These days, the horror genre is brimming with surprises and unexpected turns. It’s as if every film is striving to recreate the jaw-dropping moments that made movies like Saw or The Others legendary. But let’s face it, discovering mind-bending twists is no walk in the park.
So, how do the horror flicks of the past decade stack up when it comes to shocking plot twists? Get ready, because we’ve compiled a list of the absolute best. And let us tell you, there are plenty of modern horror films that would make their predecessors green with envy.
But, fair warning, dear reader – we’re about to delve into spoiler territory. Proceed at your own risk as we discuss the twists that left us gobsmacked, making us question everything we thought we knew.
1. Don’t Breathe
In the 2016 film Don’t Breathe, the main character Rocky, a young woman from Detroit, is desperate for money to escape her abusive mother and provide a better future for her and her sister. She resorts to robbing houses with her boyfriend Money and friend Alex. Money tells them about a blind Gulf War veteran named Norman Nordstrom, who supposedly received a large cash settlement due to his daughter’s accidental death caused by a wealthy woman named Cindy Roberts.
Although Rocky and Alex have reservations about robbing a blind veteran who has suffered a tragic loss, they agree to the plan. They break into Nordstrom’s house, expecting to find the cash in the locked basement. However, their actions wake Nordstrom, and he confronts them, killing Money. Unsure of the number of intruders in his home, Nordstrom becomes paranoid and secures the house, while Rocky and Alex try to stay quiet and escape.
They stumble upon a horrifying scene in the basement – a pregnant Cindy Roberts restrained and gagged. Rocky and Alex manage to free her and attempt to flee, but Nordstrom catches up to them and accidentally shoots Cindy, causing her death. Devastated by this turn of events, they try to escape again, but Alex is incapacitated, and Rocky is captured.
The shocking twist that completely changes the course of the film occurs when Rocky wakes up restrained in the basement with Nordstrom. He reveals that Cindy was carrying his “replacement” daughter and plans to artificially inseminate Rocky with a turkey baster. He promises to release her once she bears a child.
Throughout the film, it becomes challenging to determine which side to support. The main characters are thieves, but we sympathize with Rocky’s desperate situation. On the other hand, the antagonist initially appears to be a harmless blind veteran protecting himself, but his actions involving Cindy’s forced pregnancy and captivity, as well as his intentions towards Rocky, are deeply unsettling.
2. Fresh
Online dating can really take a toll on you, and Noa from the movie Fresh knows this all too well. She’s had her fair share of unpleasant encounters with rude men on dating apps. But when she unexpectedly meets Steve, a friendly and good-looking guy at the grocery store, she feels a glimmer of hope that maybe things are about to change.
Their first date goes incredibly well; there’s an undeniable chemistry between them. Things escalate, and they end up spending the night together. Noa starts to feel like she’s finally escaped the repetitive and mind-numbing cycle of online dating. Steve then suggests a weekend getaway, and despite her friend Mollie’s doubts, Noa decides to give it a chance.
The evening before their trip, Noa finds herself in Steve’s luxurious home. Little does she know that her life is about to take a horrifying turn. After having a cocktail that was unknowingly drugged, she loses consciousness and wakes up to a terrifying reality. Noa is chained to the ground, discovering that Steve is not the person she thought he was.
Steve reveals his true nature as a cannibal, with sinister plans to slowly harvest her flesh, along with two other unfortunate women he has captured. It’s a shocking twist that turns the movie from a romantic comedy into a horrifying thriller.
Up until this point, Steve seemed like the perfect love interest. He had all the qualities that would make him appealing to his victims – charisma, charm, and irresistible looks. It’s a chilling reminder that sometimes the most dangerous predators can hide behind a charming facade, using dating as a means to prey on vulnerable young women.
3. Barbarian
The 2022 film Barbarian tells the story of Tess and Keith, who accidentally double-book an Airbnb in a rundown Detroit neighborhood. Right from the start, they encounter numerous red flags that will surely make audiences anxious.
