Horror is all about the unexpected! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most shocking or just plain well-executed plot twists in horror movie history. This list is full of spoilers, so beware.
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00:00Yeah, you're gonna love this one. It's a scream, baby. Hold on a sec. I'll be right back.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most shocking or just
00:10plain well-executed plot twists in horror movie history. This list is full of spoilers, so beware.
00:16I see people. They don't know they're dead.
00:23Number 50. Mary was dead all along. Carnival of Souls. This surreal indie film from the
00:29early 60s sees a young woman named Mary surviving a deadly car accident,
00:33only to be preyed upon by a gray-faced ghoul.
00:40As several other ghoulish figures start cropping up, she is relentlessly pursued
00:44through a nightmarish world that seems to defy logic more and more. There's a reason.
00:49In the epilogue, it's revealed that Mary actually didn't survive that car accident at the start.
00:53The ghouls were presumably there to take her to the afterlife.
00:57The car's still over there, and then a footprint's leading up to here.
01:06Critic Roger Ebert likened its shocking but inevitable ending to a lost Twilight Zone
01:10episode. Number 49. Who's the dummy now? Dead Silence. As they did in Saw,
01:16filmmakers James Wan and Lee Winnell came up with yet another layered and twisted ending.
01:21Dead Silence sees the ghost of a vicious ventriloquist named Mary Shaw enacting
01:25her revenge on the bloodline of a boy who humiliated her. One of her targets,
01:30Jamie, discovers that Mary was there the whole time. In fact, she was disguised as his new
01:35stepmother, puppeteering his father's corpse like a puppet in every scene he was in.
01:39-"It's soup. Delicious, too." -"How about for that?"
01:43This realization is delivered with a hypnotic montage replaying scenes we've already watched,
01:48this time from Mary's perspective. Ventriloquism was never so creepy.
01:53And that's saying something, because it's already pretty creepy.
01:56-"She had no children, only dolls. And if you see her in your dreams,
02:02be sure you never, ever scream."
02:07Number 48. Simone was trapped in the walls. The Orphanage. In this twisted and captivating
02:13supernatural horror movie from J.A. Bayona, Lara moves her family into the orphanage where
02:18she grew up, intent on turning it into a school. After her son Simone goes missing one day,
02:23she begins uncovering the orphanage's deadly secrets.
02:26-"Simone, hijo."
02:34But it would be more of a twist if the place wasn't haunted by the spirits of dead people.
02:38The real twist is that Simone's death was not supernatural. He'd become trapped in the old
02:43house's walls and died. Lara's reaction and tragic ending made the orphanage one for the ages.
02:49-"No! No!"
02:53Number 47. The killer is in your bed, when a stranger calls. Carole Kane stars in this
02:59horror thriller as Jill, a babysitter who is terrorized by a killer calling from an extension.
03:04But the calls are coming from inside the house is only the first act twist.
03:08-"Leave me alone!"
03:12-"Jill, this is Sergeant Sacker. Listen to me. We've traced a call. It's coming from inside
03:16the house. I have squad cars on the way over there right now. Just get out of that house."
03:21Years later, when she's married with her own children, Jill is targeted by the mad killer
03:25Kurt Duncan once again. After the police leave and she's alone in bed with her sleeping husband,
03:29she's sure the killer is in the closet. But surprise! He's actually in bed next to her.
03:34-"Steven. Steven."
03:38-"Steven! Steven!"
03:42It's a clever inversion of that first twist, but the intimacy of it feels even more frightening.
03:47Number 46. Johnny is Harry, Angel Heart. In this stylish neo-noir horror film,
03:53Harry Angel is a private eye hired by a mysterious man to track down a missing
03:57singer known as Johnny Favorite. Cipher tells Angel the singer welched on an unspecified
04:02contract. The case leads the detective down a twisting, turning path that leaves a trail
04:07of bodies behind. In the end, Angel realizes that the man he's looking for is himself.
04:12-"Mark, I didn't kill no one." -"I'm afraid you did, Johnny."
04:17-"My name's not Johnny." -"All killed by your own hand.
04:20Guided by me, naturally."
04:22He is Johnny Favorite, a man who murdered and tried to consume another man's soul, condemning
04:28his own soul to hell. And if that weren't enough, Louis Cipher turns out to be Lucifer himself.
04:35-"Louis Cipher. Lucifer."
04:40Number 45. Sarah's escape was a hallucination. The Descent. A group of women finds out there's
04:45something scarier to exploring caves than tight spaces. One by one, they are devoured by humanoid
04:51monsters known as Crawlers. -"Where are we? It hasn't got a name. It's a new system.
04:58I wanted us all to discover it. No one's ever been down here before."
05:04Sarah is the last remaining member of her group at the end of the movie.
05:08We watch as she makes the desperate and terrifying climb to safety,
05:12only to be wrenched back into her nightmare. Her escape was only a dream.
05:16She hallucinates an image of her deceased daughter as we leave her underground,
05:20doomed to be finished off by the carnivorous cave dwellers. The movie was already bleak
05:24to begin with, but the way it ups the ante in its last minutes made it legendary.
