Top 10 twists in a horror movie.
Everyone loves a good twist. Here are my choices for some of the best twists ever in a horror movie. Remember, SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
1). April Fools Day.
Twist - Muffy, a wealthy college student invites her college friends up to her mansion which sits on a private island over Spring Break. The weekend starts off harmless at first with lots of joking and teasing. It isn't long before one of the pranks results in someone getting hurt. That's when Muffy the following morning begins acting strange and people start going missing one by one. As the remaining guests try to piece together the clues they learn that Muffy has a twin sister Buffy who escaped a mental hospital and has been killing them. After a very suspenseful chase around the mansion, the two survivors stumble into the pallor where all of their dead friends are sitting around drinking. Here "Buffy" who's really Muffy reveals a plastic knife. It seems that in order for her to inherit her father's house, she needs to prove she can support herself on her own. Brainstorming, she decides to turn the mansion into a bed and breakfast where she'll host a mystery weekend. Needing to do a test run, her along with a few of the locals set the entire thing up. Nobody was killed, and best of all everyone was able to scream "April Fools!" when the truth was revealed. I don't know about you but I would be completely bullshit.
2). When A Stranger Calls Back.
Twist - As much as I do like the twist/opening of the original, I'm going to have to go all the way with it's made for TV sequel which in my eyes is a million times better. A young babysitter is working late one night and hears a knock at the front door. Unable to see out, she doesn't open up and asks who is it. A man's voice comes from the other side telling her he's broken down a few streets away and she was the only person who's answered. He needs someone to call a tow-truck for him. Figuring it wouldn't do any harm, she tries the phone only to find it dead. Not wanting to let the stranger know outside, she lies and tells him she's called and it might take a while. He thanks her and leaves. Later that night he returns, knocking again and telling her they never came. Frustrated, the babysitter lies and says she'll call again. That's when the man's voice asks if she's alone. He tells her he saw somebody moving around upstairs. Frightened, she goes upstairs to find the children missing. In complete panic she runs downstairs when she starts hearing the man's voice call her by name that's when a figure in the dark starts moving towards her. Escaping barely, she can't figure out how the man outside could have gotten in, most of all when she heard him speak outside the door. Years pass, and the children remain missing. Haunted by that night, she tries to pick up the pieces of her life away at college. That's until she begins to notice late at night somebody has been inside her third floor apartment. Seeking out for help by the police and a survivor from the original film (who works as a councilor at her college) she's attacked and everyone is left clueless. Racking their brains they just can't figure out how this man could be in two places at once. Finally, in one of the scariest endings ever, the councilor returns home to her loft to find the power out. There she starts to hear her name. Unable to find the source, she runs around before finally it's revealed the man who's doing this has a huge talent in staking out the houses he's going to break in ahead of time. Choosing a wall, taking multiple photographs and painting himself up like whatever background he'll be standing in front of, blending in perfectly. Using his talent as a ventriloquist to throw his voice (sounds crazy, but is completely terrifying when his big eyes open up as he's painted like bricks and pipes)
3). Black Christmas.
Twist - I decided to choose this film over the original When A Stranger Calls because I honestly feel this film did it better. Black Christmas tells the tale of a sorority house around the holidays who has been receiving strange sexual phone calls for the last few weeks. The night of the girl's Christmas party before everyone leaves for break a person climbs up the side of the house and breaks into the attic. There they climb down the attic ladder and go inside one of the girl's closets. Killing one of them, and going completely unnoticed after everyone has gone to bed, they drag the body up to the attic where they pose the corpse like a doll. The following morning the girl's father becomes worried when she doesn't meet him where they planned. A few hours go by and everyone becomes concerned when a little girl from town goes missing as well. Calling a search party they look everywhere only to find the young girl's body in the park. Jess, one of the sorority sisters becomes worries. Not only is she wondering where her friends have gone, she's also dealing with a rather personal issue involving her boyfriend who doesn't want her to get an abortion when she revealed to him she was pregnant and planning on not keeping the baby. Still receiving the haunting phone calls, the police decide to tap the house's phones and see where exactly these calls are coming from and if they have anything to do with the little girl's murder and the other girl's disappearance. As more sisters go missing in the house, one by one, Jess awaits by the phone. Finally one of the police officers call her telling her they traced the calls and what they want her to do is to hang up and leave the house right away. When Jess says she just needs to wake her friends up (who have all ready been murdered) they police officer panics over the line and tells her that the killer has been making the calls from the house mother's room (on a separate line). Terrified, she begins to scream for her friends to answer her. When there's no reply, she slowly goes up the stairs and checks one of the first rooms. There she finds their bloody courses stacked up on one of the mattresses. There the killer comes jumping out from behind the door screaming and yelling. Barley escaping she hides down in the basement where low and behold her boyfriend shows up just in time. Believing that it was him who's been responsible for the murders she attacks and kills him just as the police arrive. Later that night, she's sedated and left in her room. Due to an emergency, everyone hurries out leaving Jess behind (great job boys) as Jess lays sleeping we hear the phone begin to ring as the killer, still alive and uncaught sits up in the attic with the undiscovered bodies.