With no other options, Tess reluctantly stays in the locked bedroom while Keith sleeps on the sofa. However, when she wakes up, she finds her locked door mysteriously open. Keith denies any involvement, but Tess is visibly disturbed.
Later, Tess gets locked in the basement and stumbles upon a hidden hallway and a room with a stained mattress and camcorder. Keith rescues her, but then foolishly decides to explore the corridor himself.
When Keith doesn’t return, Tess follows him and discovers something that completely changes the film’s direction. At the end of the hidden hallway, she finds a secret entrance to an underground tunnel where Keith is injured. Before she can help him, they are attacked by a terrifying woman known as the Mother, who kills Keith and captures Tess.
The film then shifts its focus to AJ, the owner of the Airbnb. AJ plans to sell the house due to a lost acting job resulting from rape allegations against him. When he returns home, he stumbles upon the tunnel and initially sees it as a potential asset. However, the Mother attacks him, causing him to fall into a hole where Tess is being held.
The story then flashes back to the ’80s, revealing that the house’s original owner, Frank, abducted, assaulted, and imprisoned women in the tunnels for years.
Returning to the present day, Tess tells AJ they must pretend to be the Mother’s children, leading to a distressing scene where the Mother forcefully breastfeeds AJ.
The film’s series of unexpected twists, including the tunnels, Frank, and the Mother, take the audience by surprise. But the surprises don’t end there. The film later reveals that the Mother is the result of multigenerational incest inflicted by Frank on his victims. Despite her terrifying appearance, the film evokes sympathy for the Mother, highlighting the deep trauma and abuse she has endured across generations.
4. The Perfection
The Perfection, released in 2018, is a film that stands out for its ability to keep its audience guessing until the very end. Unlike other movies on this list, The Perfection chooses to reveal its surprises only when absolutely necessary. Rather than relying on inner thoughts and motivations, the audience is left to observe the twists and turns from an outsider’s perspective.
The story revolves around Charlotte, a former star cellist at the prestigious Bachoff music school in Boston. She is forced to resign from her position to take care of her terminally ill mother. After her mother’s death, Charlotte returns to the academy, where she joins Anton, the head of the school, and Lizzie, her talented replacement, on a trip to China. Lizzie, who seems to be living the life Charlotte had envisioned for herself, becomes the apparent motive for what unfolds next.
One night, after a night out, Lizzie falls ill and takes ibuprofen offered by Charlotte for her pain. However, her condition worsens, and she begins experiencing hallucinations. The situation deteriorates to the point where they are kicked off a bus and left stranded in the Chinese countryside.
Lizzie starts to see bugs crawling beneath her skin, and Charlotte, in a shocking turn of events, produces a meat cleaver and tells Lizzie, “You know what you have to do.” Three weeks later, Lizzie returns to Bachoff with a missing hand and accuses Charlotte of drugging her and providing the weapon that caused her injury out of jealousy.
Unexpectedly, Anton turns against Lizzie and informs her that she must leave the school the next day. Furious, Lizzie breaks into Charlotte’s home and abducts her, taking her back to Bachoff in the trunk of her car. When Charlotte regains consciousness and confronts Anton, she reveals the true reason behind her actions.
Charlotte notices a distinct eighth-note tattoo on Lizzie’s body, the same tattoo she herself has. This revelation leads Charlotte to understand what has been happening. The tattoo indicates that Lizzie was part of a group of students who had been indoctrinated into a sex cult, which Anton and others had been abusing. Charlotte realizes that by drugging Lizzie and encouraging her to harm herself, she could free Lizzie from the control of the cult.
This twist in motive completely changes the way we view Charlotte’s character. Until this point, she had appeared cold, calculating, and capable of extreme brutality. However, with the newfound context, the audience realizes that Charlotte was willing to go to extreme lengths to help Lizzie, who had been deeply brainwashed and resistant to persuasion.