05:34Number 44. They could have been friends. Whatever happened to Baby Jane?
05:39Not a traditional horror movie, this unforgettable film features classic movie stars Bette Davis and
05:44Joan Crawford as two fading Hollywood actresses. Their careers ended ostensibly as a result of a
05:49car accident caused by Jane and her alcohol use, after which she needed to care for her
05:53sister Blanche who was left with paralysis. But in the last act, Jane has lost her grip
05:59and drags a starving and neglected Blanche to the beach. It's here that Blanche reveals
06:04the big twist.
06:05You didn't do it, Jane. I did it myself. Don't you understand?"
06:17She was responsible for the accident that broke her own spine, and only let Jane believe it was
06:22her fault. Jane has lost her grip on reality so much she's not even angry. She makes the
06:27heartbreaking realization only too late that their years of mutual resentment were a waste.
06:32Then you mean all this time we could have been friends?
06:41Number 43. Maggie is Freddy's daughter. Freddy's dead. The final nightmare. The
06:46Nightmare on Elm Street sequels were largely an example of diminishing returns. While the
06:50sixth movie was seen as one of the worst in the franchise, it did have a pretty killer twist on
06:55Freddy Krueger's backstory. Maggie Burroughs, the psychiatrist trying to help Freddy's new targets,
07:00learns that she is Krueger's daughter.
07:02You're my blood. Only you could have brought me out. And you're mine.
07:09But you can't be my father.
07:11After watching him slice and dice the teens of Springwood, Ohio for almost a decade,
07:16it was kind of refreshing to see more of what makes the dream killer tick. While it did add
07:20some shading to the dream killer's motivation, it couldn't save the movie from some pretty
07:25terrible 3D effects.
07:27Happy Father's Day.
07:28Come on, John!
07:30Number 42. Gabriel's identity. Malignant. If you want unhinged horror and bonkers twists,
07:36look no further than this James Wan thriller. Malignant is the story of Madison Mitchell,
07:41a woman who fears a serial killer who killed her abusive husband might just be Gabriel.
07:45Her childhood imaginary friend come to life.
07:48You're in a hospital. Where's Derek? Do you remember what happened?
07:53Someone broke into your house.
07:54You were attacked. And Derek...
07:58But the truth is even stranger than that. He actually turns out to be her parasitic twin,
08:03a monstrous twin brother who was removed from her skull as a child.
08:06His brain still lives in Madison's cranium and takes over her body to commit his murders.
08:11One twin is dominant while the other is underdeveloped. It's not considered
08:15conjoined because the underdeveloped twin is dependent on the body of the other.
08:19Like a parasite, Gabriel feeds off Emily.
08:25Yes, that's two big twists, and maybe it's a hat on a hat,
08:29but when you've got a parasitic twin living in your brain, you probably need two hats.
08:33Number 41. Not his daughter. Don't look now.
08:36John and Laura are a married couple traveling to Venice after the death of their daughter,
08:40who drowned in a creek while wearing a vivid red raincoat. Amid psychic visions,
08:44grief, and spooky happenings, John becomes obsessed with a figure he thinks is his daughter
08:49running through the streets of the flooded city. Coincidentally, and as it turns out ironically,
08:54a mysterious serial killer is also stalking the streets. At the climax of the movie,
08:59having cornered the girl, he realizes too late that it's not his daughter,
09:02but the serial killer, who quickly dispatches him.
09:06I'm a friend. I won't hurt you. Come on.
09:14It is a cruel and creepy ending that feels especially tragic.
09:18Number 40. Lady Van Tassel controls the horsemen.
09:22Sleepy Hollow. We all probably heard the legend of Sleepy Hollow as kids,
09:26but that did not stop us from being shocked by the plot twist in Tim Burton's 1999 adaptation
09:31of the short story. In the film, Ichabod Crane is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to
09:36investigate a series of murders. Halfway through the movie, Lady Van Tassel, the stepmother of
09:41Ichabod's love interest, is decapitated by the headless horseman. Or is she?
09:46Dear stepdaughter, you look as if you'd seen a ghost.
09:52Lady Van Tassel faked her own death and is the reason this whole beheading business
09:55started in the first place. Her revenge plot necessitated a bit of murder,
10:00and she made a deal with Satan to get her way.
10:02The horseman comes! And tonight he comes for you!
10:06Number 39. Inside Job. You're next.
10:09We don't need a motive for why crazed killers do what they do.
10:12So when massed assailants storm the Davison household and start knocking off family members,
10:17we hardly bat an eyelash. But it's eventually revealed that the intruders aren't just
10:21bloodthirsty. They're being paid. And by some of the family, no less.
10:26Really? You had to do that right in front of me?
10:32Were you saying something?
10:33At first, it seems like the edgy Felix and his girlfriend Zee hired the men to take out the
10:38former's family for the inheritance. And they totally did. But it's later revealed that the
10:43demure Crispin isn't on it too. I can't believe you were in on this.
