10 Horror Movie Twists That Were Hiding In Plain Sight
We really should've seen that coming.
Transcript
00:00 Okay, I've got a few spicy hot takes for you guys right now.
00:03 I reckon that plot twists in horror movies are good, but plot twists in horror movies
00:07 that are actually hiding in front of you in plain sight are even better.
00:11 Yeah, I know, very spicy.
00:12 All jokes aside, there is nothing more satisfying than re-watching one of these movies,
00:16 only to notice that the big reveal is incredibly obvious once you know it,
00:21 thanks to some superb foreshadowing and hints placed along the way.
00:25 So, with that in mind, I'm Josh from What Culture Horror,
00:27 and these are 10 Horror Movie Twists That Were Hiding In Plain Sight.
00:31 Number 10 - Dewey guesses the killer in his first scene, Scream 2022
00:36 Although it's usually difficult to deduce the killer's identity in the Scream franchise,
00:40 many viewers correctly guessed that Amber and Richie were behind the mask in the latest film.
00:44 The first giveaway is that Ghostface claims to have cloned Amber's phone,
00:48 just like in Scream 3 at the very start, and a lot of viewers simply didn't think
00:52 that the franchise would be lazy enough to use this trope again and so suspected it was a bluff.
00:58 Likewise, Amber is the one being threatened in the introduction, apparently unknowingly,
01:03 yet this is never brought back as a plot pointer even mentioned again,
01:07 and that's because Amber was actually in on it from the very beginning,
01:10 and was letting herself be filmed in this scene.
01:13 As for Richie, well, the most obvious clue is when Dewey just outright tells the gang
01:18 that Richie is the most likely person to be Ghostface since the killer is usually
01:22 the seemingly loving boyfriend. He says this the very first time he meets the group, and well,
01:28 it turns out that he was exactly bang on the money. Hell, Richie even comments on this at
01:32 the end of the movie. Sadly, nobody paid attention, least of all Dewey himself,
01:37 who ended up getting gutted.
01:39 Number 9 - Documents reveal the actual date - Final Destination 5
01:43 In Final Destination 5, Sam, Molly and numerous others barely escape with their lives from a
01:48 collapsing bridge accident. And you know what that means by now, the Grim Reaper is going to
01:53 pick them off one by one. In the climax, Sam and Molly avoid being killed though, seemingly
01:59 cheating death once more. To celebrate, they decide to take a vacation to Paris, but as the
02:04 plane prepares to take off, they notice a fight between Carter and Alex, two characters who
02:09 appeared in the first Final Destination which is set in 2000. Only then does the audience realise
02:14 that Final Destination 5 isn't a sequel, but actually a prequel, and Sam and Molly have
02:19 boarded the famous Flight 180 that's destined to explode immediately after takeoff. And for as good
02:25 as this twist was, there are actually numerous hints previously that this film takes place in
02:30 the past. For instance, at around the 40 minute mark, the camera focuses on Isaac's gift certificate,
02:35 which expires on the 30th of the 6th, 2001. Likewise, Williams' van has a Liberty license
02:41 plate that went out of date in 2001, while numerous characters use decidedly old looking tech,
02:46 including clunky keyboards and old fashioned phones. Also, the movie never uses music released
02:51 after the millennium. If you spotted any of these observations, you might have just thought that the
02:55 characters were old fashioned or being retro, you know? I mean, 2000s are very in right now.
03:01 But upon watching the epilogue, the truth becomes clear.
03:04 Number 8, Laurie's Angry Reaction - Happy Death Day
03:07 In Happy Death Day, a teenager called Tree is going about her day when she's suddenly stabbed
03:11 to death by a masked serial killer colloquially called Babyface. But death actually isn't the end
03:17 of her troubles, because suddenly Tree wakes up, only to realise that time has reset to the previous
03:23 day. And no matter what she does or where she goes, Babyface kills her again and again and again.
03:29 Even though each day begins with her roommate Laurie offering her cupcake though, she always
03:33 discards it, desperate to find out who's hunting her. After all, she has bigger problems than
03:39 accepting a cupcake or not. When she convinces herself that she can't escape the cycle though,
03:43 she actually just gives up and finally agrees to eat Laurie's cupcake. But when she dies
03:48 immediately after accepting, she realises that the cupcake was poisoned, and Laurie has been the
03:53 masked killer all along. Interestingly though, viewers could have figured this out if they
03:57 simply studied Laurie's body language earlier. See, every time Tree rejects the cupcake,
04:02 you might assume that Laurie would be confused or concerned or whatever. But every time Tree
04:06 refuses to eat it, Laurie looks noticeably angry. It's one of those subtle details you miss the
04:11 first time around, but it becomes as clear as day on a second viewing.
