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.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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