10:50Come on, babe. You do know how broke we are, right?
10:53Our lead protagonist Erin initially has trouble accepting her boyfriend's shady dealings,
10:58but considering what she went through, we don't blame her for breaking things off
11:02in the bloodiest way possible.
11:04Number 38. You're in a cult. Kill list.
11:07If you missed one of the strangest and most upsetting horror movies of the last 20 years,
11:11don't worry. You're not alone. Kill List didn't even make back its $800,000 at the box office,
11:16but the folks who did see it experienced a wild ride. The movie follows Gal and Jay,
11:22two British military guys turned hitmen who take on a contract that ends up proving disastrous.
11:27Samran.
11:39Kill List doesn't have just one big twist at the end. It's more of a slow burn with
11:43multiple twists along the way, and a plethora of gory, disgusting horror to boot.
11:48I'm just a librarian.
11:51Who's for?
11:54This is not fair.
11:56I'll show you no fair.
11:57The violence will leave even the most strong-stomached reeling,
12:01and the end will leave you gobsmacked.
12:04Number 37. Laurie is also a killer. Happy Death Day. Groundhog Day, but make it horror.
12:10Happy Death Day is a fun, twisty romp of a horror movie. It centers around a girl named
12:16Tree who is stuck in a time loop where she is murdered by a masked stranger before waking up
12:20back at the start of the day. She eventually begins using her situation to identify her killer.
12:26So I'm just supposed to keep dying until I figure out who my killer is?
12:32She eventually does, believing him to be a serial killer on the loose.
12:36After she kills her would-be killer, she celebrates with a cupcake from her roommate
12:39Laurie and goes to bed, only to wake up still in the loop. The cupcake was poisoned,
12:45and Laurie was trying to kill her the entire time. Talk about a bad roommate.
12:49You killed me.
12:53What?
12:56You poisoned it.
12:58Number 36. The Man in the Walls. The Boy. Little children in horror movies are scary enough,
13:04but little doll children? Yeah, count us out. In 2016's The Boy, Greta travels to the United
13:11Kingdom to be a nanny to an elderly couple and their 8-year-old son Brahms. Turns out, however,
13:16Brahms is not a human child at all, but a porcelain doll the couple treats as though he
13:21were alive. As strange events begin to happen around the house, Greta starts to believe the
13:26doll does have a human spirit. But when someone smashes the doll, the truth comes out. The real
13:37Brahms, who died in a fire decades ago, had been living in the walls of the house controlling the
13:42actions of the doll the whole time. Number 35. Josh is Possessed. Insidious. The things that
13:55happen to us as children really do follow us to adulthood, don't they? Insidious explores that
14:00theme of lingering childhood trauma and takes it to its natural, twisty conclusion. When they
14:05discover that their son Dalton can astral project and is being possessed by demons,
14:10parents Josh and Renee learn something terrifying about Josh's own past.
14:14The reason I knew to call Elise in this situation, the reason I know her so well,
14:22is because I called her myself once, years ago, to help you.
14:30What are you talking about, Mom?
14:31He has the same ability as Dalton, and when he was a child, he was tormented by the ghost of
14:36a terrifying old woman. Josh has to face the old woman again to save Dalton, and once he does,
14:42it seems like everything's fine. But at the last moment, we learn that Josh didn't win.
14:47Possessed by the old lady, his reign of terror begins.
14:50Why did you do that? Why would you do that to me when you know how I feel about that? Why?
14:57Number 34. Howard was Right. 10. Cloverfield Lane. What would you do if you woke up chained
15:03in a room with some guy you've never met telling you that you can't leave because of the poisonous
15:08air outside? Would you believe that guy? I'm not sure yet if it's chemical or nuclear,
15:14but down here we're safe. And where are we exactly?
15:19That is the central question that 10. Cloverfield Lane puts forth. After a car accident,
15:24Michelle wakes up to find herself in an underground bunker, with only her captor
15:28and his assistant for company. Her captor, Howard, insists that a world-changing event
15:32is underway, and she cannot leave the bunker. Michelle doesn't trust him, and as an audience
15:38member, it's doubtful whether we should either. Michelle eventually escapes,
15:42and comes to learn that Howard was 100% right. Also, aliens exist.
15:47Number 33. It Was the Devil All Along. Fallen. If I go back to the beginning,
15:52that'll take forever. So let's start more recently. Fallen begins with Detective John
15:58Hobbs telling us about the time he almost died. Or so we think. This Denzel Washington
16:03supernatural horror film takes themes of possession to the world of horror.
16:06It's a story about a man who's been possessed by a ghost, and it's a story about a man who's
16:10been possessed by a ghost, and it's a story about a man who's been possessed by a ghost,
16:15The voiceover at the beginning of the film is said in Washington's voice,
16:22so as we watch Hobbs investigate a series of occult killings, we think he is the narrator.
16:27The killer is revealed to be a demon named Azazel, who can possess most human bodies.
