(And no, I
Don’t Mean The
Nuru Massage Kind)
Happy endings, a theme in every form of media since cave paintings back in the day. The Hero overcomes Evil, gets the girl, and they live happily ever after or some variation of that. Bit like Romance in that sense. We all love to see it and wish it was us in that sort of position where Happy Endings and the like are concerned. But what about when there is no Happy Ending? What if the guy, or girl, doesn’t get the happily ever after?
Those sorts of moments aren’t something you see all the time in various forms of media but they do happen and find yourself a little surprised they did and either feeling happy about it or not so happy ‘cause ya know, no Happy Ending!
So with that said, here’s a look at a few of those stories that dared to go the other direction.
2006’s The Wicker Man (Starring Nic Cage)
1997’s Event Horizon (Starring Sam Neill)
1988’s Spellbinder (Starring Timothy Daly)
Creator’s Edge Press’ 2013’s Mushroom Murders (Chad Anderson)
Creator’s Edge Press’ 2011’s ZFW: Zombies Of Foreign Wars (Josh Cantrell)
Improper Books’ 2013’s Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale (Benjamin Read/Chris Wildgoose)
Markosia’s 2015 Graphic Novel Hushers: A Very Victorian Apocalypse (Andy Winter)
Mad Cave Studios’ 2022(3?) Hunt. Kill. Repeat TPB (Mark London)
Black Panel Press’ 2023 All Talk – Graphic Novel (Bartosz Sztybor)
Pretty much just about everything Fell Hound has published. Tho the Jury’s still out on S.I.R. given I haven’t read it yet.
Dauntless Stories’ 2022 Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood (Frankee White)
Avery Hill Publishing’s 2021 Graphic Novel What We Don’t Talk About (Charlot Kristensen)
Penny-Farthing Productions’ 2017 Terminals (Ryan Ferrier)
*Special mentions of Scott Weldon’s Harland Buck and Kelly Fender’s Death Rattler. Primarily on account of both stories being left on cliffhangers due to personal reasons and those are basically unhappy endings themselves.*
While there’s most likely a great deal more of stories in various forms of media that don’t have happy endings, these are the ones I’m familiar with. But feel free to share in the comment section down below of stories you know of that have no happy endings in sight!
Written by: Rob Wrecks
