Concerning The Famed Hitchcock Ending.
By Billy Cripps
As great of a filmmaker as Alfred Hitchcock was, there is one thing that he’s famous for that bugs the hell out of me: the famed ‘Hitchcock Ending’.
Alfred Hitchcock is a true master of suspense, and his movies are phenomenal. However, there is one thing he’s responsible for that I detest. That is the “Hitchcock ending.”
I know right now a lot of you are thinking ‘What the hell is he babbling about?’ but it is a thing. The Hitchcock ending is when a movie ends abruptly and ambiguously without any real closure leaving it to the viewer’s imagination as to what happens. Even Stephen King has been guilty of this a time or two, most notably in his story The Mist.
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Maybe it’s just a mild form of OCD, but I detest when a film or story uses this kind of ending. It’s like spending hours on a puzzle just to realize there are pieces missing. It also feels kind of lazy, or like the culprit couldn’t think of an ending so they just went with what they had instead of giving it a true conclusion.
I’m sorry but when I spend time doing something, I want it to be done right with no loose ends. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to come up with your own scenarios for any given situation. But I also want to see the artist’s interpretation.
Imagine if some of our favorite classic films used the Hitchcock ending. Just picture it: right in the middle of Michael Myers chasing Laurie, the credits roll. Or just as Alice runs into Mrs. Voorhees we fade to black. How frustrated would you be?
Perhaps it would look something like these clips.
Maybe you’re thinking “Didn’t Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street use the Hitchcock ending?” The answer is no. We are supposed to believe those endings were just a dream, case closed. Films are a much more fulfilling experience when we get the entire story.
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So residents of Elm Street, what do you think? Yay or Nay on the Hitchcock ending? Can you think of any other films that used the Hitchcock ending? Or how about a time when it was effective