16:32In the end, we think Hobbs has overcome Azazel, concluding the story of how he almost died.
16:38But no, the voice that's been speaking has actually been Azazel the entire time.
16:42The demon didn't die, taking over a nearby cat.
16:46Oh, you forgot something, didn't you?
16:53At the beginning, I said I was going to tell you about the time I almost died.
16:59I'll see you around.
17:11You can't always get what you want.
17:13Sometimes, what you get is a giant hand dragging you straight to hell.
17:18In Sam Raimi's 2009 comedy horror masterpiece, happy endings are not in the cards.
17:23But that doesn't stop you from hoping that maybe,
17:26just maybe, our protagonist will get away from the cursed button that haunts her.
17:35Christine's curse involves a three-day torment before a demon drags her down to the fiery pits
17:41below. But at the end of the film, you do really believe that she's figured out how to beat it.
17:46It's only when her boyfriend attempts to propose to her and gives her back her
17:49cursed button in the process that we realize she's actually lost.
17:56Hey, hey, hey!
17:59Oh, God!
18:05Final Destination 5 mainly follows the characters of Sam and Molly as they try to outrun the
18:11inevitability of death. The plot takes them through bridge collapses, meat spits,
18:15and more before they believe they've finally survived.
18:18It's gone. You killed him.
18:22So does that mean I get Block's life?
18:27Yeah.
18:29Yeah.
18:31I guess I do.
18:32At the end of the film, they end up on a plane.
18:34Volley Airlines Flight 180 to be exact.
18:37On board, Sam overhears a flight attendant telling someone that a passenger who was
18:41removed from the flight said they had a premonition that the plane would explode.
18:45This is, of course, Alex, the main character from the first Final Destination movie.
18:50A surprise prequel is the best kind of prequel.
18:56Molly, hold on!
18:59Number 30. The alien makes it to Earth. Life.
19:02When Life came out in 2017, it didn't necessarily receive rave reviews from critics or audiences.
19:08But this sci-fi light horror film deserves a second look,
19:11in particular for the way it handles its last act.
19:14Toward the end of the film, only two members of a crew sent to investigate life on Mars are left.
19:19David and Miranda are fighting against a dangerous alien life form.
19:23They decide David will kill the alien in space, and Miranda will return to Earth.
19:27This is Dr. Miranda North's black box recording in case of death upon re-entry.
19:33The creature killed four of the six ISS astronauts,
19:36with the fifth, Dr. David Jordan, presumed dead, carrying it out into deep space.
19:41A pod crashes on Earth. It turns out to be David and the alien instead of Miranda.
19:46The last thing we're left with is David pleading with the people who
19:49find him not to open the door and unleash the alien's havoc.
19:53No!
19:55No!
19:56No, no, no!
19:57Number 29. Lukas is dead. Good Night, Mommy.
20:01A clever movie twist is one that fools you in the moment,
20:04but opens up the world of the movie once you understand what's been going on.
20:08And Good Night, Mommy has one of the cleverest, saddest twists of the last 20 years.
20:23The movie centers around twins Elias and Lukas, who become convinced their mother
20:32is not their mother after she returns from surgery wrapped in bandages.
20:36Strange events lead them to trap the mother in the house and threaten to burn it down.
20:40The mother then reveals to Elias that Lukas died in an accident before the film's beginning,
20:44and Elias has been hallucinating him the entire time.
20:54The reveal changes every idea you have about each character and makes you reconsider everything.
21:01Number 28. The narrator is the real madman. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
21:07If you're going to dip into the world of silent cinema,
21:09The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a wonderfully twisted place to start.
21:13The movie functions as a long flashback, as a man named Francis tells the story of a hypnotist
21:18named Dr. Caligari who manipulates a man with a sleep disorder into committing murders.
21:23The story ends with Dr. Caligari in a mental health hospital, but that's not the real ending.
21:28After the story, we learn that Francis, our very own narrator, is actually the true madman.
21:34Dr. Caligari is the hospital director,
21:36and Francis is the patient actually living in the fictional Caligari cell.
21:41Number 27. The husband isn't really dead. Les Diaboliques.
21:53Obviously, Psycho is one of the most important horror films of the last century.
21:58But what about the film that helped inspire Psycho?
22:01At first, the 1955 French film Les Diaboliques seems to be about two women,
22:06a wife and a mistress, who band together to kill the man who causes them both so much pain.
22:27But the crime at the center of Les Diaboliques turns out to be much more sinister.
22:32The husband, who we believe to be dead fairly early on in the film,
22:36actually never dies at all. The truth is that he and the mistress have
22:40concocted a twisted plan to torment the fragile wife to death. Diabolical indeed.
22:51Number 26. The mother appears. Barbarian.
22:55When it comes to twists that blew our minds, Barbarian is near the top of the list.
23:00Zack Krager's wild ride of a film starts out like a regular horror movie, but quickly changes gear.