4) Identity
Twist - Several strangers are stuck at an old highway side motel during a rain storm which has flooded the highway. After an accident, they all gather together when the guests begin getting murdered one by one by an unseen killer. Trying to band together to figure out who's exactly responsible, the film's lead character (played wonderful by John Cusack, who I believe this was honestly one of his last truly amazing roles) makes two large connections. All of the guests share the same birthday, and all of their last names are states. That's when he awakes to find himself handcuffed to a chair surrounded by police officers and doctors. Here the doctors inform him that he isn't who he thinks he is. In fact, he's a deeply disturbed serial killer who suffers from multiple personality disorder and sentenced to death. The doctors have been working on having all of his personalities meet up where the crazy one will begin picking off the other ones. Here they have a plan. Have one of the personalities kill the violent one to prove to the state he's no longer a threat to society. Here the remaining personalities return to the motel during the storm, having to figure out which one is doing the killings or it's the end for all of them.
5). The Mist
Twist - After a really bad storm a father and son go to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies. Out of nowhere the town siren goes on and a man comes running inside bleeding and frightened screaming that something is in the mist! There strange massive creatures come out of the mist attacking and killing anyone who escapes. Trapped inside the supermarket, the town's people have to defend themselves. Days pass and the body count begins to build as everyone starts to turn on each other. Deciding now or never, the father, son, and a few others barley escape in a truck. Riding for hours, they pass more creatures before the truck runs out of gas. Giving up, they decide better to use the last of the bullets on themselves instead of starving to death or having these monsters outside kill them. There the father kills his son and friends, and finds the gun out of bullets. Legit seconds later the mist disappears and the army comes rolling down the road. Had he just waited a minute, they would of all been saved. The film leaves us with the haunting image of him kneeling, crying out, and now having to live with what he's done.
6). Sleepaway Camp
Twist - The biggest twist in the entire list goes to the highly underrated slasher from 1983. Years ago a terrible boating accident claimed the life's of a single father, and one of his young twins. Eight plus years later, the twin is a shy awkward teenage girl named Angela who's going to summer camp for the first time ever with her cousin Ricky. Raised by aunt who's a doctor, she's lived as a shut-in ever since her twin brother Peter, and father were killed. Once she arrives at camp, the teasing begins. She's terrified of the water, and rarely talks. That's when the accidents begin. A drowning, a camper stung to death by bees, a cook burnt with hot boiling water, ect. As more campers are sent home, a rumor starts to spread that these accidents aren't accidents at all. That there's really a killer stalking the woods. Finally one night, there's a massacre and several campers as well as the councilors are murdered. Angela sneaks off to the beach where she decides to finally go all the way with her new boyfriend Paul. Slowly she begins to undress. Minutes later, two councilors who are trying to round up the kids as the police arrive hear humming. Seeing the back of Angela sitting naked, they approach calling her name. There a flashback is revealed, showing that Angela didn't survive the boating accident, it was actually Peter the male twin that lived. It seems that the aunt was a wee bit crazy and wanted a little girl so badly that she raised Peter as his dead twin sister. Just then, Angela...or Peter, or whatever the fuck his name is jumps up hissing, the boyfriend's head rolling off into the sand. Here the councilors stand stunned saying "How can it be? Oh my God she's a boy!" Here we see in all his glory, that Angela...is in fact a boy.
7). Saw
Twist - Two men wake up chained in a dirty bathroom with little to no memory on how they got there. Inside the room there's a dead corpse between them. Struggling to free themselves, they discover tapes and a tape recorder. Here the voice of Jigsaw, a serial killer who's famous in the area informs them that one of them a doctor needs to kill the other man Adam in less than a few hours or his wife and daughter will be killed. There in the room is a gun with one bullet, and two saws that won't break the chains. Here they figure out that Jigsaw doesn't want them to use the saw to break the chains, but to saw through their own legs. With the clock ticking, they keep trying to figure out how to escape. As time passes they slowly remember how they were kidnapped, and what connects the two of them. In the end, the doctor panics and cuts his own foot off to escape. Bleeding to death, and frightened for his own family he points the gun to Adam who begs for his life. Shooting him in the shoulder, he nearly collapses. At the end of the film, the doctor tells Adam who's bleeding that he needs to go get help or both will die. Left alone, Adam finds out the man they believed was Jigsaw was actually another victim in this dark and twisted game. Here, the corpse in the middle of the room rises as Adam (played by the ever so awesome Leigh Whannell, who wrote this film) watches in horror. Trapped in the room, he screams reaching out as Jigsaw shouts "Game over!" before slamming the door shut and leaving him to die.
