All’s Well That Ends Well
ByToday I read something that surprised me. I can’t remember where I read it and I wouldn’t tell you if I could, but I thought I would share it with you and see what you thoughts were:
“Horror HAS to have an unhappy ending”
Hmm, I’m not so sure.
Yes, conflict has to increase as the plot unfolds and by the end of your book it should seem like the only possible ending is an unhappy one, but it doesn’t HAVE to be. To me horror books are about triumph, about overcoming the most brutal of adversaries. As long as the ending is true to the story then I’m happy.
Of course knowing the enemy can be defeated (“happy” ending) can make a story seem dull – that’s why you have to try your hardest to convince the reader there is a chance the main characters may lose. Throw enough curveballs and they won’t be so sure if a “happy” ending is coming or not. But throw too many and they’ll think “What’s the point? Everyone’s going to die anyway.” You have to find that equilibrium that keeps everyone guessing.
But what the hell is a happy ending anyway??
(no Thai massage jokes, please)
Being pursued by an overzealous admirer, beaten to within an inch of your life, subjected to horrors you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy…and then you kick the bad guys arse. Sure the main conflict may be over but you still have to deal with the memories of what happened
It’s hardly sauntering off into the sunset territory.
To me the only thing an ending has to be is satisfying (maybe logical as well but that’s debatable). I want to reach the end of a book and say “that’s the ONLY way that story could have ended”. I don’t have to see it coming (in fact it’s much better if I don’t) but I do want to be able to accept it.
I’d be a little pissed off if every story ended with an “unhappy” ending; with the death of the main character, or the “monster” popping back up after I thought it was finally dead. But maybe I’m taking the term unhappy a little too literally. Maybe it doesn’t mean the main character fails; maybe it just means their life can never go back to normal. But that’s what happens in every good book, right? The main character is changed for life. They experience things that make them a better, or worse, person and deal with it. Or die trying. Maybe a main character dying can result in a “happy” ending.
Heroes die every day and their stories can be uplifting…even life affirming. So it could be the main character dies or “fails” but the story is still satisfying. There are a few examples where this is the case but I don’t want to spoil the books for the people that haven’t read them. Seek them out, they’re out there somewhere.
I guess what I’m trying to say is the end should always suit the plot, the characters, AND the reader’s expectations. Throw logic, convention, and reason out of the window. Write your ending from the heart and ignore people telling you horror has to end with misery and death. Screw sequels and set ups for series, your ending can be as happy as you want it to be.
But what do you guys think? Does horror need an unhappy ending to work?
5 Comments
I don’t think horror has to have an unhappy ending any more than romance has to have a happy one. As you say, the ending must be satisfying and to work for the story – which usually means horror stories will end less well for the characters than romantic ones, but it needn’t always be that way.
I think depressing endings in a horror story are a cheat, unless it is so obviously the way the story had to end that to endi it otherwise would be story-killing. Rather, I find I prefer the bittersweet in endings: the protagonist has prevailed, but at great cost dictated by the stakes of the story.
Bittersweet could well be intended (& encouraged!) here, I have read a fair few unhappy endings to novels or tales & one thing is clear to me; it has to be very skilfully & cleverly written so that the reader is satisfied (& chilled!) by the outcome.
A lot of emotional energy is absorbed by a good book; readers are rooting for their favourite character, eagerly awaiting the demise of the dastardly, they want, nigh on demand, satisfaction! But if the ending is not what they expected, yet enough to leave them thinking that it may still come in the ‘world’ of the tale, then it can actually leave you with a stronger impression than a lot of happier books!
But if it feels like a cop-out, the easy option, then that bad taste in the mouth will be the final opinion. No matter how good the book was before the end. Then the good is far outweighed by the bad.
I read your comment straight after writing mine! I do agree
Happy or sad, a story should go where it goes organically. For it to do otherwise shows that the writer has forced it for one reason or another, the most common being pandering to a specific audience.
I watched a film a few days ago; without naming it, I’ll simply say it’s the latest entry in a long-running horror series. Now, past films in this series have gone either way; some have had at least one or two protagonists escape unharmed (or at least alive); some have had no survivors, leaving the villains triumphant. This one, after keeping it pretty suspenseful for most of its running time, wiped out all of the “good guys” with little difficulty in the last fifteen minutes…
…and it felt forced. INCREDIBLY so. The ending was rushed, a character who had been the ONE person in the film who did NOT do the wrong things and set him or herself up to be slaughtered suddenly became very stupid, and the bad guys were able to just stroll to the finish line. It was all a bit insulting, really, because it felt like what I call “because I say so” screenwriting, when events occur for no reason other than the fact that the person doing the writing wanted specific things to happen, logic be damned.
As I mentioned at the beginning, that type of lazy writing is often a sign (assuming that the writer simply wasn’t inept) that the script was meant to appeal to a particular set of viewers. In this case, given the type of film that this was, I would say that the writer/director (the same person) wanted to go for the “ultra-dark”/”torture porn” crowd. They tend to enjoy a good bleak “scorched earth” ending, in which no one walks away. That is what they were given here, but it was an unhappy ending that was so STRAINED and artificial that you could feel neither disturbed, one effect the director was aiming for, nor satisfied, if you were the type to sympathize with the baddies. Instead you were more likely just to be annoyed that the story had gone for such a cheap cop-out ending.
Many writers say that they begin a story thinking how it’s going to end, and then their characters surprise them. If you find this happening in your writing, this is a good sign, because it means your creations have truly taken on a life of their own. Then, happy or unhappy, the ending of your story will be one that makes sense to you, because it was brewing in the back of your subconscious all along.