diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexService.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexService.java
index e2d2ea4b8fe..5780dc256a5 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexService.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexService.java
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ import org.elasticsearch.index.engine.EngineFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexFieldDataCache;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexFieldDataService;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperService;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.query.ParsedQuery;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryShardContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.shard.IndexEventListener;
@@ -604,11 +603,10 @@ public final class IndexService extends AbstractIndexComponent implements IndexC
             byte[] filterSource = alias.filter().uncompressed();
             try (XContentParser parser = XContentFactory.xContent(filterSource).createParser(filterSource)) {
                 Optional<QueryBuilder> innerQueryBuilder = shardContext.newParseContext(parser).parseInnerQueryBuilder();
-                ParsedQuery parsedFilter = null;
                 if (innerQueryBuilder.isPresent()) {
-                    parsedFilter = shardContext.toFilter(innerQueryBuilder.get());
+                    return shardContext.toFilter(innerQueryBuilder.get()).query();
                 }
-                return parsedFilter == null ? null : parsedFilter.query();
+                return null;
             }
         } catch (IOException ex) {
             throw new AliasFilterParsingException(shardContext.index(), alias.getAlias(), "Invalid alias filter", ex);
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java
index 863bdb25c71..052ddd85663 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java
@@ -441,9 +441,7 @@ public class BoolQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<BoolQueryBuilder> {
                     luceneQuery = query.toFilter(context);
                     break;
             }
-            if (luceneQuery != null) {
-                booleanQueryBuilder.add(new BooleanClause(luceneQuery, occurs));
-            }
+            booleanQueryBuilder.add(new BooleanClause(luceneQuery, occurs));
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoostingQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoostingQueryBuilder.java
index 3afa4339b5c..3912bcff26e 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoostingQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoostingQueryBuilder.java
@@ -208,12 +208,6 @@ public class BoostingQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<BoostingQueryBuil
     protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
         Query positive = positiveQuery.toQuery(context);
         Query negative = negativeQuery.toQuery(context);
-        // make upstream queries ignore this query by returning `null`
-        // if either inner query builder returns null
-        if (positive == null || negative == null) {
-            return null;
-        }
-
         return new BoostingQuery(positive, negative, negativeBoost);
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java
index 44b4458b572..574835c6b7a 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java
@@ -146,10 +146,6 @@ public class ConstantScoreQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<ConstantScor
     @Override
     protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
         Query innerFilter = filterBuilder.toFilter(context);
-        if (innerFilter == null ) {
-            // return null so that parent queries (e.g. bool) also ignore this
-            return null;
-        }
         return new ConstantScoreQuery(innerFilter);
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilder.java
index e480417e8fb..3ceca1a07a0 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilder.java
@@ -168,8 +168,8 @@ public class DisMaxQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<DisMaxQueryBuilder>
             }
         }
 
-        if (!queriesFound) {
-            throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(), "[dis_max] requires 'queries' field");
+        if (!queriesFound || queries.isEmpty()) {
+            throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(), "[dis_max] requires 'queries' field with at least one clause");
         }
 
         DisMaxQueryBuilder disMaxQuery = new DisMaxQueryBuilder();
@@ -186,10 +186,6 @@ public class DisMaxQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<DisMaxQueryBuilder>
     protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
         // return null if there are no queries at all
         Collection<Query> luceneQueries = toQueries(queries, context);
-        if (luceneQueries.isEmpty()) {
-            return null;
-        }
-
         return new DisjunctionMaxQuery(luceneQueries, tieBreaker);
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasChildQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasChildQueryBuilder.java
index 410fda41aef..9fb44845f22 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasChildQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasChildQueryBuilder.java
@@ -330,9 +330,6 @@ public class HasChildQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<HasChildQueryBuil
             context.setTypes(previousTypes);
         }
 
-        if (innerQuery == null) {
-            return null;
-        }
         DocumentMapper childDocMapper = context.getMapperService().documentMapper(type);
         if (childDocMapper == null) {
             if (ignoreUnmapped) {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasParentQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasParentQueryBuilder.java
index 7e788a16e87..3bda0782355 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasParentQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/HasParentQueryBuilder.java
@@ -162,9 +162,6 @@ public class HasParentQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<HasParentQueryBu
             context.setTypes(previousTypes);
         }
 
-        if (innerQuery == null) {
-            return null;
-        }
         DocumentMapper parentDocMapper = context.getMapperService().documentMapper(type);
         if (parentDocMapper == null) {
             if (ignoreUnmapped) {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryBuilder.java
index 1d0e6d11f5f..f16913a397b 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryBuilder.java
@@ -255,9 +255,6 @@ public class NestedQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<NestedQueryBuilder>
         try {
             context.nestedScope().nextLevel(nestedObjectMapper);
             innerQuery = this.query.toQuery(context);
-            if (innerQuery == null) {
-                return null;
-            }
         } finally {
             context.nestedScope().previousLevel();
         }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/filter/FilterAggregationBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/filter/FilterAggregationBuilder.java
index a973d69da4f..4026f846e6d 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/filter/FilterAggregationBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/filter/FilterAggregationBuilder.java
@@ -20,10 +20,10 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.filter;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.common.ParseField;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.ParsingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.query.MatchAllQueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryParseContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AbstractAggregationBuilder;
@@ -84,8 +84,7 @@ public class FilterAggregationBuilder extends AbstractAggregationBuilder<FilterA
     }
 
     public static FilterAggregationBuilder parse(String aggregationName, QueryParseContext context) throws IOException {
-        QueryBuilder filter = context.parseInnerQueryBuilder().orElseThrow(() -> new ParsingException(context.parser().getTokenLocation(),
-                "filter cannot be null in filter aggregation [{}]", aggregationName));
+        QueryBuilder filter = context.parseInnerQueryBuilder().orElse(new MatchAllQueryBuilder());
         return new FilterAggregationBuilder(aggregationName, filter);
     }
 
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilderTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilderTests.java
index 61c786d1b01..f18db46346c 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilderTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/DisMaxQueryBuilderTests.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.search.DisjunctionMaxQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.PrefixQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.ParseFieldMatcher;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.ParsingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.AbstractQueryTestCase;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -88,25 +89,17 @@ public class DisMaxQueryBuilderTests extends AbstractQueryTestCase<DisMaxQueryBu
         return alternateVersions;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * test `null`return value for missing inner queries
-     */
-    public void testNoInnerQueries() throws IOException {
-        DisMaxQueryBuilder disMaxBuilder = new DisMaxQueryBuilder();
-        assertNull(disMaxBuilder.toQuery(createShardContext()));
-    }
-
     /**
      * Test with empty inner query body, this should be ignored upstream.
      * To test this, we use inner {@link ConstantScoreQueryBuilder} with empty inner filter.
      */
-    public void testInnerQueryEmptyIgnored() throws IOException {
+    public void testInnerQueryEmptyException() throws IOException {
         String queryString = "{ \"" + DisMaxQueryBuilder.NAME + "\" :"
                 + "             { \"queries\" : [ {\"" + ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.NAME + "\" : { \"filter\" : { } } } ] "
                 + "             }"
                 + "           }";
-        DisMaxQueryBuilder builder = (DisMaxQueryBuilder) parseQuery(queryString, ParseFieldMatcher.EMPTY);
-        assertTrue("the inner query has an empty body, so it should be ignored", builder.innerQueries().isEmpty());
+        ParsingException ex = expectThrows(ParsingException.class, () -> parseQuery(queryString, ParseFieldMatcher.EMPTY));
+        assertEquals("[dis_max] requires 'queries' field with at least one clause", ex.getMessage());
     }
 
     public void testIllegalArguments() {