8). Psycho
Twist - A young bank teller steals a great deal of money in hopes to start a new life with her boyfriend. As she drives down a lone highway, she has a change of heart and decided tomorrow she'll go back home and give the money back. It begins to rain and she's forced to pull over to a small motel run by a very awkward and strange young man named Norman. The two have dinner together where she overhears his mother shouting at Norman who sits in her bedroom window at the house that overlooks the motel. As they eat Norman apologizes, saying his mother isn't well. When the young woman tries to offer her advice in maybe sending her someplace to be cared for, Norman becomes unnerved and states that a boy's best friend is his mother. After they part ways for the night, she decides to relax and take a nice hot shower. While she's in the bathtub, a woman breaks in and stabs her to death. Moments later from the house we hear Norman's cries "Mother! Blood! Blood!" Rushing down he finds the body. Hiding the car and body, we see this isn't the first time Norman has had to clean up after his crazy mother. Days pass, and the young woman's sister becomes concerned when the police inform her about the money being stolen and her disappearing. Connecting her boyfriend who hasn't heard from her, they await word on a P.I who lands up at the motel and questions Norman who acts strangely. Returning later that night, the P.I sneaks inside the house only to be attacked by the woman again and brutal stabbed. Feeling uneasy, the sister and boyfriend decide to go out to the motel the next morning when they don't hear anything from the P.I. There they pose as a married couple. Once Norman is distracted, the sister goes up to the main house hoping to question Norman's mother. Hiding in the basement, she sees the old woman sitting in a rocking chair. When she touches her shoulder, the chair swings to the side, revealing a rotting corpse. There Norman, dressed in a housecoat and wig runs out of nowhere with a knife only to be stopped by the boyfriend. Later the police inform them that Norman's mother died years ago and he must have stolen the corpse, dressing up as her and committing murder. The story continues even more in the awesome and highly underrated sequel.
9) Frailty
Twist - A man one night walks into the police station and informs one of the officers that he knows who's been responsible for a series of brutal murders around the area. There he sits down and tells the tale back in the late 1970's where he lived with his younger brother and father behind a beautiful rose garden. They all lived a peaceful happy life until one night their father woke them, saying he had a vision from God. That God informed him that there were demons that lived on this Earth, that hid as humans and that he sent him a list of demons that they were supposed to destroy. The older brother can't believe his ears, thinking his father has had a mental breakdown. Still, his younger brother believes his father and one night they are woken up again by their father with an axe. There he leads them into the woodshed where a man is tied up, struggling for his life. The father touches him and says he saw what horrible things he did and murders him before his stunned children's eyes. This happens several more times and finally the older brother has had enough, begging his younger brother to run away with him. The little brother tells him that their father isn't lying, that every time their father touches one of the demons, he has visions to. Thinking his brother has been brain washed, he tries going to the sheriff only to lead him to the house and have his father kill him. Afterwards, the father tells him this is the first person he's ever killed. When the brother tries asking him about all of the other people he explains that they were demons. That he had another vision from God saying he was a demon to, and that he's going to do everything in his power to make him believe and not become one. At the very end, the older brother tells his father that he finally believes him, only to have him murder him. At the end we learn that the father wasn't crazy at all. He really was killing demons, all people who had committed murder and that one day his very son would grow up to be the serial killer. There's more to this twist which truly makes you scratch your head, but by far one of the best twists and endings I've ever seen in a horror movie.
10) The Other.
Twist - In the 1930's, young Niles and his brother Holland play a special game with their grandmother. Living on a farm, they are each other's best friends and sneak around constantly. Years ago after their father's death, their mother suffered a nervous breakdown and now is taken care of by her family members. Accidents begin to happen around the farm, and Niles begins to suspect it's his twin brother who's been causing all of this to happen. At the very end the boy's mother discovers a family ring that Niles carries around with him, that he claims Holland had given to him. Horrified, she falls backwards down a flight of stairs. As more accidents happen, the grandmother tells Niles enough is enough. He's played the game and now it's time to wake up to the fact that his twin brother died years ago. That Holland is just part of his mind, and that it's him who's been causing these accidents, not his brother. Frustrated, believing she's lying, Niles continues living his fantasy until one night his young niece, who's just a few months old goes missing. A search party goes everywhere, searching for the infant only to find the baby stuffed in a jar of water. Knowing he has to be stopped, the grandmother goes to trap Niles in a barn and set it on fire, only to get trapped herself and have the entire place burn down. At the very end it's revealed that Niles survived and continues to kill.
Thoughts? What am I missing?