04:15 Number 7 - Some Serial Killer Knowledge - Predators
04:18 In Predators, a group of strangers find themselves hunted by alien warriors on another world.
04:23 The team consists of a cartel enforcer, a sniper, an RUF soldier, a mercenary, a Yakuza,
04:28 a death row inmate, a marine, and a doctor called Edwin. Because each person has a history of
04:34 killing and are all, by my estimations anyway, hard as nails, the team believe that they were
04:39 specifically chosen by the Predators since they would serve as a challenging sport to chase.
04:44 However, because one of them, Edwin, seems totally harmless, and he's played by Topher Grace after
04:49 all, they assume that he was just picked up to keep his teammates alive with his medical skills.
04:54 But during the climax, Edwin is revealed to have been a serial killer who is intent
04:59 on killing them all. Some viewers suspected that there was more to Edwin than he was initially
05:04 letting on since it didn't make sense why the Predators would choose him for their game
05:08 if he wasn't as dangerous as the others. I mean, what's to stop him getting killed early on,
05:13 and then having his quote-unquote "purpose" be completely erased? However, Edwin's sinister side
05:18 is implied early on. At one point he comes across a chemical and instantly recognises its toxicity.
05:24 Upon the first viewing, you'd assume that Edwin recognises the toxin due to his medical experience,
05:29 but upon a rewatch it's obvious that Edwin has used this neurotoxin to subdue his victims many,
05:34 many times in the past.
05:35 Number 6 - The Food Is The Key - Orphan
05:38 In Orphan, Kate and John Coleman decide to adopt a child called Esther to help them with their
05:43 troubled marriage. When they notice a series of accidents occurred immediately after adopting
05:47 the girl though, the Coleman's suspect that there's something seriously wrong with her.
05:51 And would you know it, they are totally right. Not only is she a cold-blooded killer, but she's not
05:57 even a child. Due to a hormone deficiency, Esther looks like a young lass despite being in her 30s.
06:03 She's pretended to be a child for years so she can finally be embraced by a loving family. In
06:08 hindsight, the twist seems obvious. Esther constantly wears thick, frilly dresses to hide
06:13 her grown-up figure, and her adoptive family find it odd how she spends so much time getting ready
06:17 in the morning, unaware that she's applying makeup to look younger. However, the most discernible clue
06:22 of Esther's true age is how she eats. To hide her adult teeth, Esther wears child-like dentures.
06:28 And because of this, she has to chop up all of her food into tiny pieces just so she can eat it.
06:33 And the film isn't coy about this detail at all since there's an entire scene dedicated to her
06:37 step-brother belittling her for the way she cuts up her food. So yeah, this little freak was hiding
06:42 in plain sight the whole time.
06:44 Number 5 - Everyone is acting around Teddy Shutter Island
06:48 In Shutter Island, US Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck head out to an isolated mental
06:53 institution to investigate the disappearance of an inmate. After stumbling on multiple
06:57 inconsistencies with the head doctor's claims, Teddy believes the facility is harbouring a dark
07:02 secret. In the end, Teddy learns that he's an inmate of Shutter Island called Andrew, and this
07:08 case was devised by the facilitator to help him accept the fact that he, in fact, murdered his
07:14 wife. His partner Chuck is revealed to be his psychiatrist, Dr. Sheehan, who went along with
07:18 this scheme to keep Teddy in check. To some, this was a jaw-dropping revelation. But if you
07:23 over-analyse every frame, you may have spotted a few things that just didn't quite sit right.
07:28 For instance, when Chuck is asked to hand over his gun, he has trouble pulling the weapon out
07:33 of its holster, since he obviously has no experience handling a firearm. Which, of course,
07:38 is weird for a US Marshal. Likewise, when Teddy asks Bridget about Dr. Sheehan, she quickly glances
07:44 at Chuck, implying that they are one and the same. There are a few clues throughout as well that
07:49 people are just acting around Teddy, and they'll actually drop the performance should they think
07:53 that he's not looking.
07:54 Number 4 - So Many Hints About Adelaide, Us
07:57 In Us' opening scene, a girl called Adelaide Wilson encounters her doppelganger, which leaves
08:02 her so traumatised that she refuses to speak. Years later, the Wilson family find their house
08:07 invaded by their own doubles, who call themselves the Tethered, which is led by Adelaide's counterpart
08:13 Red. But in the closing scenes, we actually learn that Red swapped with Adelaide when they first met
08:17 all those years ago, meaning our supposed hero has actually been a Tethered the whole time.
08:22 When you rewatch the film, there are so many clues about Adelaide being not who she says she is
08:28 though. The biggest is the fact that Adelaide stopped speaking after her encounter with her
08:32 double. And this wasn't because she was traumatised, but because the Tethered literally
08:36 can't naturally speak. Also, while Adelaide is at the psychiatrist's office as a child,
08:41 she organises the toys in a straight line, which foreshadows Red's plan to have every Tethered
08:46 lineup across America to reveal themselves around the world.
