her long black hair falling like an ebon stream over those bookish frames. She brushed that hair out of her vision and looked upon Gloria with wide, fearful eyes.
“Did you read the right passage!” choked out the bookish nerd.
“I…I think so,” stammered Gloria. “The book closed when it got knocked from my hands, but I remembered the page—”
“Glory!” cried Ellie, her tone a clash of panic. “Both spells were on the same page! Did you read the right one!”
“I…I don’t know,” said Gloria in hushed dismay. “I honestly don’t know…”
Both girls slowly turned their heads to view the countless eyes surrounding them, those lifeless, glass eyes staring at nothing, the uncanny eyes of many dolls, those many, many dolls set upon shelf after shelf of this huge aisle within this normally quiet suburb’s sprawling superstore.
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From what we’ve read in the previous passage, we don’t know what happens at the end. We don’t know if Gloria’s spell sealed away the evil animating the store mannequins and dolls or if her spell animated everything all at once. This leaves the story up in the air and makes the reader wonder what will happen next, giving them an anxiety that is just as disturbing as the Disturbing Ending.
A good example of The Unsettling Ending is the ending to John Carpenter’s movie The Thing (1982). At the end of that movie, MacReady and Childs do not know if one or the other is infected, so they share a bottle of Scotch while slowly freezing to death. We never find out if either one of them is the Thing.
The Unsettling Ending can be hard to master, but if done properly, your story will stick with readers and possibly become a classic over time.
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The Resolved Ending:
The Resolved Ending ties up everything in a neat little bow: the villain is defeated, the evil destroyed, the monster ended, etc. The Resolved Ending is the easiest ending to write, but it’s not necessarily the most popular when it comes to the horror genre. Nevertheless, when done correctly, it may end up being the best ending for your story.
Let’s use the excerpt from above and put in the Resolved Ending:
“Go back to Hell,” breathed out Gloria.
A quiet settled down upon her shoulders, upon the store itself, and upon the normally placid suburb she had once thought was as boring as watching the grass grow. She knew better now than to take her life for granted, especially after losing so many of her friends to this insidious parasite of a book that had forced its way into their unwitting lives.
Whatever the case, this curse, this insanity of demonic power, had finally ended. There was a palpable and distinct peace now; she could feel it in her bones, if not her very soul.
“Did you do it?” came Ellie’s quiet voice.
Gloria quickly walked to the injured teen’s side and gently helped her to her feet. There would be time for grieving later, but for now, there were more important things to attend to.
“Is it over?” asked Ellie.
“Not yet,” replied Gloria. “We still have to get rid of this book. There must be some way to destroy it. We can’t let anyone else get ahold of it.”
“It’s a cursed object, Glory,” said Ellie.
The young woman winced as she held the back of her head. She straightened her glasses, brushed back the long curls of her ebon hair, and gave Gloria a concerned look.
“I don’t know if there is a way to destroy it,” she said.
“Then we’ll find some way to lock it up,” frowned Gloria. “There’s no way I’m letting this thing fall into the wrong hands again. Look what it did to Simone. She wasn’t evil. It corrupted her; I know it did.”
“I agree,” grimaced Ellie. “I think so, too. Still, we’ll need a safe and somewhere to bury it. Once we make sure the book is locked away and hidden, we can research a way to destroy it.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” said Gloria firmly. “First, though, we have to get out of here.”
“Can we?” asked Ellie. “We tried everything to get out before, absolutely everything.”
“Don’t worry,” replied Gloria. “Whatever Simone did, it was undone when I read from the book. We’re not trapped in here anymore.”
“How do you know?” asked Ellie.
“I know,” nodded Gloria. “I can feel it. You’ll just have to trust me. However, I can tell you one thing you can believe with one-thousand-percent certainty.”
“What’s that?” asked Ellie.
“I’m never shopping here again,” frowned Gloria.
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As you can see, the Resolved Ending has a far more positive outcome than the Disturbing Ending or the Unsettling Ending. The reader or audience is not left with any immediate loose ends, and the surviving characters are assumed to have come through their ordeal scarred, but not dead.
A prime example of the Resolved Ending is the ending to Steven Spielberg’s classic, Jaws (1975). At the end of that movie, Brody destroys the rogue great white by shooting a pressurized air tank that is lodged in the shark’s mouth. Brody then finds out Hooper is still alive, and the two swim back to shore.
The Resolved Ending isn’t the most popular type of ending for the horror genre, but it’s sometimes the best ending for your story. When done correctly, the Resolved Ending will resonate with your readers just as much as the Unsettling Ending will stick with them.
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Now we’ll briefly go over the subtypes of endings. For the subtypes of endings, we have the Twist Ending, the Orthodox Ending, and the Unorthodox Ending.
The Twist Ending:
The Twist Ending is exactly what it sounds like: there’s a twist at the end of the plot. The villain turns out to be the main character, everybody survives, but it turns out their survival was just a dream and in reality they’re all dying, the plan to kill the monster makes it far stronger instead, etc.