23:06When Tess arrives at her Airbnb to find it booked by a man named Keith,
23:09we think we see where things are going. But despite everything we know about horror movie
23:14tropes, Keith isn't actually the villain here. The twist comes when Tess follows
23:18Keith down into the bowels of the home's basement. She finds Keith, but she also finds a naked,
23:29terrifying-looking woman simply known as Mother. The film immediately smash cuts to
23:34Justin Long of all people, leaving us to wonder what just happened.
23:38Number 25. Soo Yeon was a ghost the whole time. A Tale of Two Sisters.
23:43The secret ghost is a well-worn horror trope, from The Others to The Sixth Sense.
23:48But it takes a smart movie to do the trope well. A Tale of Two Sisters is one of the better films
23:53to do it. At the beginning of the film, Soo Mi leaves a mental health hospital and heads home
23:58to her father, stepmother, and sister Soo Yeon. The family's dynamics are complex and often
24:04terrifying, but not as terrifying as the reveal that comes towards the film's end.
24:18Soo Mi learns that she has dissociative identity disorder, and that her sister Soo Yeon is a
24:23figment of her imagination. Soo Yeon has been a ghost the whole time.
24:28Number 24. Black Phillip is Satan, the witch. Throughout the course of The Witch, we're left
24:34wondering what's real and what's not. But in the end, writer-director Robert Eggers lets us know
24:39exactly what to believe. The film follows a family who's banished from a Puritan settlement,
24:44after which strange, possibly witch-induced events begin to occur. Furthermore, the young
24:50twins of the family start to say that the goat, Black Phillip, is speaking to them.
24:54We're led to believe the twins might be making this up, until the very end of the movie. Black
25:00Phillip materializes into the devil while speaking to the family's eldest child,
25:04inviting her to live deliciously.
25:10Number 23. It's all in Patrick's head, American Psycho. Investment banker, serial killer. What's
25:17the difference, really? Not much when it comes to American Psycho. Throughout this 2,000 satirical
25:22horror masterpiece, Patrick Bateman tortures and kills a number of people in brutal ways.
25:28One of these people is his colleague Paul Allen, who he murders with an axe.
25:32"...because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of friends,
25:36it's also a personal statement about the band itself. Hey, Paul!"
25:40But towards the end, as Patrick tries to confess to his murder spree,
25:44we learn that Allen is actually alive. Patrick might have never actually killed anyone,
25:50and has been hallucinating his crimes for the entirety of the movie.
25:54This twist drives home the film's commentary on yuppie culture and toxic masculinity.
25:59"...but even after admitting this, there is no catharsis. My punishment continues to elude me,
26:06and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself."
26:08Number 22. Jacob is dead, Jacob's Ladder. When it comes to war movies,
26:14horror goes hand-in-hand, and the 1990 film Jacob's Ladder really drives that comparison home.
26:20The film stars Tim Robbins as Jacob, a Vietnam war vet, and flashes back and forth between his
26:25life during and after his service. A number of strange, disturbing events occur throughout the
26:30film, leading to the most terrifying reveal of all. We learn that due to a military experiment
26:36gone wrong, Jacob was killed by friendly fire. Everything that we've seen after his time in
26:41Vietnam has been some hallucinatory, horrifying fever dream.
26:45"...he looks kind of peaceful, the guy. What a hell of a fight, though."
26:50Number 21. The cult, Rosemary's Baby. Throughout Rosemary's Baby,
26:55Rosemary starts to suspect that her neighbors belong to a satanic cult
26:59that wants to use her unborn child for evil. She's almost there, but not quite.
27:05This 1968 horror flick is one of the very best, and its twist ending is one of the reasons why.
27:11After Rosemary gives birth, she's told that her baby was stillborn. But in the last scene,
27:16she discovers not only that her baby is alive, but that her husband Guy is not the father.
27:22When she discovers a satanic cult honoring her child, she notices that he has unusual eyes — the
27:28devil's eyes, one might say. Rosemary has given birth to the Antichrist.
27:33What have you done to him, you maniac?
27:37Satan is his father, not Guy. He came up from hell and begat a son of mortal woman.
27:43Hail Satan!
27:44Number 20. Esther is actually an adult woman. Orphan. We wouldn't be at all surprised if this
27:502009 horror movie turned a lot of prospective parents off the idea of adoption. Especially
27:55when you consider the terrifying twist.
27:57Everything about her could be a lie. Everything.
27:59We have her passport, birth certificate, school records, medical records.
28:03I'm halfway around the world.
28:04What is this?
28:05It's a piece of paper.
28:06After Kate and John adopt a young girl named Esther,
28:09the two struggle to get their new family member to open up.
28:11Tensions mount as Esther manipulates her new family, with only Kate suspecting something's wrong.
28:16It causes proportional dwarfism. She only looks like a child.
28:20According to our records, Lena Klammer was born in 1976. She's 33 years old.
28:27In a truly shocking moment, Kate learns too late that Esther — or perhaps we should say
28:32Lena — is really a 33-year-old woman who suffers from a medical disorder that stunts her growth.
28:39Not only that, but Lena is a cold-blooded killer.
