These 18 Documentaries Have Shocking Endings That Will Shake You To Your Core

    "I'm thinking the allegations are clearly false, and then...bam!"

    by
    Crystal Ro
    by Crystal Ro

    BuzzFeed Staff

    ,
    Christopher Hudspeth
    by Christopher Hudspeth

    BuzzFeed Staff

    We asked the BuzzFeed Community for the the most shocking documentary ending they've ever seen. Here are the OMG-inducing results.

    Warning: Some spoilers ahead. Continue at your own risk.

    1. Dear Zacharay: A Letter to A Son About His Father (2008)

    Oscilloscope Laboratories

    This movie broke me. I was NOT expecting the final act. You felt the feelings those grandparents had. You are held to the screen, crying and screaming along with them.

    —sarahjaneb468ad7468

    2. The Confession Tapes (2017)

    Netflix

    The two episodes about the Rafay family murders, specifically. You start off being so sure about "who dunnit," but by the end you're not quite sure. And it never fully explores the theory that the family were murdered by an extremist group.

    —gdavids

    3. Crazy Love (2007)

    Magnolia Pictures / Via magpictures.com

    It shows this very toxic relationship. It explains how this man hired these guys to throw acid on a woman, eventually blinding her. And she ends up marrying him.

    —marisae42a2676ac

    4. 30 for 30: Fantastic Lies (2016)

    ESPN

    This is an ESPN 30 for 30 doc about lacrosse players. You think that they are totally guilty and just spoiled frat guys but the truth is so much crazier. It is easily one of the best 30 for 30s and would highly recommend all of them!

    —carliea4b42b7873

    5. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

    HBO

    I'm thinking the allegations are clearly false, and then...bam!

    —bethh34

    6. Icarus (2017)

    Netfix, Netflix

    The doc starts with a normal plot line, then it gets so dark, twisty, and turned that the end left me with my mouth open. I was devastated! It’s rather long, but about 25 to 30 minutes in the whole movie changes. Definitely worth a watch and definitely worthy of its award.

    —laceyk4b42c790b

    7. The Imposter (2012)

    Picturehouse Entertainment

    I believe the family had something to do with the boy's disappearance, but who would even believe the con artist after everything he pulled?

    —ilglsp1

    8. The Push (2018)

    Netflix

    When you find out just how cutthroat people can be...it was disturbing and intriguing all at the same time.

    —chiarahauer

    9. The Keepers (2017)

    Netflix

    It had a few plot twists that caused my jaw to drop, but the biggest one was probably when it was revealed that Father Maskell had been caught abusing a boy YEARS before the female victims came forward. The archdiocese knew of another victim, and yet they kept telling the first woman who came forward that she needed someone else to corroborate her story. It’s gut wrenching and absolutely tragic.

    —londoni2

    10. Death on a Factory Farm (2009)

    HBO

    The end of the HBO documentary Death on a Factory Farm haunted me for weeks. A man went undercover at a farm that had reports of slaughtering pigs by hanging them with a forklift. It's beyond disturbing. The footage is used to take the owners to court for animal cruelty.

    —emmah4449620fd

    11. Tickled (2016)

    HBO

    One word: Tickled.

    —jackieb45115fd10

    12. One Day in September (1999)

    Sony Pictures Classics

    One Day in September about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The ending is devastating. The initial misinformation that everybody was saved, only to finally realize "they’re all gone." So incredibly heartbreaking.

    —emilyd44374716c

    13. The Loving Story (2011)

    HBO

    The Lovings went through SO MUCH to get married. So, my heart broke when I found out the husband was killed by a drunk driver just a few years later. Did not appreciate that ending and did not appreciate crying in front of my whole Family Law class.

    —courtneykayrenem

    14. The Jinx (2015)

    HBO

    When Robert Durst didn’t know that they still had microphones on and running and he was in the bathroom, flustered, and basically admitted his guilt to the murder.

    —laureng4980ef286

    15. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

    Producers Distribution Agency

    No murder here. But when the documenter becomes the documented, you're left questioning if what you watched is even real. Made by Banksy, who has said it's a real documentary, but who knows? Worth the watch just for the mind-fuck.

    —kadamony

    16. TalHotBlond (2009)

    Answers Productions

    Catfishing in an Internet love triangle that ends up with murder. And the identity of the catfisher is the most mind blowing twist I’ve seen in a documentary.

    —amandar4fed06dca

    17. Making a Murderer (2015)

    Netflix

    I know it was a big thing when it came out, but it still blows my mind how complicit the police were in getting this guy for the murder even though there was no proof. They said he killed her in the bedroom, but there was no blood, then they said he killed her in the garage, but there was no blood there, not even in the deep cracks in the concrete flooring which they dug up and tested for blood. Then they charged his nephew for being an accomplice even though they coerced him (a mentally disabled teenager) into a confession. Everything in the documentary kinda fascinated me.

    —lsanders2016

    18. The Woman Who Wasn’t There (2012)

    ID Films

    A psychological thriller that goes inside the mind of history's most infamous 9/11 survivor. Shit is wild from start to finish.

    —kbozymow7

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