Out of the example passages I’ve given above, the example of the Disturbing Ending where Ellie turns out to be the villain is also an example of a Twist Ending. In that ending, Ellie is not only the real villain, but she has tricked Gloria into animating an evil army for her out of all of the dolls and mannequins in the store.
The Twist Ending works well with the Disturbing Ending, but it can also work with the Resolved Ending if the twist in the plot helps the surviving characters succeed. It’s tough to make the Twist Ending work with the Unsettling Ending, because that particular ending is, in its essence, an Unorthodox Ending, but I’ll explain that subtype last.
Twist endings are my specialty, though I don’t always end my short horror stories in that way, mainly because not all of my stories warrant it. Speaking from personal experience, though, it can be tough to come up with a twist ending if you want one, but with practice, this subtype of ending becomes easier to write over time.
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The Orthodox Ending:
The Orthodox Ending turns out exactly as you had expected it to. The main characters seal away the evil, the main characters escape the serial killer, the monster is destroyed, the alien invaders are driven off, etc.
Out of the example passages above, the example of the Resolved Ending where the evil book’s curse is sealed away is also an example of an Orthodox Ending. Gloria and Ellie are safe for the time being, and they decide to bury the book until they can find a way to destroy it.
The Orthodox Ending works hand-in-hand with the Resolved Ending, thereby giving your reader exactly what they were expecting. Sometimes, this works very well, and other times, it doesn’t. However, you should always go with the ending you feel is best for your story. Don’t be pressured into writing some grand unexpected ending if you feel the story doesn’t warrant it.
The Orthodox Ending can work with a Disturbing Ending if your reader is expecting the Disturbing Ending or if they can see that type of ending from a mile away. If it’s that obvious, then it’s more Orthodox than not.
The Unsettling Ending is always an Unorthodox Ending, so we’ll go over the Unorthodox subtype next.
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The Unorthodox Ending:
The Unorthodox Ending doesn’t have a major twist, but it doesn’t end exactly as the reader would expect it to. Here’s an example of an Unorthodox Ending using the short horror excerpt from above:
“Go back to Hell,” breathed out Gloria.
A quiet settled down upon her shoulders, upon the store itself, and upon the normally placid suburb she had once thought was as boring as watching the grass grow. She knew better now than to take her life for granted, especially after losing so many of her friends to this insidious parasite of a book that had forced its way into their unwitting lives.
Whatever the case, this curse, this insanity of demonic power, had finally ended. There was a palpable and distinct peace now; she could feel it in her bones, if not her very soul.
“Did you do it?” came Ellie’s quiet voice.
Gloria quickly walked to the injured teen’s side and gently helped her to her feet. There would be time for grieving later, but for now, there were more important things to attend to.
“Is it over?” asked Ellie.
“Not yet,” frowned Gloria. “We still have to get rid of this book. There must be some way to destroy it. We can’t let anyone else get ahold of it. However…we’re going to use it one last time.”
“Wh…What!” stammered Ellie. “You can’t! We have to get rid of it!”
Gloria shook her head no in adamant resolve. She knew what she was doing.
“Do you honestly think I’m going to let Eddie get away with what he did to you?” she asked. “What kind of friend would do that?…No, I think we need to use the book one last time to make sure he never touches you again…He will not touch you again, Ellie…not you…not anyone.”
Gloria watched in real time as Ellie’s face went from shock and horror to realization, and from that realization, a strange smile was born, a weird satisfaction in expression that was impossible to miss.
The young bookworm adjusted her glasses and then slowly nodded in recognition of Gloria’s astute judgement, a judgement that had been a long time in the making.
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For our last example, we can see that the Unorthodox Ending starts out exactly like the Resolved Orthodox Ending, but it doesn’t end quite as planned. Gloria intends to use the cursed book as a way to get revenge on Eddie for what he did to Ellie. Gloria is going to kill Eddie before she gets rid of the book.
The Unorthodox Ending is “the little twist” rather than the bigger twist of a Twist Ending. It catches the reader off guard, but it doesn’t hit them out of left field like the Twist Ending. Trust me, if you want a story to be memorable, the Unorthodox Ending is the way to go.
As I’ve previously mentioned, the Unsettling Ending is always an Unorthodox Ending. The Unsettling Ending neither destroys the characters nor resolves the plot, but rather leaves the ending up to the reader, therefore defying expectations. This places it firmly in the Unorthodox category.
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And those are our endings.
Choosing your ending isn’t difficult if you already have a plot in mind. However, if you don’t know how to tie up your plot, you can experiment with these different endings and see which one works best for you. You can also merge ending types together at your leisure. When all is said and done, you’ll figure out which ending is best once you know what your options are, which is why I wrote this post, to help you understand what those options are.
In closing, I hope this information helps you on your writing journey, and my advice is and always has been: keep putting out those stories. There is no shortage of fans of short horror out there.
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How to Write Short Horror #4: Choosing Your Ending Copyright © 2023 Matthew L. Marlott
