Some of the most memorable horror movies have staying power because of their unforgettable twist endings.
Regardless of whether you like the ending of Scream 7, the original Scream had a killer reveal that helped that franchise alive for almost 30 years.
Some of the most memorable conclusions catch the audience off guard, and they still have people talking decades later.
Now, Watch With Us has assembled our picks for the five best twist endings in horror movies. There are big spoilers ahead!
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5. ‘Orphan’ (2009)
The marketing campaign for Orphan kind of gave away the twist ahead of time that Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) wasn’t the young orphaned girl that she pretended to be. Viewers walked into that movie expecting Esther to be the villain to her adoptive parents, Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard).
What they didn’t expect was the revelation that Esther was a full-grown adult stricken by hypopituitarism that left her with a child-like body. The scene where Esther removes her makeup and false teeth sold that idea, even though Fuhrman was only 12 years old when this film was released. She played the role so well that a sequel followed, and a third film, Orphans, is in development.
Orphan is streaming on The Roku Channel.
4. ‘The Mist’ (2007)
Writer and director Frank Darabont changed the ending of The Mist from Stephen King‘s novella, and King loved it. The film and the short story followed David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his son, Billy (Nathan Gamble), as they were trapped in a grocery store as an unnatural mist filled with otherworldly monsters preyed upon survivors.
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When forced to flee, David, Billy and their friends — Amanda Dumfries (Laurie Holden), Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn) and Irene Reppler (Frances Sternhagen) — were facing a hopeless future with no escape. David used his last four bullets to mercy kill all of them, including his son. But before David could commit suicide by monster, he learned that the group could have been saved if he had just waited a few minutes longer. The primal despair from Jane’s performance gave that scene its resonance.
The Mist is streaming on The Roku Channel.
3. ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999)
How impactful was The Sixth Sense? There are still “I see dead people” memes to this day. The fact that Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) can see and hear ghosts wasn’t the twist. It was that his child psychologist, Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), had been dead all along. Cole never tells Malcolm that he’s a ghost, but he does offer him the clues that help him realize his true nature.
That gives Malcolm the chance to say goodbye to his still living wife, Anna Crowe (Olivia Williams), before crossing over to the afterlife. This film made M. Night Shyamalan a successful director. It also created a monster, because Shyamalan hasn’t stopped trying to top this twist ending for the last 27 years.
The Sixth Sense is streaming on Prime Video.
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2. ‘Sleepaway Camp’ (1983)
Sleepaway Camp comes from an era where there were seemingly endless slashers, from Friday the 13th‘s Jason Voorhees to Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. This film hid the identity of its killer until the closing moments, and then delivered an even bigger shock.
Angela Baker (Felissa Rose) seemed like an unlikely suspect to be the murderer terrorizing the camp. But then, to the shock of the survivors, Angela stands revealed as her presumed-dead brother, Peter. The real Angela died at the beginning of the film, while Peter was forced to live as his sister by his deranged aunt. This ending is far more famous than the rest of the movie, and it’s why Sleepaway Camp didn’t fade away with the other disposable slasher flicks.
Sleepaway Camp is streaming on Prime Video.
1. ‘Psycho’ (1960)
During his lifetime, director Alfred Hitchcock was called “the master of suspense.” He had a talent for surprising audiences, and few films have ever had bigger surprises than Psycho. Hitchcock spends nearly a third of the movie convincing viewers that Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is the main character until she’s suddenly murdered in the shower in one of the most famous scenes of all time.
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The audience is led to believe that the murderer is Mrs. Bates, the mother of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). More importantly, Norman knows it and tries to cover up his mother’s crime. While looking for answers, Marion’s sister, Lila Crane (Vera Miles), and Marion’s lover, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), discover that Mrs. Bates is long dead, except as a murderous alternate personality for Norman himself. That might seem tame by today’s standards, but it’s by far the best twist ending in a horror movie.
Psycho is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video.