5. Bodies Bodies Bodies
Living in an area affected by hurricanes often means being familiar with “hurricane parties.” However, 2022’s Bodies Bodies Bodies takes this tradition to a whole new level of craziness. The film follows Bee and her girlfriend Sophie as they decide to ride out the storm at a New York mansion owned by Sophie’s friend David’s family. Other questionable individuals join the party, including David’s girlfriend Emma, secretive Jordan, podcaster Alice, her older boyfriend Greg, and Max, who left the previous night due to tension with David.
The evening is filled with drugs, alcohol, dancing, and occasional drama. As the night progresses, the group decides to play a game called “bodies bodies bodies,” where one person is chosen as the “killer” and the others must figure out their identity. Greg, fed up with David’s hostile behavior, decides to call it a night and heads to bed early as the storm worsens and knocks out the power.
In the midst of searching for a power source, Bee stumbles upon David outside with his throat slit and a bloody knife nearby. Panic ensues as the group realizes they have no power or reception and believes a killer is on the loose, targeting them one by one. Their suspicions seem justified when Sophie’s car battery mysteriously dies.
With tensions running high and everyone hiding something, fingers are pointed in every direction. Tragically, these conflicts result in unnecessary deaths.
The ultimate twist comes when the partygoers finally uncover the truth about David’s death. It turns out that the “murder” that fueled their paranoia was actually an accident. David accidentally slit his own throat while attempting to film a TikTok video of him opening champagne with a knife. There was never a killer stalking them; it was their own paranoia, baggage, and collective hysteria.
Despite the reckless and even murderous behavior displayed by some of the characters throughout the night, it all boils down to a poorly thought-out TikTok video concept that led to the bloody mayhem.
6. The Invisible Man (2020)
2020’s The Invisible Man is a film that takes inspiration from H.G. Wells’ novel and the 1933 film of the same name, but it adds some unexpected twists that are sure to satisfy audiences.
The story kicks off with Cecilia, the main character, making a daring escape from her controlling and wealthy partner, Adrian, by drugging him with her diazepam prescription. She seeks refuge with her sister, Emily, and her childhood friend, Detective James Lanier, along with his teenage daughter.
As Cecilia tries to recover from the trauma she endured, she receives shocking news two weeks later. Adrian apparently took his own life and left her a whopping $5 million, which is being managed by his lawyer brother, Tom.
However, strange events start happening in the house where Cecilia is staying, leading her to believe that Adrian is somehow still alive and using his knowledge of optics to become invisible. She turns out to be right – Adrian is indeed wearing a special suit that makes him invisible. Cecilia even discovers a second suit in Adrian’s lab, which she hides away.
The first twist in the film comes when Cecilia manages to kill the invisible figure, only to find out that it was Tom in the suit, not Adrian. The police show up at Adrian’s house and find him tied up, claiming that Tom was the one responsible for everything.
Cecilia, however, doesn’t buy into this story. She decides to wear a wire during her conversation with Adrian, hoping to get a confession out of him. During their discussion, she excuses herself and leaves the room. On the security cameras, it appears as though Adrian slits his own throat. But here comes the second and even more shocking twist: it becomes clear that Cecilia, who returns to the room and reacts appropriately to the dead Adrian, was the one who actually killed him. She had put on the second suit and murdered him while staying out of the security camera’s view, wearing a cold and unfeeling expression.
Despite witnessing this act, James sees Cecilia with the invisible suit but allows her to leave. It’s a fitting and shocking twist for a film that takes an old story and transforms it into a compelling tale of revenge.
7. Orphan: First Kill
Released in 2009, the film Orphan surprised audiences with its shocking twist. The story revolves around a 9-year-old orphan named Leena, who is actually a 33-year-old Estonian woman suffering from hypopituitarism, a condition that stunts physical growth and causes dwarfism.
