Editorials
Five Horror Movies With Awesome Post-Credits Scenes!
Why sit through the credits? Because there may be a little reward at the end.
In recent years, post-credits “stingers” have become synonymous with Marvel’s films, often used as a way to tease future installments in the company’s cinematic universe. But extra scenes at the very end of movies are not exclusive to superhero films, and they certainly weren’t created by Marvel. In fact, a handful of movies from the ’70s and ’80s, long before the superhero boom we’re currently in the midst of, gave viewers a reason to stick around through the end credits.
Horror movies are no exception. Here are five with awesome post-credits stingers!
THE LOST BOYS 2: THE TRIBE
Once upon a time, it was rumored that both Corey Feldman and Corey Haim would return for the decades-later sequel The Lost Boys 2: The Tribe, though when the movie was released in 2008, Haim was nowhere to be seen. If you stuck through the end credits, however, you saw that Haim reprised the role of Sam Emerson for a brief scene that revealed he had become a vampire in the years since the events of the original film. The scene cuts to black just as Sam and Edgar Frog are about to engage in a battle-to-the-death, though it ended up being a fight we never got to actually see. The late Haim did not appear in the franchise’s third installment, but it was revealed that Edgar killed Sam in that battle.
ZOMBIELAND
Perhaps the best cameo in the history of cinema can be found in Zombieland, wherein Bill Murray pops up for an appearance as himself. Humorously, Murray disguises himself as a zombie so he can walk freely outside (and golf) without being attacked, and he of course ends up getting shot when Columbus mistakes him for a real zombie. The hilarious cameo reunited Murray with his Kingpin co-star Woody Harrelson, and in the post-credits scene, Murray and Harrelson’s Tallahassee together recite an iconic line from Caddyshack. Au revoir, gopher.
CURSE OF CHUCKY
Released in 2013, direct-to-video sequel Curse of Chucky brought the Child’s Play franchise back to its horror roots, successfully merging the continuities of both the original trilogy and the subsequent horror-comedy sequels. At the end of the film, a young girl finds herself in possession of Chucky, teasing that she will be the main character of the next installment. The post-credits scene, however, takes the franchise in an entirely different direction. In the stinger scene, Alex Vincent reprises the role of Andy Barclay for the first time since Child’s Play 2, telling his old friend to “play with this” before blasting him away with a shotgun. Now that’s what I call fan service!
EVIL DEAD
If you’re asking me, Fede Alvarez struck remake gold with 2013’s Evil Dead, an insanely gory franchise reboot that stayed true to the original films and introduced an ass-kicking female Ash (so to speak) in the form of actress Jane Levy’s Mia Allen. Of course, Bruce Campbell himself didn’t actually make an appearance in the remake, and while some fans weren’t too happy about that, he at least did pop up for a brief post-credits stinger that seemed to tease he would soon be returning to the series – and indeed he did just last year, courtesy of Starz series “Ash vs. Evil Dead.” After the credits, the remake comes to a close with Campbell reminding us just how groovy Ash Williams is.
THE THING (2011)
A companion piece to John Carpenter’s classic film, the 2011 version of The Thing is essentially both a prequel and a remake, telling the story of what happened at the ill-fated Norwegian outpost before MacReady and friends arrived to investigate. Loaded with poorly-realized CGI, the prequel is little more than a reminder that the horror genre just isn’t the same without the practical effects of the 1980s, but it does at least end on a satisfying and smile-inducing note. The end credits of The Thing 2011 lead directly into the events of Carpenter’s 1982 film, allowing for them to be seamlessly watched back-to-back. Pretty cool, even if the prequel was a computer-generated shell of Carpenter’s gruesome masterpiece.
Other horror movies with post-credits scenes include Dawn of the Dead (2004), House on Haunted Hill (1999), The Howling, Planet Terror, See No Evil, Slither, The Stuff, Texas Chainsaw 3D, and Wrong Turn.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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