28:42Why was she at your hospital?
28:43She's dangerous, Leo. Violent. She killed 70, but there'll be no off.
28:48Suddenly, the kid from Problem Child doesn't look so bad.
28:51Number 19. Tom was the Invisible Man all along. Or was he? The Invisible Man.
28:57Lee Winnell reinvented one of Universal's classic horror characters for the modern
29:01era in this 2020 film.
29:08After barely escaping the clutches of her cruel tech mogul partner Adrian,
29:12protagonist Cecilia begins to believe that her ex is using cutting-edge invisibility technology
29:17to stalk her.
29:18If you fight me, I won't ever hurt you. I'll find someone you love and hurt them instead.
29:23Her terrifying suspicion proves correct, but with a twist.
29:26After the unseen assailant is shot and unmasked,
29:29he's revealed to actually be Adrian's brother Tom.
29:34But even this revelation is thrown into doubt,
29:36with Cecilia insisting this is just another facet of Adrian's twisted plot.
29:40That it was you, not your brother.
29:45Just goes to show that you cannot always believe what you see. Or don't see in this case.
29:50Number 18. Marie unmasked. High tension.
29:54What begins as a quiet weekend of studying quickly turns nightmarish in this French horror thriller.
29:59And if the shocking violence doesn't leave an impression, the twist definitely will.
30:10The story follows two college girls, Marie and Alex,
30:12who stay with Alex's parents in their secluded home to study.
30:15But a sadistic killer arrives on their doorstep,
30:18taking out Alex's parents and kidnapping her.
30:21It's seemingly up to Marie to save Alex from certain death.
30:23Until we learn that almost the entire scenario has been a fantasy playing out in Marie's head.
30:28And she's been the one maiming her way through numerous victims.
30:34It's a shame, because besides the whole being the killer part, she was a great protagonist.
30:41Number 17. The old couple is possessed. The skeleton key.
30:45Being a live-in nurse is a demanding and often thankless job under the best of circumstances.
30:50Never mind when there are paranormal shenanigans going on.
30:53She says you see him in the mirrors.
30:56After being taken on to care for an elderly man living with the aftereffects of a stroke,
31:00nurse Caroline begins to suspect the man's wife Violet of foul play.
31:10This comes after Caroline finds a secret room filled with the tools of hoodoo magic in the attic.
31:15Which is generally a red flag that something hinky is going on.
31:18But rather than simply a practitioner of hoodoo,
31:21Violet is revealed to be possessed by the spirit of a hoodoo magician from nearly 100 years prior.
31:34Yep, we'd quit too.
31:36Number 16. It's all staged. April Fool's Day.
31:40A typical twist in a horror movie involves the identity of the killer or killers.
31:44But the twist in this 80 slasher takes a different route by revealing there isn't a killer at all.
31:52Things seem par for the course as far as slasher movies go,
31:56when the bodies begin to pile up at a fancy party thrown by a group of old college friends.
32:09But imagine the audience's surprise when it turns out the events of the movie were
32:13just an incredibly elaborate rehearsal for a murder mystery night,
32:16and nobody was ever in any danger.
32:22How's that for a twist? This slasher movie wasn't a slasher movie at all.
32:31Number 15. The Ancient Ones. The Cabin in the Woods.
32:35After their cabin trip is spoiled by some pesky zombies,
32:38friends Marty and Dana discover a massive facility full of monsters beneath the cabin.
32:46And after a surprise appearance by Sigourney Weaver herself, the pair learns the deeper truth.
32:51That the events of the film were an elaborate ritual to appease a group of elder gods,
32:55who want nothing more than to see groups of teenagers meet their messy demise again and again.
33:09You don't need a film degree to figure out that The Ancient Ones' craving for
33:12routine carnage is a somewhat scathing commentary on horror audiences,
33:16crystallizing the film's deconstruction of tired horror tropes,
33:19and imploring filmmakers to try something new.
33:23Number 14. Those Aren't the Real Grandparents. The Visit.
33:28Director M. Night Shyamalan's reputation as the king of the twist ending is somewhat well-deserved,
33:32as most of his movies contain at least one shocking twist.
33:40Heck, this isn't even the only movie of his on this very list.
33:43The twists can get more than a little stale,
33:45but there's just something about this one that gives us the creeps.
33:49After an odd yet seemingly innocent weekend at their grandparents,
34:02teens Becca and Tyler receive a shocking revelation that those aren't their grandparents.
34:13This reveal comes hot on the heels of a number of strange occurrences the pair had experienced,
34:17suddenly ratcheting up the already high tension to stratospheric levels.
34:22Number 13. Red is Adelaide. Us.
34:25Jordan Peele's electrifying follow-up to Get Out did not disappoint,
34:29mixing great horror movie scares with a powerful undercurrent of social commentary
34:33even before you get to the shocking final reveal.
34:41After narrowly escaping her tethered doppelganger with her life and family intact,
34:45mother Adelaide seems to be in the clear.