The upcoming sequel, Orphan: First Kill (2022), delves deeper into Leena’s past. It starts with her time as a psychiatric patient in an Estonian mental hospital called Saarne Institute. After a daring escape, Leena seduces and kills a guard, hiding in the car of an art therapist whom she later murders.
Leena begins searching online for missing American girls and discovers a striking resemblance to a missing child named Esther Albright. She finds her way to Esther’s grieving American family, who have been searching for their daughter for four years. The family, including father and renowned artist Allen Albright and his wife Tricia, welcomes Leena into their home, mistaking her for their long-lost daughter.
Leena also reunites with her “brother” Gunnar and displays extraordinary artistic abilities that go beyond what is expected for a child with only four years of study. A detective who helped bring Esther home starts suspecting Leena’s true identity by comparing fingerprints. Leena becomes aware of this and secretly follows the detective to his home, attacking and killing him with a knife.
To everyone’s surprise, Tricia, Leena’s “mother,” arrives at the scene and instead of stopping the attack, she shoots the detective. Tricia then reveals that she knows Leena is not Esther, as the real Esther died four years ago during a fight with Gunnar. Tricia had buried Esther’s body and staged her disappearance, hoping it would bring happiness back to Allen, who was still devastated by Esther’s loss.
Leena discloses her true identity, and together they dispose of the detective’s body, fabricate an email to cover up his death, and form a temporary partnership to maintain the deception. However, their alliance doesn’t last long, and the audience is shocked to discover that Tricia, who had been sympathetic until then, is just as violent as Leena, the orphan herself.
8. Malignant
So, there’s this movie called Malignant, released in 2021. It starts off in 1993, with this doctor named Dr. Weaver and a couple of other colleagues trying to treat this guy named Gabriel. Turns out, Gabriel has some crazy powers – he can control electricity and talk through any speaker. But here’s the messed up part, his powers lead to a bunch of deaths. Dr. Weaver decides that Gabriel is beyond saving and refers to him as a “cancer” that needs to be removed. At this point, the audience is left wondering what that means exactly.
Fast forward 27 years, we meet the main character, Madison. She’s pregnant and unfortunately dealing with an abusive husband named Derek. During an argument, Derek starts slamming Madison’s head into a wall. It’s brutal. Madison manages to lock herself in her bedroom, but then she has this nightmare where she sees a dark figure enter their house and kill Derek. But guess what? It’s not just a nightmare. The killer is actually there and attacks Madison, knocking her out.
Madison wakes up in the hospital and finds out from her sister, Sydney, that the baby didn’t make it. Later on, the police question Madison about the attack. Once she’s released, Madison drops a bombshell on her sister – she was adopted when she was 8 years old, before Sydney was even born. The weird thing is, Madison doesn’t remember anything about her life before her adoption.
Now here’s where it gets really creepy. Madison keeps having these visions of murders, and she realizes they’re not just nightmares. She becomes convinced that the monster responsible for these murders is after her. One of the victims is Dr. Weaver, who turns out to be a skilled surgeon and the same doctor who worked with Gabriel. To make things even crazier, Madison gets a phone call from Gabriel himself, confirming his identity.
Desperate to find out about her past, Madison takes Sydney with her to visit their mother. And guess what? Their mother reveals that Gabriel was Madison’s imaginary friend as a kid, but she thinks he might have been a real person that Madison knew before being adopted. With the help of a hypnotist, Madison discovers that her birth name was Emily, and Gabriel almost made her kill Sydney when their mother was pregnant. But once Sydney was born, Madison forgot all about Gabriel.
The police start suspecting Madison of being the murderer and take her into custody. Meanwhile, Sydney decides to do some investigating of her own. She goes to the hospital where Madison was treated as a child and uncovers the mind-boggling twist that shocked everyone: Gabriel is actually Madison’s parasitic twin. His messed up brain is inside her head like a tumor.
