Horror films are at the forefront of our thoughts when we think of amazing twists done in cinema. It all falls into that paranoia that we never truly know what is going on. What if we are the monsters in someone else’s story? What if your neighbor is in a cult? What if the suffering of others is all one big plan by a shadow organization? Movies that are allowed to make its audiences scared are not afraid to explore these questions.
The best twists are the ones that you don’t see coming and even if you do, the reveal serves as one of the most memorable parts of the film. Here are 10 horror movies with amazing twists. Also, be warned, there are spoilers ahead.
Goodnight Mommy
This Austrian horror film put audiences in the shoes of twin little 9-year-old boys whose mother is recovering from facial surgery. Her strange behavior and appearance causes the boys to believe that she is not actually their mom. Unlike their mom, she is cruel, only pays attention to one of them, and keeps the blinds closed.
The twist is that one of the twin boys actually does not exist because he died in a car crash and the current version of him is just a hallucination of the one that lived. The truth is that the little boy lost his mind and kills his real mother. He does not believe her when she reveals the truth to him, that his brother has been dead now for a while.
Saw
The first film and twist are what inspired a long running franchise for Saw. Through the movie, two men are chained up in a bathroom with a dead guy in the middle and are trying to solve the mystery as to why they were put there and who is doing this to them.
The twist is that the person who is behind all of this was in the room with them the whole time: he was the corpse. No one expected this, and it remains the best and defining moment of the Saw franchise.
The Cabin In The Woods
The twist of this movie was buck-wild for those who went in not knowing anything, and that was the best way to see it. The Cabin in the Woods paid homage to every horror movie with its twist. At first, it seems like a typical campy horror movie with characters who make poor decisions. However, it quickly becomes clear that there is more going on than meets the eye.
It turns out that there is a secret organization that sacrifices horror character tropes to ancient gods in order to protect humanity from them. The organization does this by drugging people, tricking them, and setting traps to satisfy the old gods. It’s like the gods love themselves a good horror flick!
Us
Just when you thought Jordan Peele could not make another crazy-good horror film after Get Out, he outdid himself with Us. The film centered on doppelgangers coming up from underground and killing their look-alikes. The actors did an amazing performance by both playing the above ground family and the tethered family who has come to kill them.
The twist is that when the protagonist was a little girl, she and her look-alike actually switched places. So the “villain” of the film is actually the original girl who has come back up to get her revenge.
The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense was not the first film to have this twist, and it certainly was not the last either. However, in terms of how the twist played out, this film became the most famous example. The story is about a little boy who can see dead people and a child psychologist who is trying to help him.
The twist is that the child psychologist has actually been dead for a while. The kid hints at this multiple times. For example, he says, “I see dead people They don’t know they are dead.” After he helps the kid, the psychologist figures it out that he himself is actually a ghost.
The Wicker Man
This 1973 British horror film centers on a policeman who is investigating the disappearance of a little girl on a small island. He finds that the inhabitants of the island are into some Celtic form of Paganism. Due to their beliefs, he sees a lot of suspicious behavior. After a lot of investigation, he thinks that the islanders have kidnapped the girl and are going to use her as a sacrifice for a better harvest, who he finds and rescues.
However, instead of running to safety, she runs happily into the arms of the islanders. It turns out to be a trap and the policeman was chosen as the sacrifice all along. The ending has him burning alive inside a giant wicker man as a sacrifice to the gods.
The VVitch
The VVitch is a rather slow-paced horror film at first. A Puritan family is exiled to live near the woods and away from town. The youngest member of their family, a baby, disappears and the family begins to be plagued by evil happenings. They believe it to be the work of a witch in the woods.
The family eventually gets so paranoid and cursed that most of them die or disappear. The only one left is a girl and she finds out that their goat, who they call “Black Phillip,” is actually the Devil. She makes a deal with him and becomes a witch.
Get Out
Of course, Jordan Peele’s amazing debut film had to be on this list. Get Out is about the horrors of racism, which it takes to the next level to create an amazing horror movie twist. The story is that a black man and his white girlfriend go to visit her parents. However, the parents seem to have black servants and it gets really awkward really fast.
The twist is that the parents are part of a organization that puts the minds of white people in black bodies. The servants are actually victims with the minds of the girls’ grandparents possessing them. That is absolutely horrifying.
The Visit
M Night Shymalan’s film twists typically were not so well done since The Sixth Sense. However, The Visit was a good hit. The plot centers on children living with their grandparents while their mom is off on a vacation. The children never met their grandparents before and quickly find their grandma and grandpa are unsettlingly off. They are weird and the kids go along with it, but its pretty uncomfortable and a little scary.
The twist is revealed when they are on a call with their mother. The mother reveals to them that she does not recognize the people from the photos that the kids are staying with. Those are not their grandparents. It turns out their real grandparents are dead in the basement and the people they are staying with are escaped mental patients.
Rosmary’s Baby
Rosmary’s Baby has a twist that has not been forgotten since it played on screens in 1968. It deals a lot with themes of paranoia, women’s liberation, the occult, and Christianity. It is a culturally significant film. The plot revolves around Rosmary, who gets pregnant and has a happy life with her husband. They befriend an old couple, and then everything gets weird. Her husband does not want her to visit a doctor anymore and becomes incredibly controlling. When she finally has her baby, she is told that it died and yet she hears crying beyond the walls.
The twist is that the old couple are part of a Satanic cult and made a deal with her husband to make him a successful actor if he lets them use Rosmary as a vessel for Satan’s baby. The cult took the baby in. Rosmary eventually reunites with her demon baby, and decides to raise it.
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