Genre movies are a lot of fun, but it’s hard to avoid predictability when there are tropes and conventions to follow. One way to have fun with genre tropes while keeping things fresh and subverting expectations is to mash up two different genres. This can either mean doing two genres at once, like an action-comedy or a sci-fi horror movie or starting out with one genre and taking a wild left turn into another halfway through the plot.
A prime example of the latter is From Dusk Till Dawn, which sets itself up as a crime movie and suddenly becomes a vampire-infested horror film at the midpoint.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
With a couple of criminal brothers taking a vacationing family hostage to get across the border into Mexico, From Dusk Till Dawn initially sets itself up as a road trip crime movie.
Then, at the border, when they’re waiting for their connection at a strip club, it suddenly turns into a vampire horror pic. All the strippers are revealed to be vampires and the story becomes a desperate fight for survival.
Sunshine (2007)
The 28 Days Later dream team of director Danny Boyle, screenwriter Alex Garland, and star Cillian Murphy reunited for Sunshine, a spacefaring psychological thriller set in the year 2057.
Garland’s script starts off as straight science fiction about space exploration, then makes the jarring, unnecessary shift to mediocre slasher in its third act.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Clint Eastwood’s critically acclaimed boxing movie Million Dollar Baby starts off as a female version of Rocky, but after a nasty spill onto an overturned stool, it becomes a harrowing drama about disability.
Hilary Swank gives one of the greatest performances of her career in this movie, while Morgan Freeman and Eastwood himself provide strong support.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Before helming the super-violent neo-noirs Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete, S. Craig Zahler made his directorial debut with Bone Tomahawk, starring Kurt Russell.
The movie begins as a straight Western but morphs into a grisly gore-fest as the characters run afoul of a murderous cult of cannibals in the wilderness.
Titanic (1997)
James Cameron originally only pitched a movie about the sinking of the Titanic because he wanted 20th Century Fox to pay for him to explore the wreckage of the ship, but it ended up becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time.
While Titanic starts off as a romantic drama about star-crossed lovers Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, it inevitably becomes a disaster movie when the iceberg hits.
Kill List (2011)
Ben Wheatley’s Kill List initially establishes itself as a hitman thriller about a couple of soldiers who return from war and become contract killers to get by. One of them is plagued with PTSD from a mission in Kyiv.
When the hitmen unwittingly butt heads with a ritualistic cult in the woods, Kill List becomes a harrowing horror tale in which killing for money is the least of the characters’ troubles.
Bullet In The Head (1990)
In its first half, Bullet in the Head is a typical John Woo action thriller about a bunch of Hong Kong gangsters who decide to move their criminal enterprise to Vietnam.
There, they get swept up in the Vietnam War and end up in a prison camp with some American soldiers. Suddenly, the movie turns into a dark psychological thriller along the lines of The Deer Hunter or Apocalypse Now.
The Cabin In The Woods (2011)
Drew Goddard’s directorial debut The Cabin in the Woods kicks things off with a very familiar premise as a bunch of college students drive out to an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere. At first, it seems like it’ll be a straight horror film following the same tropes that fans have seen a million times before.
However, in its second half, as it’s revealed that an underground facility is secretly controlling all the horror movie clichés besetting the cabin, it becomes a meta sci-fi movie.
Audition (1999)
Arguably Takashi Miike’s masterpiece, Audition is a horror classic that doesn’t start out like a horror film at all. Initially, it’s a melodramatic romance about a widower searching for a new wife at the behest of his son. With the help of his producer friend, he auditions women to find a new soulmate.
However, as his sinister new lover’s jealous streak rears its head and her dark secrets are revealed, Audition quickly devolves into an intense gory horror thriller.
Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock famously refused to allow any moviegoers into screenings of Psycho after the film had begun. In order to get the full effect of Hitchcock’s twisty thriller – arguably the greatest film of his career, which is saying a lot since he’s got over a dozen unequivocal masterpieces under his belt – audiences need to see every second of it.
After being set up as a suspenseful crime story about embezzlement as Janet Leigh runs away with her boss’ money, Psycho suddenly turns into the first-ever slasher with the iconic midpoint shower murder.