So, when Derek slammed Madison’s head against the wall, Gabriel woke up and is now fighting for control over her body. Even though Dr. Weaver tried to remove Gabriel, there’s still a part of him left in Madison’s head, where he fed on her unborn babies to gain more power. Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty ridiculous, but the movie really goes all out to convince you that Gabriel is a separate entity from Madison.
9. Spiral
In the Saw universe, it’s no surprise that Spiral, released in 2021, makes it onto a list like this. The movie kicks off with Detective Bozwick in pursuit of a thief through a sewer pipe. Unfortunately, he gets knocked out and wakes up in a bone-chilling Jigsaw trap. Bozwick’s only options are to rip out his own tongue or be hit by a train. Tragically, he doesn’t escape in time and gets struck and killed.
The next day, Detective Zeke Banks, the film’s protagonist, gets a new rookie partner named William Schenk. Banks and Schenk team up to investigate Bozwick’s death. Banks quickly realizes that the killer is mimicking the infamous Jigsaw’s methods, leading him to suspect a talented copycat is on the loose.
As the story unfolds, more detectives with questionable pasts fall victim to the copycat’s deadly puzzles. Even Schenk himself meets a gruesome end, found skinned in a butcher shop. Banks’s father, retired chief Marcus Banks, takes matters into his own hands and starts investigating the case. Unfortunately, he gets abducted. Soon after, Banks himself is captured while chasing a lead but manages to escape his own Jigsaw puzzle.
But here’s the twist: Banks discovers that the Jigsaw copycat is none other than his recently deceased rookie partner, William Schenk. Schenk faked his own death and used the thief’s corpse to lure Bozwick in the beginning. He was the one responsible for the deaths of the corrupt police officers throughout the film.
Schenk believes Banks is on his side and presents him with a final test. He calls the police for a SWAT team and reveals that Marcus is suspended in his own Jigsaw puzzle. Schenk perfectly embodies the role of an idealistic new detective, eager to make a difference. The revelation that he is the Jigsaw copycat is both satisfying and shocking, especially considering the numerous “dirty” cops that can easily be blamed throughout the movie.
10. Scream VI
The Scream franchise has always been known for its mind-bending plot twists, so it’s no surprise that Scream VI has made it onto this list. Despite some skepticism about a film series reaching its sixth installment, Scream is one of those rare gems that seems to thrive on more sequels. True to form, Scream VI, released in 2023, does not disappoint in delivering unexpected surprises.
The story picks up a year after the events of Scream V, with half-siblings Sam and Tara now in New York City. Tara is attending Blackmore University when a professor is brutally murdered by someone dressed as Ghostface. Suddenly, Sam, Tara, and their friends find themselves unwillingly thrust back into a world of murder and horror.
As Ghostface starts eliminating Sam’s friends Anika and Quinn, the remaining survivors narrowly escape with their lives, thanks to Sam’s boyfriend, Danny. Throughout the attacks, the killers deliberately leave behind masks from previous Ghostface murders, highlighting their intention to follow the horror movie rules established by Stu in the original Scream.
However, the real twist comes in the final showdown. FBI officer Wayne Bailey, who had been assisting the group, is revealed to be the true mastermind behind the Ghostface killings. He is aided by Ethan, a family member previously thought to be a member of Sam’s friend group, and shockingly, Quinn, who was believed to be dead.
Not only did Quinn fake her death to avoid suspicion, but it is also revealed that she, Ethan, and Wayne are all related to Richie, Sam’s ex-boyfriend and the Ghostface killer from Scream V. Their motive is revenge for Richie’s death. It’s quite a convoluted plot, isn’t it?
The film goes to great lengths to make Quinn’s death seem real, so her sudden appearance and willingness to kill in the story’s climax truly surprised and delighted Scream’s dedicated fanbase. After all, they expect nothing less than the most mind-blowing twists, and Scream VI certainly delivered on that front.
