Top 20 MORE Horror Movie Plot Twists

“Sleepy Hollow” (1999)
We all probably heard “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” as kids. But that didn’t stop us from being shocked by the plot twist in Tim Burton’s 1999 adaptation of the short story. In the film, Ichabod Crane is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders. Halfway through the movie, Lady Van Tassel, the stepmother of Ichabod’s love interest, is decapitated by the Headless Horseman. Or is she? Lady Van Tassel faked her own death and is the reason this whole beheading business started in the first place. Her revenge plot necessitated a bit of murder, and she made a deal with Satan to get her way.

“Secret Window” (2004)
“Secret Window” takes the idea of just how crazy writer's block can make you and builds on it tenfold. In the movie, Mort Rainey heads to a remote cabin to work on his book after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. When a strange man shows up at the cabin accusing Mort of plagiarism, his quiet vacation away suddenly turns murderous. But dead dogs and arson aren’t the craziest things that happen in “Secret Window.” The strange man wasn’t a man at all, but a figment of Mort’s imagination. He made up a separate personality to deal with his desire to murder the wife who cheated on him. As you might guess, that hidden desire eventually becomes a reality.

“Kill List” (2011)
If you missed one of the strangest and most upsetting horror movies of the last 20 years, don’t worry. You’re not alone. “Kill List” didn’t even make back its $800,000 at the box office, but the folks who did see it experienced a wild ride. The movie follows Gal and Jay, two British military guys turned hitmen who take on a contract that ends up proving disastrous. “Kill List” doesn’t have just one big twist at the end. It’s more of a slow burn with multiple twists along the way, and a plethora of gory, disgusting horror to boot. The violence will leave even the most strong-stomached reeling, and the end will leave you gobsmacked.

“Happy Death Day” (2017)
“Groundhog Day,” but make it horror. “Happy Death Day” is a fun, twisty romp of a horror movie. It centers around a girl named Tree who is stuck in a time loop where she is murdered by a masked stranger before waking back up at the start of the day. She eventually begins using her situation to identify her killer. She eventually does, believing him to be a serial killer on the loose. After she kills her would-be killer, she celebrates with a cupcake from her roommate Lori and goes to bed… only to wake up still in the loop. The cupcake was poisoned, and Lori was trying to kill her the entire time. Talk about a bad roommate.

“The Boy” (2016)
Little children in horror movies are scary enough. But little doll children? Yeah, count us out. In 2016’s “The Boy,” Greta travels to the United Kingdom to be a nanny to an elderly couple and their 8-year-old son Brahms. Turns out, however, Brahms is not a human child at all, but a porcelain doll the couple treats as though he were alive. As strange events begin to happen around the house, Greta starts to believe that the doll does have a human spirit. But when someone smashes the doll, the truth comes out. The real Brahms, who died in a fire decades ago, had been living in the walls of the house controlling the actions of the doll the whole time.

“Insidious” (2010)
The things that happen to us as children really do follow us to adulthood, don’t they? “Insidious” explores that theme of lingering childhood trauma and takes it to its natural, twisty conclusion. When they discover that their son Dalton can astral project and is being possessed by demons, parents Josh and Renai learn something terrifying about Josh’s own past. He has the same ability as Dalton, and when he was a child, he was tormented by the ghost of a terrifying old woman. Josh has to face the old woman again to save Dalton, and once he does, it seems like everything is fine. But at the last moment, we learn that Josh didn’t win. Possessed by the old lady, his reign of terror begins.

“10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016)
What would you do if you woke up chained in a room with some guy you’ve never met telling you that you can’t leave because of the poisonous air outside? Would you believe that guy? That’s the central question that “10 Cloverfield Lane” puts forth. After a car accident, Michelle wakes up to find herself in an underground bunker, with only her captor and his assistant for company. Her captor, Howard, insists that a world-changing event is underway and she cannot leave the bunker. Michelle doesn’t trust him, and as an audience member, it's doubtful whether we should either. Michelle eventually escapes … and comes to learn that Howard was 100% right. Also, aliens exist.

“Fallen” (1998)
“Fallen” begins with Detective John Hobbes telling us about the time that he almost died. Or so we think. This Denzel Washington supernatural horror film takes themes of possession to the world of police work. The voiceover at the beginning of the film is said in Washington’s voice, so as we watch Hobbes investigate a series of occult killings, we think he is the narrator. The killer is revealed to be a demon named Azazel, who can possess most human bodies. In the end, we think that Hobbes has overcome Azazel, concluding the story of how he almost died. But no! The voice that’s been speaking has actually been Azazel the entire time. The demon didn’t die, taking over a nearby cat. Purr!

“Drag Me to Hell” (2009)
You can’t always get what you want. Sometimes, what you get is a giant hand dragging you straight to hell. In Sam Raimi’s 2009 comedy horror masterpiece, happy endings are not in the cards. But that doesn’t stop you from hoping that maybe, just maybe, our protagonist will get away from the cursed button that haunts her. Christine’s curse involves a three-day torment before a demon drags her down to the fiery pits below. But at the end of the film, you do really believe that she’s figured out how to beat it. It’s only when her boyfriend attempts to propose to her, and gives her back her cursed button in the process, that we realize that she has actually lost.

“Final Destination 5” (2011)
“Final Destination 5” mainly follows the characters of Sam and Molly as they try to outrun the inevitability of death. The plot takes them through bridge collapses, meat spits, and more before they believe that they have finally survived. At the end of the film, they end up on a plane. Volée Airlines Flight 180, to be exact. Onboard, Sam overhears a flight attendant telling someone that a passenger who was removed from the flight said they had a premonition that the plane would explode. This is, of course, Alex, the main character from the first “Final Destination” movie. A surprise prequel is the best kind of prequel!