34:51Except the audience is clued in via flashback
34:54that the woman we've been following for the whole film is the tethered.
35:10Adelaide and her tethered were switched during childhood,
35:13meaning the raspy-voiced Red was actually the original,
35:16out for revenge after being exiled below ground.
35:19It's a twist that casts the entire movie in a new light, just like a great twist always does.
35:25Number 12. Samara is now free. The Ring.
35:29We're betting that up until this infamous moment in the 2002 remake of the Japanese horror sensation,
35:34the protagonists were patting themselves on the back.
35:44After all, it's not every day you get to put the vengeful spirit of a dead child to rest,
35:48but you forgot that you made a copy, didn't you?
35:59Now your ex is dead and you have to continue passing the curse on in order to save your child.
36:04Great job.
36:05In all seriousness, the twist that the terrifying Samara was not put to rest by uncovering her grave
36:10and will continue to wreak vengeance on the living is still one of our favorites,
36:13and we still can't see TV static without shuddering.
36:23Number 11. The call is coming from inside the house. Black Christmas.
36:31In this 1970s Canadian slasher flick,
36:33the residents of a sorority house are plagued by a string of strange noises.
36:37The residents of a sorority house are plagued by a string of obscene and disturbing phone calls,
36:42but things just get worse when several of the residents are found dead,
36:46and the killer is behind the obscene calls.
36:48In the film's most iconic scene, a telephone company employee frantically traces the location
36:54of the mysterious caller and eventually discovers that the calls are coming from a second line,
36:58inside the sorority house.
37:08It's a terrifying reveal, one that kicks the tension in the film into overdrive,
37:13with the revelation that protagonist Jess is far from safe,
37:16despite being indoors and under police watch.
37:23And sure, the reveal is similar to when a stranger calls, but this film did it first.
37:28Number 10. The coagula procedure. Get out.
37:31Once again, Jordan Peele manages to pull off a twist that's not only terrifying on the surface,
37:36but casts the entire film up to that point in a new light.
37:49After meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time,
37:51Chris begins to suspect something is amiss with the seemingly friendly couple.
37:55Phase one was the hypnotism, that's how they sedate you. Phase two is this, mental preparation.
38:04Following a series of unnerving encounters with the family,
38:07Chris is hypnotized and wakes up bound to a chair, a videotape informing him of his fate,
38:12to have his brain removed so that a rich old white person can have his body instead.
38:17So you won't be gone, not completely, a sliver of you will still be in there somewhere.
38:23This twist, itself a commentary on how black bodies and physicality are commodified by
38:28seemingly well-meaning white people, cemented Peele and the film as horror royalty.
38:33Number nine. It's all in the killer's head. Identity.
38:41In this horror slash thriller from Logan director James Mangold,
38:44a group of strangers find themselves stranded in a secluded motel and stalked by a mysterious killer.
38:50But this isn't your run-of-the-mill slasher movie.
38:52It's revealed late in the film that almost everything we've been seeing
38:56has been taking place inside the mind of a convicted serial killer.
39:00Why are you telling me this? Because you, Edward, are one of his personalities.
39:07The victims are actually the killer's multiple personalities,
39:11and they're being killed off as part of his treatment.
39:13The it was all a dream or hallucination twist is honestly a little played out,
39:18but this version offers an admittedly fresh spin on the well-worn idea.
39:22To great effect.
39:23Where is my face?
39:25Number eight. Mrs. Voorhees is the killer. Friday the 13th.
39:30Well, I'm Mrs. Voorhees, an old friend of the Christie's.
39:34The machete-wielding, goalie-mask-wearing Jason Voorhees
39:38is without a doubt one of the biggest slasher icons.
39:41But as horror aficionados are fond of pointing out,
39:44he wasn't the primary villain in the first film in the Friday the 13th series.
39:48Should have been watched every minute. He was...
39:51After a number of fellow camp counselors are brutally murdered,
39:54the film's protagonist Alice discovers that the killer is in fact Mrs. Voorhees,
39:59the mother of a deformed boy who drowned while the counselors were, shall we say, distracted.
40:04Loved while that young boy drowned.
40:07Needless to say, the revelation that the seemingly kindly old lady in a sweater
40:11is a crazed killer doesn't do much to make Alice's day better.
40:15You did to him!
40:22Number seven, The Girl Isn't Missing, The Wicker Man.
40:26You, Sergeant, are the right kind of adult.
40:30Before it was remade with Nicolas Cage and turned into an internet meme,
40:34this 1973 horror film was a darling of British horror cinema.
40:38The film begins when a police detective arrives at a small town on a secluded island
40:43after a local girl goes missing.
40:45But it quickly becomes clear that something is terribly wrong
40:48and that the villagers are part of a dangerous pagan cult.
40:51You came here to find Rowan Morrison,
40:54but it is we who have found you and brought you here
40:58and controlled your every thought and action since you arrived.
41:01The detective suspects the girl might have been taken as a human sacrifice,
41:05but it's worse.
41:06The girl was never kidnapped,
41:08and it was all ploy to lure him to the island to serve as the sacrifice himself.
