**NOTE: THERE ARE FILM SPOILERS BELOW**
I've mentioned before about how, thanks to a babysitter when I was young how I got into horror films. They made me a fan for life. But what I haven't said before is also how they changed my way of thinking of horror and of film in general, especially in the context of endings.
If there is one genre over any other that has endings that are shocking, disturbing or unhappy it is the horror one. It's easy to see why really. Generally when you put normal people in horrible situations, even if they survive the ordeal, they are forever changed. Wes Craven was brilliant at that with films like The Hills Have Eyes and Last House On The Left. He left his survivors traumatised by what they had to do.
But, going back to endings when I was too young to fully understand that, I just thought, 'the good guys won.' Dracula had been staked, the monster destroyed, the killer killed and so on. By the end, all was right with the world. Everything was as it should be. Hammer showed me that.
Until I watched The Wicker Man.
In The Wicker Man, a very religious policeman goes to a small island to investigate a report about a missing girl. During his investigation he begins to suspect people on the island are responsible for her disappearance and are planning on killing her. But, as those who've seen the film know, the whole set-up was a trap designed for him and their plans to sacrifice him to pagan gods.
It leads to this stunning moment as Howie (the police officer sees what they are planning...
Now, when you are young, you are still thinking it's going to be okay. He's the hero. You've seen many films where they put the hero in peril but he always gets out and wins, saving the day. Even when they put him inside The Wicker Man, you are still thinking that.
And still thinking that when they set it on fire.
And then his screaming starts and as it burns the credits roll.
WHAT THE HELL????
The hero has died? You can't do that!
I was probably around 12 or 13 when I saw The Wicker Man the first time. I was stunned and traumatised by that ending. Up until I saw this, in every film I'd seen the hero had saved the day. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that sometimes the hero doesn't and that sometimes, the bad people could win.
When I saw the The Wicker Man years later, I understood so much better the story and how in fact it's the hero's own beliefs that lead to his own demise. But when I was younger I just didn't get that.
The ending to The Wicker Man stayed with me for awhile. I just couldn't get over it. Seeing Witchfinder General soon after probably didn't help either. The story of Matthew Hopkins, who hunted for witches in England in the 17th century is a fantastic film. He's a vile evil man who abuses his position for his own gain. It's a great film, topped by what I think is one of horror's finest endings, where Hopkins is killed by a soldier out for revenge as his fiance who has suffered abuse and rape at the hands of Hopkins and his henchman screams, on the verge of insanity with what she has endured and seen.
But it's not just the fact the soldier, brilliantly played by Ian Ogilvy, kills Hopkins. As seen in the ending below, his rage in uncontrolable, even after Hopkins is put out his misery.
Hammer Horror was never like this! At its ending it is clear both will never recover fully from what they endured at Hopkins' hands. Like I said, it's a stunning ending, one of the best. However, unlike The Wicker Man, I understood this ending better.
Over the years since I first saw The Wicker Man, I've seen many films with endings that shock, or disturb and leave the survivors (the word hero didn't feel right anymore) truly changed by their ordeals. This has been reflected over the years of watching film since, in other film genres too, but it was the horror genre that made me understand this better than any other.
If it was Hammer and especially their Dracula that made me a horror film fan, it was The Wicker Man that helped my understand that not every ending needed to be a happy one, but instead the right one.
And The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General both have those.
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