Cabin in the Woods
One of coolest recent examples of this classic trope, Joss Whedon goes all out with the insane finale. What’s bigger than just your protagonists dying? They take out the entire planet via an insane apocalypse, with the two surviving characters at the center of armageddon. The perfect ending to the perfect horror movie.

Dawn of the Dead
An excellent remake of an already-excellent zombie film, this one followed a group of survivors hiding out in a mall in an effort to wait out the zombie apocalypse. Of course, that’s until they get the idea to hop a boat and try their luck at a remote island. The film ends with the survivors heading out to sea. But stick around for the credits, and you’ll see some found footage of their arrival on the island ... which is overrun with zombies. Fade to black as the zombies overrun the ship.

The Descent
This dark, creepy thriller, set in a series of caverns filled with monsters, was one of the gutsiest horror movies of the past decade. The scares didn’t pull punches, and it was realistic to the point that, hey, most people wouldn’t survive this scenario. The ending shot shows the last survivor trapped and alone with her thoughts, with the creepy-crawlies closing in to eat her.

Cloverfield
Yet another found-footage flick (which makes sense, because if the footage is “found” it means someone probably died losing it), this one comes from J.J. Abrams and follows a group of survivors as a gigantic monster attacks New York. Battered and bruised, a few of them make it to the end, where they leave a few messages on-camera before the bridge they’re using for cover crashes down on top of them.

The Ruins
The theatrical ending to this thriller about a group of kids exploring an old temple and being taken out by freaky vines was a little more open ended, with one young lady escaping, though likely infected with the vines that should soon kill her. The alternate spells it out a lot more, as we see the infection spread on the lone survivor as the screen fades to black.

Quarantine
A great little zombie movie about a group of people quarantined (get it?) in a building, this one builds with some great claustrophobia. It’s also pretty realistic. Do you think the government would let anyone out of that building? Nope. One lone survivor makes it to the end, and the final shot is of her being dragged off into the darkness by the undead.

28 Weeks Later
This one, about a colony trying to rebuild in an area that had been ravaged by a zombie outbreak, is a little ambiguous. Yes, a group of survivors does make it out of the city at the end, headed for France. But, the final shot of the film shows Paris overrun ... meaning they likely didn’t survive.

The movie that really started the modern-day found-footage phenomenon, The Blair Witch Project had quite a bit of hoopla about its alleged origins, with the entire cast taken out before the credits roll. It was so convincing that some people believed the footage was real and the stars actually died.

Final Destination 5
One of the cooler ones on the list, the fifth installment in this long-running horror franchise brought the entire series full circle with a great surprise ending. Turns out, the fifth entry is actually a prequel, and sets up all the events of the other four films. The last survivors die on the ill-fated plane ride that started the franchise in the first movie.

I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer
A truly bad guilty-pleasure of a film, this sequel to the teen slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer focuses on a new set of teens dealing with a similar situation, who find themselves trapped in the middle of an accidental death cover-up. The film ends with a jump forward in time, where the last main protagonist is sliced up as it fades to black on a scream. Admittedly, she is on the phone with a character who survives, but everyone involved in the cover-up pact bites the dust.