10 Movies That Completely Switched Genre Halfway Through
If you're getting bored of something, just turn it upside down and make something different instead.
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00:00So, when it comes to 99% of movies, genre is pretty much black and white.
00:06Based on the story and the setting, there's a certain number of tropes and archetypes
00:09that are expected to feature, and even the most innovative examples tend to stay pretty
00:14close to at least a few conventions.
00:16The more genres you try to add into the melting pot, the more difficult it becomes to balance
00:20them successfully, and in plenty of cases, trying too hard to bring something new to
00:24the table can definitely backfire and leave the whole thing a mess.
00:28However, there have been more than a few titles over the years where it appears that
00:32the main creative team simply decided to just down tools halfway through, tear up the script,
00:37and set the rest of the narrative in another genre entirely.
00:40And that's what we're here to talk about today.
00:42I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Movies That Completely Switched
00:46Genre Halfway Through.
00:4810.
00:49Hancock
00:50On paper, Hancock had the potential to be a phenomenal deconstruction of the superhero
00:54genre, with the focus being placed on an all-powerful being who, by all intents and
00:58purposes, was a bit of a dick.
01:01Unfortunately, this was during the time when star Will Smith was steadfast in his refusal
01:05to deviate from his established screen persona during the summer months, so despite a hugely
01:10promising first act, the movie soon devolved into the standard tropes we'd seen a thousand
01:15times before.
01:16Hancock makes the switch from exploring what forces a superhero into becoming an alcoholic
01:20layabout with no interest in saving the day, to a formulaic tale of two characters with
01:25the same powers using them in a third act showdown heavy on visual effects.
01:30The tonal change was clearly a studio-mandated one, and it sinks the whole movie down as
01:35a result.
01:369.
01:37Hot Fuzz
01:38From a box office perspective, Hot Fuzz was by far the most successful of the Three Flavors
01:42Cornetto trilogy, earning more in theaters than Shaun of the Dead and The World's End
01:46put together.
01:47More on that later.
01:48And a lot of that had to do with the third act venture into Michael Bay territory, making
01:52the movie a lot more accessible to international audiences.
01:56The first half of the movie is every bit the charming and irreverent British comedy that
02:00we'd come to expect from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost.
02:04But it still came as a surprise when the action movie references directly led to a pivot towards
02:09the kind of high-octane action and shootouts that you usually expect to see in a Hollywood
02:13production with ten times the budget.
02:15But you don't hear anyone complaining, because this film was brilliant.
02:198.
02:20The World's End
02:21Now let's take a look at the closer of the Cornetto's holy trinity, because we're
02:24back with the next collaboration between Edgar Wright, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg with The
02:28World's End, which went full-on apocalyptic sci-fi after spending the first half setting
02:33both the stage and the character dynamics.
02:35The coming-of-middle-age comedy draws a surprising amount of pathos among the laughs, with Simon
02:41Pegg's performance in particular one of the best of his career.
02:44And it still came a little out of the blue when Wright decided to go for broke and transform
02:48his tale of long-lost friendship into a full-blown alien invasion epic.
02:53It isn't like the laughs didn't stop coming, but the blue-blooded replicants give the filmmaker
02:57the leeway to drastically increase the level of violence without alarming the censors.
03:01And after zombies and buddy cop movies, science fiction seemed like the next logical step
03:05for the Cornetto trilogy.
03:077.
03:08The Prestige
03:09Watching The Prestige for the first time, you get drawn in by Christopher Nolan's
03:13meticulous attention to detail, and an intriguing mystery narrative that seems poised to answer
03:17more and more questions as the story progresses.
03:20But eventually we discover that the movie is a lot more than just your average standard
03:24period piece.
03:25The rivalry between Hugh Jackman's Robert and Christian Bale's Alfred gets more and
03:29more intense, and with each new reveal we're as stumped as the magicians themselves as
03:34to how they keep pulling off such impressive feats of both personal and professional sleight
03:38of hand.
03:39The introduction of David Bowie's Nikola Tesla hints at something far more fantastical,
03:43and the twists and turns do not stop coming as The Prestige heads deeper and deeper down
03:48the sci-fi rabbit hole.
03:506.
03:51The Babysitter
03:52The Babysitter is the best-reviewed movie of MCG's entire career, with the director
03:57usually associated with big-budget and generally terrible studio blockbusters finding a new
04:02lease of creative life in the most surprising of places thanks to Netflix's low-budget
04:06horror comedy.
04:08All of the setup leans so heavily into the established formula for the team comedy that
04:12the eventual descent into madness comes spectacularly out of the blue, as a 12-year-old kid with
04:17a crush on his babysitter discovers that along with all of her impossibly attractive friends,
04:21she just happens to be part of a devil-worshipping cult intent on making a sacrifice.
04:26It might come out of nowhere, but the tonal change ultimately makes sense in the context
04:31of the movie, as the babysitter reveals that the influences on its sleeve are less John
04:36Hughes and more John Carpenter.
04:385.