08:49 Number 3 - The Cult's True Intentions - Hereditary
08:52 Hereditary begins with Annie dealing with the death of her mother Ellen. Because the two had
08:57 a hostile relationship, Annie is somewhat relieved when Ellen has passed. But after Annie's daughter
09:02 Charlie is decapitated in a horrific car crash, she becomes convinced that her mother is manipulating
09:08 her life from beyond the grave. Eventually though, Annie learns her mother was a cult member who
09:12 worshipped the demon Paimon. Even worse, if it can get worse, Ellen has been shaping Annie's
09:18 entire life for years, hoping that Paimon could be reincarnated in her children. And few viewers,
09:24 myself included, see this revelation coming, even though the film actually leaves clues everywhere.
09:30 For instance, Charlie beheads a pigeon which foreshadows her own fate, and just before
09:34 Charlie has her head cut off, the party guests watch a video of someone being guillotined. It's
09:40 pretty on the nose in hindsight. There's also the twist that Annie's friend Joan is actually
09:44 a cult member as well. This is also hiding in plain sight, as she's seen buying a chalkboard
09:50 that apparently belonged to her grandson who she'd use as seance to communicate with from beyond the
09:55 grave, proving she was just lying the whole time and buying the stuff she needed for the lie on the
10:00 fly. Hey, that rhymed.
10:01 Number 2 - The opening credits give the twist away - Malignant
10:05 Malignant follows a young woman called Madison who suffers hallucinations which revolve around
10:09 an unseen but extremely well-dressed freak who's performing horrific murders. During one of these
10:15 visions, the murderer confides to Madison that he is Gabriel, an imaginary friend that she apparently
10:20 created as a child, or so she thought. When detectives learn the murders that Madison has
10:25 seen in her visions are actually happening in real life, they suspect that Gabriel is hiding in her
10:30 house. And it's only when they confront Madison that the officers learn that Gabriel is actually
10:36 a parasitic twin located on the back of her head. When Madison goes to sleep or gets knocked out,
10:43 Gabriel takes over and uses her body to go on a delicious murder spree. However,
10:48 the epiphany was actually revealed way, way earlier. In fact, it was unveiled before the
10:53 opening credits had even finished. See, when the credits roll, we see dozens of medical images,
10:58 including surgical procedures, fetal x-rays, and microscopic images of tumours. When this
11:04 sequence shows Madison's medical papers specifically though, there are pages that
11:08 state Madison's condition is similar to animals born with quote-unquote "two heads", since she has
11:14 two fully formed faces. By pausing at this point, the viewer can learn the entire plot within the
11:20 first five minutes. Just for one extra as well, early on Madison actually reassures herself that
11:25 everything is all in her head, which, aye, she's not really wrong about that is she?
11:30 Number 1. Rose doesn't want to leave any evidence. Get Out. Get Out centres on a black man called
11:35 Chris meeting the family of his white girlfriend Rose Armitage for the very first time. Although
11:40 Chris is worried that his relationship with Rose will pose a problem to a potentially racist family,
11:45 the Armitages seemingly embrace him in their own cringey way. To Chris' horror though,
11:50 he eventually learns that the Armitages are actually abducting black people and swapping
11:54 the brains of their elderly friends into their bodies to cheat death. However, this revelation
11:59 was implied over a dozen times throughout the movie because this is a Jordan Peele film,
12:05 and well, we've already seen what he does with us, this is just the guy's MO.
12:09 For instance, when a cop asks for Chris' ID towards the start of the film, Rose goes
12:14 absolutely berserk, implying that the officer is racist. And although it just looks like Rose is
12:19 defending her boyfriend in this scene and we're all on her side, she's actually really avoiding
12:24 a paper trail so no one will know where Chris went after her family dispose of him. Likewise,
12:29 when Dean says that he likes to keep a piece of his mother in the kitchen, the camera cuts to the
12:34 maid demonstrating that she has the mind of Dean's mom. In hindsight, it's very unsubtle but it's so,
12:41 so cool. Still though, clues like this are so obvious on a second viewing that you can't
12:45 understand how you didn't see the twist coming a mile away, and that's the sign of a really good
12:51 reveal. So that's our list, what do you guys think down in the comments below? Did you pick up on any
12:55 of these details the first time around? And are there any cool instances of foreshadowing and
13:00 teasing like this that I missed off here? While you're down there as well, could you please give
13:04 us a like, share, subscribe and head over to What Culture Horror for more lists like this
13:07 on the regular. Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thank you so much for watching and