Horror films tap into the greatest fears of the human psyche. Amongst them are fears of passion, fears of the body, and anxieties of suffering. But the greatest fear many viewers experience is the unknown and unpredictability. One method horror films attempt to showcase such ideas is the classic twist ending. In horror, twist endings can make all the difference between a good scary movie and a great one.
They’re the endings that cement the central ideas of what the film is attempting to say, or they’re the final piece of a big puzzle the audience has been trying to put together. They range from horrifying to satisfying, or much of the time, both.
You’re Next (2011)
This home invasion begins more like a family drama, with a couple celebrating their 35th anniversary together while inviting their dysfunctional grown children to join them. As the family begins celebrating, their home is invaded by strangers in animal masks out for blood. Thankfully, house guest Erin is trained in combat, allowing herself to survive the night.
Two of the siblings are suddenly revealed to be the true masterminds behind the attack, intending for their family to die, so they can get the inheritance. It’s a somewhat less complex motive than other slashers or horror villains, but also one too close to actual crimes.
Orphan (2009)
Kate and John adopt a nine-year-old Russian girl named Esther. While she seems like the perfect daughter, Esther soon begins to exhibit disturbing behavior. The family looks into her background and finds that the orphanage she claimed to belong to never heard of her.
As her actions become more violent and creepy, the family soon discovers the truth. Esther is not her real name; she isn’t a child and is, in reality, a 33-year-old escaped mental patient who has killed dozens of people. Now the family has to stop her before it’s too late.
The Others (2001)
The Sixth Sense may have pulled the “dead all along” twist beforehand, but The Others may have been the film that perfected it. Nicole Kidman plays Grace Stewart, the mother of two children allergic to sunlight, and begins to suspect ghosts haunt the house.
It turns out the “ghosts” are really living people, and she and her kids have been the real ghosts after Grace killed her kids and killed herself. They come to terms with their situation and continue haunting their home together. It’s both creepy and strangely heart-warming.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
This remake is a masterpiece in paranoia and isolation. To escape their dying world, an alien race of organic beings begin to colonize the earth by duplicating humans into blank, emotionless copies of themselves to appear normal. Matthew Bennell and his colleagues discover the invasion and are picked off one by one as the terror of the pod people grows.
By the end, it seems only Matthew and his friend Nancy have survived and burned down the aliens’ plant supply. When Nancy goes to greet him, Matthew emits an inhuman howl. He has been converted, and Nancy can only scream in terror as the credits roll in silence.
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Much like Body Snatchers, this film works as a piece of paranoid sci-fi horror, albeit one with a more feminist twist. Joanna and her family have moved into the small town of Stepford, Connecticut, wherein the women are unnervingly subservient to their husbands. She makes friends with Bobbie, someone just as rebellious as she is, only to soon find her acting just like all the other girls in town.
Upon further investigation, Joanna discovers that all the women in Stepford have been killed by the men and replaced with robotic replicas designed to act as the ideal women for their husbands – and Joanna is next.
Friday the 13th (1980)
The twist is more shocking if one has never seen any of these films. When viewers watch Friday the 13th, they expect to see Jason Voorhees wearing a hockey mask, killing teenagers at a summer camp. The audience gets that except for one key detail – instead of Jason, it’s his mother, Pamela, who’s the killer.
She’s out for revenge against everyone who comes to the camp after her son drowned in the lake years ago. Once final girl Alice dispatches her, she takes a canoe out to the lake. Everything seems peaceful when suddenly a horribly decomposed Jason leaps out of the lake, dragging her underwater. It may have been a dream sequence, but Jason was in the movie after all.
Little Shop of Horrors: Director's Cut (1986)
This horror-comedy classic revolves around a flower shop worker named Seymour, who reluctantly raises a plant that feeds on human flesh. In the theatrical ending, Seymour saves his crush Audrey from the plant, fights it, and destroys it, leaving the two lovebirds to live happily ever after.
But in the original director’s cut ending, the plant wins, eating Seymour and Audrey alive. It allows cuttings of itself to be sold worldwide, and they destroy NYC and eat all humankind, even bursting through the movie screen to swallow the camera. It is a complete shock to those expecting a musical comedy with a quirk.
Don’t Look Now (1973)
This 70s thriller is a slow burn, but the final revelations are as shocking as ever. John Baxter and his wife take a trip to Venice after the death of their daughter Christine. A clairvoyant tells them that she is attempting to warn them of danger, as John repeatedly has disturbing visions and sees what appears to be a young girl wearing Christine’s raincoat.
He finally approaches her, only to find she is a totally different being entirely who then slashes his throat with a meat cleaver. As he dies, he realizes the visions he had were a warning of his own death.
The Wicker Man (1973)
Many people are slightly more familiar with the infamous Nicolas Cage remake, but the original film is a truly disturbing masterpiece. Police Sergeant Neil Howie visits a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Unfortunately, he finds that the village is not only denying the girl even existed but also that the island’s leaders have manipulated the residents into adopting a pagan lifestyle.
He realizes the girl may be intended for a ritual sacrifice and tries to save her. In the end, he is told she was never the intended sacrifice – he is. Howie is then burned alive inside a giant wicker man statue as the villagers sing in celebration.