Twists have been the standard of Hollywood horror movies since Lon Chaney’s disfigured face was revealed to audiences in 1925’s The Phantom of the Opera, a shocking final moment that sent shockwaves through audiences. Playing tricks on the audience like that didn’t end there naturally, and has only evolved over the years. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho re-wrote the playbook in a number of ways when it premiered in 1960, and eight years later George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead through audiences for multiple loops. Every decade is defined not only by its best horror movies, but also the twists that are found within them.
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Some horror movie twists however, are not only broadcast from frame one of the movie, sometimes they also diminish what comes after. For every The Sixth Sense, where it’s earth-shattering reveal is clear from the start when you know what it is, despite still being effective, there are countless others that fall on their face. These movies build their storytelling around their twist, only for it to totally fall apart thanks to their over commitment to the bit. Naturally, spoilers follow.
1) Scream (2025)
Every Scream movie has a built in mystery at the heart of it, who is wearing the Ghostface mask this time? The assumption also becomes, how many people are wearing the costume and dialing the phone numbers this time (only one movie has ever had just one killer), but 2022’s revival of the series couldn’t even hide one of its biggest twists.
As the film reaches its apex and the identity of Ghostface is revealed to be Jack Quaid’s Richie Kirsch and Mikey Madison’s Amber Freeman, few in the audience were surprised. Perhaps Quaid’s involvement was a stunner, but by the time Scream was released in theaters, savvy audience members knew Madison for her role as Manson Family cult member “Sadie” in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Going from playing a crazed killer in that film to a crazed killer in another is not a stretch in the slightest for anyone paying attention, not to mention her character ends up suffering very similar fates in both movies.
2) Malignant
James Wan’s 2021 horror movie is undoubtedly a good time and fun watch, but the big twist hiding behind it is one that the opening scene advertises with neon letters. Kicking off with a creepy hospital where a doctor tells us all about how strong and evil the mysterious “Gabriel” is, only for doctors to refer to the wicked little monster as “cancer” that needed to be cut out.
From all this it is immediately clear that Gabriel is being hosted by something, or even somebody, specific clues that if the audience keeps in their mind become crystal clear as soon as the bodies start piling up. So when the big reveal that Madison Mitchell was being controlled by Gabriel this whole time as her parasitic twin that been absorbed in utero, it’s not plot point that’s all that shocking. Now, admittedly, the extent of the twist’s backstory may not be THAT clear from the beginning, but suffice to say it’s an illuminating opening sequence that is not very cagey.
3) Spiral: From the Book of Saw
Fans go in to a new Saw movie expecting a twist, and even though this movie tried to position itself as a spinoff within the continuity of the rest of the franchise, it still largely ticked every box audiences expected. The beginning of the movie not only makes it clear, this is a Saw movie where victims get put in gruesome traps full of bodily harm, but also reveals that the killer is specifically targeting cops. Not long after this larger problem has been revealed does the movie then introduce a brand new, rookie detective to be Chris Rock’s partner, Max Minghella as Detective William Schenk.
To make it funnier, as if the film couldn’t make it more clear that Schenk is the killer, a sequence where he’s on the phone with Rock’s character hints at a baby crying off screen, a detail that cements nothing about his persona is genuine. There is one twist that Spiral has that probably should be predicted, but isn’t as obvious, that the movie’s big final trap sees Samuel L. Jackson’s character turned into a gun-totting puppet, fitting the movie’s recurring pig-cop puppet motif.
4) Goodnight Mommy
This twisted 2014 horror film from Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala quite literally makes it clear what it’s big twist is in the opening seconds. In the film, a mom returns home from having traumatic facial surgery, her entire head wrapped up and bandaged. At the heart of the movie though are her two sons, who are convinced the person in their house isn’t their mother at all.
What’s clear from the start however is that the alleged mother only ever interacts with one of the sons, which should set off any kind of alarm bells for anyone paying close attention, especially if you’ve ever seen any other movie with a “they were dead the whole time” twist ending. It’s clear as day, and largely removes every ounce of tension from the rest of the movie.
5) Carnival of Souls
Herk Harvey’s 1962 classic movie, like our previous entry, is one that really paints a clear picture quickly. Though the larger atmosphere of the movie and its surprises along the way still make it a worthwhile watch, not to mention it definitely is “sublimely creepy,” it’s twist that Candace Hilligoss’ Mary Henry was actually dead the whole time and caught in a specter-haunting limbo for most of the movie is one that couldn’t be more obvious. Not only is she involved in a grisly car crash, but the fact she simply can’t remember how she survives are as clear as any indicator you can get that this movie isn’t really what you think.
6) Companion
Perhaps it’s not totally fair to say Companion broadcasts its biggest twist early on, as their are plenty of others that follow, plus the actual marketing campaign made it very clear what was going on in the movie. However, assuming that you watched movie with no prior knowledge of how it was sold, or even described, the opening minutes would still confirm to you that Sophie Thatcher’s Iris is a robot and not a human. What kind of a nickname is “beep boop” unless it’s for a machine? Suffice to say, the big twist being broadcast didn’t stop audiences from loving it, as it sits at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.
7) The Visit
Saying an M. Night Shyamalan movie has an obvious twist is perhaps similar to shooting fish in a barrel, but in truth, the movie that kicked off the second wave of Shyamalan’s career might be the most obvious (which is saying something after the likes of The Village). As two young kids head to to spend time with their grandparents, whom they’ve never met, the movie is already sending shockwaves to anyone paying close attention that these people aren’t who they say they are. Now one probably couldn’t predict that the real grandparents’ bodies are in the basement, but that these creepy old folks are imposters is clear as day.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm
