The Ending
I'd like to say that this movie ... doesn't really have one.
shareI just watched this and thought the same thing. But, considering what the Carters went through, there was really nothing else to say.
Annoying the world since 1960!
It was quite common in those days for movies to end rather abruptly with no definite conclusion.
Horror_Metal
I thought the suddeness of the ending, Doug's face freeze framed over red was an effective conclusion to a violent narrative.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.
I'd say in this case it needed an extra few minutes to show what happened.
Lets take "I Spit on Your Grave" as an example of one that could end abruptly. After Stanley dies the film ends. I wouldn't call it a happy ending for her after the ordeal but she did get her revenge. She was right on her back door, probably returned to the house, maybe finished the book she was there to write, maybe packed up and left. Maybe when she returned to Ney York got counseling. Then maybe like in the sequel to the remake she killed the people who had harmed the fellow victims of the support group.
Hills Have Eyes on the other hand. The survivors are still stranded in the middle of nowhere. Caravan and car destroyed. Radio, probably burned. So what happens? Travel back to the filling station, follow the road until they finally see a car to flag down and rescue them? Or do they perish in the middle of nowhere. I don't think many cars use that road otherwise someone would have pulled over to help them.
I think it ended there because what's his name had completed his descent into savagery. He'd started out a peaceful, solid citizen and by the end he was as violent and brutal as the cannibals.
shareWhite bred family becomes as savage as the feral family
Stark grim ending that started with night of the Living dead
PERFECT ENDING TO A PERFECT HORROR FILM.
shareThe two young men and the youngest woman survived and defeated the cannibals, saved the baby. The End.
What the hell else do you want, to see how they get back to town?