“Life” (2017)
When “Life” came out in 2017, it didn’t necessarily receive rave reviews from critics or audiences. But this sci-fi, light horror film deserves a second look, in particular for the way it handles its last act. Toward the end of the film, only two members of a crew sent to investigate life on Mars are left. David and Miranda are fighting against a dangerous alien life form. They decide David will kill the alien in space, and Miranda will return to Earth. A pod crashes on Earth. It turns out to be David and the alien instead of Miranda. The last thing we’re left with is David pleading with the people who find him not to open the door and unleash the alien’s havoc.

“Goodnight Mommy” (2014)
A clever movie twist is one that fools you in the moment, but opens up the world of the movie once you understand what has been going on. And “Goodnight Mommy” has one of the cleverest, saddest twists of the last 20 years. The movie centers around twins Elias and Lukas who become convinced their mother is not their mother after she returns from surgery wrapped in bandages. Strange events lead them to trap the mother in the house and threaten to burn it down. The mother then reveals to Elias that Lukas died in an accident before the film’s beginning, and Elias has been hallucinating him the entire time. The reveal changes every idea you have about each character and makes you reconsider everything.

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920)
If you’re going to dip into the world of silent cinema, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is a wonderfully twisted place to start. The movie functions as a long flashback, as a man named Francis tells the story of a hypnotist named Dr. Caligari who manipulates a man with a sleep disorder into committing murders. The story ends with Dr. Caligari confined to an insane asylum, but that’s not the real ending. After the story, we learn that Francis, our very own narrator, is actually the true madman. Dr. Caligari is the asylum director, and Francis is the patient actually living in the fictional Caligari’s cell.

“Les Diaboliques” (1955)
Obviously “Psycho” is one of the most important horror films of the last century. But what about the film that helped inspire “Psycho?” At first, the 1955 French film “Les Diaboliques” seems to be about two women, a wife and a mistress, who band together to kill the man who causes them both so much pain. But the crime at the center of “Les Diaboliques” turns out to be much more sinister. The husband, who we believe to be dead fairly early on in the film, actually never dies at all. The truth is that he and the mistress have concocted a twisted plan to torment the fragile wife to death. Diabolical, indeed.

“Barbarian” (2022)
When it comes to twists that blew our minds, “Barbarian” is near the top of the list. Zach Cregger’s wild ride of a film starts out like a regular horror movie, but quickly changes gear. When Tess arrives at her Airbnb to find it booked by a man named Keith, we think we see where things are going. But despite everything we know about horror movie tropes, Keith isn’t actually the villain here. The twist comes when Tess follows Keith down into the bowels of the home’s basement. She finds Keith, but she also finds a naked, terrifying-looking woman simply known as Mother. The film immediately smash cuts to Justin Long of all people, leaving us to wonder what just happened.

“A Tale of Two Sisters” (2003)
The secret ghost is a well-worn horror trope, from “The Others” to “The Sixth Sense.” But it takes a smart movie to do the trope well. “A Tale of Two Sisters” is one of the better films to do it. At the beginning of the film, Su-mi leaves a mental institution and heads home to her father, stepmother, and sister Su-yeon. The family’s dynamics are complex and often terrifying, but not as terrifying as the reveal that comes towards the film’s end. Su-mi learns that she has dissociative identity disorder and that her sister Su-Yeon is a figment of her imagination. Su-yeon has been a ghost the whole time.

“The Witch” (2015)
Throughout the course of “The Witch,” we’re left wondering what’s real and what’s not. But in the end, writer/director Robert Eggers lets us know exactly what to believe. The film follows a family who is banished from a Puritan settlement, after which strange, possibly witch-induced events begin to occur. Furthermore, the young twins of the family start to say that the goat, Black Phillip, is speaking to them. We’re led to believe that the twins might be making this up, until the very end of the movie. Black Phillip materializes into the devil while speaking to the family’s eldest child, inviting her to live deliciously.

“American Psycho” (2000)
Investment banker, serial killer. What’s the difference, really? Not much, when it comes to “American Psycho.” Throughout this 2000 satirical horror masterpiece, Patrick Bateman tortures and kills a number of people in brutal ways. One of these people is his colleague Paul Allen, who he murders with an ax. But toward the end, as Patrick tries to confess to his murder spree, we learn that Allen is actually alive. Patrick might have never actually killed anyone, and has been hallucinating his crimes for the entirety of the movie. This twist drives home the film’s commentary on yuppie culture and toxic masculinity.

“Jacob’s Ladder” (1990)
When it comes to war movies, horror goes hand in hand. And the 1990 film “Jacob’s Ladder” really drives that comparison home. The film stars Tim Robbins as Jacob, a Vietnam War vet, and flashes back and forth between his life during and after his service. A number of strange, disturbing events occur throughout the film, leading to the most terrifying reveal of all. We learn that due to a military experiment gone wrong, Jacob was killed by friendly fire. Everything that we’ve seen after his time in Vietnam has been some hallucinatory, horrifying fever dream.

“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)
Throughout “Rosemary’s Baby,” Rosemary starts to suspect that her neighbors belong to a Satanic cult that wants to use her unborn child for evil. She’s almost there, but not quite. This 1968 horror flick is one of the very best, and its twisted ending is one of the reasons why. After Rosemary gives birth, she’s told that her baby was stillborn. But in the last scene, she discovers not only that her baby is alive, but that her husband Guy is not the father. When she discovers a Satanic cult honoring her child, she notices that he has unusual eyes. The Devil’s eyes, one might say. Rosemary has given birth to the Antichrist.