Horror films have certain expectations for them, no matter what type of horror movie it is (slasher, supernatural, demonic, or other). These expectations range from gore, death scenes, jump scares, monsters, and even one-liners.
Another great expectation is the twist ending where the story takes its audience in one direction but can access a 180-degree turn during the climax and shock and surprise those viewing the film, prompting some visceral reactions. Whether they make sense or not, one thing is for sure: twist endings are part of the process and are indeed highly entertaining.
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
A fantastic slasher was debuted in the 80s called Sleepaway Camp that spawned two sequels and was forever imprinted in the minds and souls of horror fans due to a variety of reasons, though mainly for it's crazy twist ending that left everything hanging in the air.
The film focuses on a summer camp where the teenage Angela and her cousin Ricky head to spend their summer vacation with friends. Angela is shy and quiet due to her trauma of watching her father and twin brother killed in a boating accident some years before but has now lived with her aunt and cousin Ricky. At camp, she is bullied by almost everyone, but kids and counselors start turning up brutally murdered.
The big twist is revealed when they discover Angela is the killer with a knife in her hand, but it doesn't stop there. The whole time, Angela is actually her brother, Peter, who was brought up as a girl after his death by her crazy aunt.
Saw (2004)
Even though the sequels drifted into a mindless and stale arena of torture gore sequences, void of any real story, James Wan conjured up one of the most brilliant and scariest films at the turn of the century called Saw that cemented a brand new horror icon to instant cult status with Jigsaw. The film also had an excellent twist ending that nobody saw coming.
The film centers on two gentlemen who awaken chained to bathroom equipment inside a dank, disgusting warehouse room with a dead man lying in his own blood in the middle of the floor. These two men are forced to play a series of games and riddles in order to survive before the clock runs out. It's an inventive film for sure that spawned many sequels, but the twist at the end has the dead guy in the center waking up, being perfectly healthy, and revealing he was the mastermind behind the entire plot.
High Tension (2003)
In 2003, France released a horror slasher titled High Tension that was violent, incredibly gory, and thrilling on all levels. Additionally, the film had one of the craziest and unbelievable twist endings that fans still argue about today.
High Tension follows the friendship between two women named Alex and Marie who are suddenly stalked and chased after by a sadistic maniac. Blood, bones, and guts fly everywhere. The non-sensical twist ending reveals that Marie is the killer, which doesn't make sense from everything that comes before it. However, it was so shocking that mouths were left on the ground after the credits rolled.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
George Romero created an entire genre in the 1960s with Night of the Living Dead that centered on the dead coming back to life as mindless cannibals, eating anyone who got near them. These undead flesh-eaters sparked a whole new horror genre with the invention of the zombie that has created countless films, tv shows, and comic books.
The film follows a group of survivors over the course of a night, fighting off hordes of the undead. As the story goes on, the humans might be more dangerous to one another than the zombies themselves. The mighty and heroic character Ben is the lone survivor by the end, but he is shot dead by some gun-toting farmers, mistaking him for a zombie.
Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchock struck gold in the late 1950s with his film adaptation of Pyscho that changed the horror landscape forever, which came with a big twist ending. Hitchcock was a master of suspense, thrills, and storytelling on screen, telling the tale of Norman Bates, a man who ran a motel and murdered people.
The film was loosely based on serial killer Ed Gein for a variety of reasons, but the big twist was that Norman did his evil deed under the disguise of his dead mother that has been rotting on location for a good while.
April Fool's Day (1986)
If the title April Fool's Day means anything, audiences back in 1986 were in for a fun surprise. In the height of the slasher genre, this holiday-themed film has a group of college friends headed to a classmate's summer estate for a week of debauchery and fun. Shortly after arrival, the college kids are killed one by one in gruesome fashion as the remaining survivors try to figure out who the killer is, which turns out to be the owner of the house named Muffy.
Once the lone survivor is fighting for her life, she runs into the living room to reveal all the murdered friends alive and well, laughing and joking to them all yelling in unison, "April Fools." Ridiculous, to say the least.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
M. Night Shyamalan won over the planet when he burst on the scene with his first feature film The Sixth Sense that had audiences stating he was the next Spielberg. With Bruce Willis and Toni Collette on the scene, this eerie film centered on a young little boy who could see dead people and ghosts that would haunt him and those around him.
Willis played a detective who is working with this little boy on unsolved crimes, but, in the end, it's revealed that Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time as it flashes back on all his sequences with other people. It was a milestone in filmmaking and storytelling, lifting up the twist ending into the spotlight forever.
The Others (2001)
A wonderful haunted house film titled The Others was released in 2001, starring Nicole Kidman that had a certain gothic chill and some genuine scares to go with it. The film centers on a woman and her two children who have a sensitivity to sunlight and are awaiting their father to come home from the war but maintain their large estate with the help of three servants.
As the film plays out, a ton of horrifying hauntings and ghosts reveal themselves and seem sinister, but, in the end, the twist is that the whole family and servants are the ghosts, with another family trying to contact them after they moved into their home.
The Visit (2015)
After a few films put M. Night Shyamalan into filmmaker time-out, the man directed a film on an extremely low budget called The Visit that was a great mix of comedy and horror which came with his signature twist.
The movie follows a pair of young siblings who set out to meet their grandparents for the first time across the country. All seems perfect and happy with the hikes and cookie baking, but the situation intensifies when the grandparents start acting violent and strange, which is then revealed that they are not, in fact, the real grandparents at all, but rather escaped mental patients trying to kill the children.
Orphan (2009)
A wonderfully scary film, Orphan truly had a twist ending that left audiences in shock. Following the tragic death of their unborn baby, a couple set their sights on adoption and find solace and happiness with a little girl named Esther. After a short-while living together, sinister and dangerous occurrences start happening, thus leading to the two big twists of the film.
Esther is the source and conjurer of these sadistic sequences in addition to being a 33-year-old lady and not the young girl she is pretending to be due to a hormone disorder that prevents her from growing.