It Comes at Night’s alternative ending is SO different
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- June 21st, 2017
Warning: This article contains spoilers for It Comes at Night
The director of It Comes at Night has revealed the film was supposed to have a completely different ending.
Directed by Trey Shults and backed by The Witch producers A24, the survivalist horror film has been making waves with audiences and critics alike since its release earlier this month.
However, many who have watched the movie have also been divided about its rather ambiguous ending.
(In this writer’s experience, the film ended with the majority of the audience yelling at the screen as the credits rolled. We kid you not.)
In the final, released cut of the film, It Comes at Night ends with Paul (Joel Edgerton) and Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) sitting at their dinner table awaiting certain death having being infected with the virus from their son, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr).
However, as Shults has since revealed, the movie’s original ending was a dramatic dream sequence which actually saw Will (Christopher Abbott) return to the house to torture Paul’s family, before setting fire to the house with Paul, Sarah and Travis inside.
That ending, which Edgerton later described as the “greatest acting” of his career, was taken all the way to post-production.
Nonetheless, Shults later decided to cut the scene after feedback suggested it was “too much”.
Boo. But seriously, we really hope this ending emerges at a later date…
[Trey Edward Shults]
“It was a terrifying situation where [Will] is basically in some kind of torture scenario with the family,” Shults told Cinema Blend.
“I shot it. And we burned down a set, and it took me a while to finally cut it. And once I entertained the notion [of cutting it], I started stripping away.
“I would show it to people and they’d be like, ‘The movie is great, but what the hell is that ending?’ It’s too much. You turn off. I can’t go there. But it took me a while to click.
“The problem was that [the original ending] beat everyone into submission, they didn’t connect emotionally, and then they were just pummelled,” added Schults.
“Then I figured out how to say what I wanted to say in a much more simpler, effective, tonally resonant way, and I’m very happy with what we found.”
It Comes at Night is in cinemas now.
Alternative Ending
I am always wanting to go see new horror flicks, too bad that I have to travel 30min if I want to go to a cinema. I thank rural Texas for that.
I love hearing about the end of a film I wanted to see before I actually even knew it existed, it’s my favorite.
Okay all joking and sarcasm aside, this movie seems pretty legit. I think the ending variation is solid.
Synopsis of Cabin Fever: Patient Zero
Cabin Fever: Patient Zero had somewhat of the same kind of ending. For those who don’t know what Patient Zero is, it’s a less known chapter in the Cabin Fever saga which was directed by Eli Roth. A man named Porter gets infected with the virus but instead of dying he becomes the first known asymptomatic carrier of the virus.
A research team quarantines him on an island to do rigorous testing in the race to find a cure for the disturbing, excessively gory illness.
Throughout the testing, they lie to Porter and say that his family is doing fine and misses him, however, unbeknownced to him they had died from the sickness when he was infected.
At the same time, a group of people throwing a Bachelor’s party chart an island for their getaway; the same island that all this testing is going on in.
Basically they show up and soon find that something is VERY wrong with the island.
The scientific lab has been forced into lockdown due to the fact that Porter contaminated the lab with his blood.
Later in the movie it is made apparent however; that the head scientist, Dr. Edwards, had previously infected the water with the disease in order to make him rich by being the first one to cure it. Yes, that means he deliberately infected the entire world.
Moving on, things go south for the party-goers when it becomes apparent that they are getting infected by the disease and in an order to try to get help, they make a trek to the bunker on the other side of the island.
Dr. Edwards was let to escape, along with the most seriously infected patient which was working under him (Katia) but when Dr. Edwards and Katia get to the beach their plans of escape are foiled and ultimately they are killed.
Camila, who tried to help save the infected asymptomatic patient and the last of the group (Marcus, who was getting married) escape on a boat. In the final scenes, a revelation occurs to Camila when she hears him repeating “three..blind…mice..” and it is found that both her and Marcus who helped Porter escape had been infected by Porter’s blood in the water he gave them.
Similar Endings
The closing scene is somewhat like this movie’s ending. They realize that Porter had infected them and then took the dingy as his way to escape and then wait to catch the illness.
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