04:39Million Dollar Baby
04:41The boxing drama has always been one of the sports movie's best sub-genres when handled
04:45correctly, but Million Dollar Baby upends the archetypal nature of the story on its
04:50head by making the pugilistic nature one of the least important aspects of the narrative.
04:54A lot of people would have no doubt been expecting a female-driven spin on the rocky formula
04:59that would follow our determined heroine on a quest for redemption.
05:02Instead, a nasty accident during a fight leaves Hilary Swank's Maggie, paralyzed, and Million
05:07Dollar Baby morphs into a somber drama that reflects on uncomfortable ideas like euthanasia
05:12and mortality, instead of relying on the genre's staple of training montages and improbable
05:18comebacks.
05:194.
05:20Psycho
05:21Alfred Hitchcock definitely was no stranger from pulling the rug out of unsuspecting audiences,
05:26and despite such a legendary career, he never managed to do it better than he did here in
05:30Psycho.
05:31As well as providing one of the earliest campaigns to encourage people not to share spoilers
05:35that would have blown the reveal that the biggest name in the movie was about to be
05:38subject to one of cinema's most iconic death scenes, the idea of Psycho itself as a slasher
05:44seemed to come out of nowhere.
05:46All of the build-up and payoff made it seem as though we were in line for a crime thriller,
05:50as a big stash of money is stolen and our heroine goes on the run, holding up in the
05:54Bates Motel.
05:55That being said, underestimating the master of suspense was definitely a fool's game,
06:00and the detour into horror territory became yet another classic example of Hitchcock toying
06:05with people's expectations and their emotions.
06:083.
06:09Sunshine
06:10Sunshine remains one of Danny Boyle's most divisive movies, and definitely bombed at
06:14the box office for good measure after earning $32 million worldwide.
06:19But we should have known better than to expect a straightforward sci-fi with the genre hopping
06:23Boyle at the helm and Alex Garland on scripting duties.
06:27It's a psychological and existential space story to begin with, but as the crew of the
06:31ship begins to unravel, it becomes clear that something sinister is afoot.
06:35But it would be safe to assume that not a lot of people were expecting Sunshine to reveal
06:38itself as a slasher movie, with a murderous and skinless Mark Strong picking them off
06:43one by one.
06:45Splitting opinion right down the middle, some people thought that it ruined the movie and
06:48others thought that it was a welcome change of pace after the exposition-heavy first half,
06:53but one thing that everybody agreed on was that they never saw it coming.
06:572.
06:58Predator
06:59With his reputation as the action genre's biggest star firmly established following
07:03The Terminator, Commando, and Raw Deal, audiences were expecting a standard Arnold Schwarzenegger
07:08vehicle based on the marketing for Predator, which focused on the uber-macho ensemble of
07:13veteran soldiers.
07:14So far, so familiar.
07:16And as we were introduced to our cast of memorable supporting characters, they made their way
07:19through the jungle, blowing shit up and gunning down an army of faceless goons in the process.
07:24However, one heat-vision shot of a massive claw later, and Predator the film was turned
07:29upside down.
07:30The invisible extraterrestrial picked off the team one by one, and what had initially
07:34seemed like a standard, Arnie goes on a one-man rescue mission, soon pivoted into hard sci-fi
07:39that saw the big Austrian facing off with an eight-foot-tall alien with mandibles and
07:44a bloodlust for human trophies instead.
07:461.
07:47From Dusk Till Dawn
07:49Close friends and frequent collaborators Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez found their
07:53respective success through very different mediums, with the former famed for his razor-sharp
07:58writing and reliance on the crime genre, while the latter was a jack-of-all-trades willing
08:02to try his hand at almost anything.
08:04From Dusk Till Dawn best sums up the differences between them, with Tarantino writing and Rodriguez
08:09directing a movie that showcases both of their filmmaking personalities.
08:13The first half is a classic Tarantino crime thriller full of whip-smart dialogue and astute
08:18in-character observation, but as soon as the unlikely travel buddies show up at the titty-twister,
08:23all bets are off.
08:24As soon as we see our first set of fangs, From Dusk Till Dawn goes completely batshit
08:29insane and never lets up, with the wild genre flip resulting in one of the most deranged
08:33and gloriously enjoyable B-movies of the 1990s.
08:36And there we go my friends, those were 10 movies that completely switched genre halfway
08:41through.
08:42I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
08:44the comment section below.
08:45As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJay but the O is
08:49a zero, and the same for Instagram, RetroJay but the O is a zero.
08:54But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
08:56Hope that you're treating yourself well my friend, because we can all go through periods
08:59in our life where we feel like we need a change, and you know what, as we explore today, sometimes
09:03changing genres or changing tacts in our life is not a bad thing.
09:06It can sometimes take a lot of work, and can feel like an uphill struggle, but trust me
09:10if you feel like you can do yourself better, if you feel like you can achieve your best
09:14life by changing direction, then I encourage you to do so.
09:17Just try and do it in a healthy way and at your own pace, alright?
09:20Big love to you.
09:21As always I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak
09:24to you soon.
09:25Bye.