41:13No, no!
41:14Think! Just think what you're doing!
41:17Think what you're doing! Think!
41:20Number six.
41:22Jigsaw is the dead body in the bathroom.
41:24Saw.
41:29This infamous horror flick not only kicked off an entire franchise,
41:32but arguably started a whole new sub-genre.
41:35While the sequels went on to more gruesome and elaborate gore,
41:38the first one keeps it fairly simple.
41:40Two men find themselves chained in a bathroom
41:42with a corpse between them and a hacksaw each.
41:45The only way either of them can escape is to take that hacksaw to their own ankle.
41:49After much bloodshed,
41:51it's revealed that Jigsaw,
41:53the mysterious killer who orchestrated the whole thing,
41:55has been in the room the whole time,
41:58posing as the corpse lying between his two unlucky victims.
42:02Shocking, effective, and oh so twisted.
42:12Number five.
42:13The family are ghosts.
42:15The Others.
42:16Don't speak to them!
42:17Why? They're dead!
42:20This spooky atmospheric horror gem stars a woman named Grace and her two children,
42:25who live in a secluded mansion following World War II.
42:29As anyone might if they lived in a house this creepy looking,
42:32Grace begins to suspect that her home is haunted.
42:35Turns out she's right, but not in the way she expected.
42:40After a series of terrifying encounters with what seem to be spirits,
42:43it's revealed that Grace and her children are the ghosts haunting the house,
42:47and the visions they've been seeing are the new residents.
42:54It's a clever inversion of the classic haunted house scenario
42:58that caught most cinema goers completely by surprise.
43:06Number four.
43:07What David needlessly does to his group.
43:09The Mist.
43:11Things look about as grim as they can possibly get for painter David Drayton and his family.
43:21After a strange mist envelops their sleepy New England town,
43:24monsters begin emerging from the strange fog,
43:26and exterminating everyone they can get their tentacles, pincers, and claws on.
43:31David and his son flee in their car along with some other survivors in a desperate bid for safety.
43:41But there's five of us.
43:43Eventually the car runs out of gas,
43:45leaving David to shoot his friends and son to keep them from a grislier fate.
43:49With not enough bullets to go round,
43:51David leaves the car to be eaten by the monsters,
43:54only to find the military has arrived to save the day.
43:57Talk about too little, too late.
44:00Number three.
44:01Stu and Billy are the killers.
44:02Scream.
44:03Surprise, Sidney.
44:06This trend-setting slasher movie revitalized the genre for a new generation
44:11by injecting a dose of self-aware meta commentary to liven things up.
44:15The film's main character, Sidney, is a young man who's been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.
44:19But he's not the only one.
44:20He's also a young man who's been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.
44:24This mainly takes the form of the teenage characters,
44:26who recognize that the mysterious killer stalking them
44:29is following the traditional rules of slasher films.
44:32Namely stuff like, if you have sex, do drugs or say, I'll be right back,
44:36you'll be the next one to die.
44:38But rather than just two horror movie fans familiar with the tropes of the genre,
44:41the characters of Billy and Stu turn out to be the killers themselves,
44:45making the horror movie awareness of the ghost-facing characters
44:48even more obvious.
44:49The twist so infamous it started an entire meme remains a fan favorite,
44:54even if it turned a promising new director into the twist-ending guy.
44:58The film tells the story of a young boy with the ability to turn his life around
45:02by being a victim of a gang of thugs.
45:04The film's main character, Sidney, is a young man who's been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.
45:08He's a young man who's been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.
45:11He's a young man who's been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.
45:14He's a young man who's been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.
45:16The film tells the story of a young boy with the ability to see ghosts,
45:20which obviously leads to a near non-stop parade of terrifying encounters with the unquiet dead.
45:26Things look like they're getting better when he meets a child psychologist
45:29determined to help the boy to make amends for a previous failure.
45:33But in the end, it's famously revealed that Bruce Willis' Dr. Crow is a ghost himself,
45:38having died after the film's opening scene.
45:41For cinema goers in 1999, it was one blown mind after another.
45:46You were never second.
45:49Ever.
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46:06Number 1.
46:07Norman Bates is the killer.
46:09Psycho.
46:10Mrs. Bates.
46:16Even before the shocking reveal at the film's climax,
46:26Alfred Hitchcock's horror opus already had audiences scared out of their minds.
46:31But that ending just made things worse.
46:33After watching numerous characters seemingly die at the hands of the apparently demented Mrs. Bates,
46:38audiences were stunned to learn that the killer was in fact her soft-spoken son Norman,
46:43who had preserved his dead mother's body and taken on her identity.
46:52Even decades after the film's release and subsequent enshrinement in popular culture,
46:56the reveal at the end of this legendary film remains the most
47:00shocking and memorable twist ending in the history of horror cinema.
47:14What's the last horror movie twist that really surprised you?
47:18Spoil it for us in the comments.
47:21Welcome to Act 3.
47:22Did you enjoy this video?
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