Boy, “The Sixth Sense” really spoiled movie fans the world over.
M. Night Shyamalan’s 1999 shocker featured a killer twist, the kind of mind-bending ending that caught audiences off-guard and made perfect sense looking back.
Not every horror film works so smoothly.
This year’s “The Uninvited” trotted out a ridiculous twist near the end, turning a perfunctory teen horror flick into an unqualified mess.
The 2003 French blood bath “High Tension” seemed rock-solid until it detoured straight into a nonsensical crevasse. And the less said about the loopy twist in “A Perfect Getaway,” now in theaters, the better.
So why can’t movies nail the twist ending?
The twist ending is the ultimate “Twilight Zone” moment, the way to catch viewers flat-footed while spinning the story in bold new directions. But today’s movies don’t have the luxury of great writing, while Rod Serling’s TV classic tapped some of the best sci-fi writers of that era, including Serling himself.
Few critics adore horror movies as much as I do, but most horror movies get away with a bare-bones screenplay at best. The genre simply doesn’t attract the best and brightest scribes.
It does lure visionary directors occasionally, but when was the last time you marveled at the dialogue in a horror movie?
Writing crisp conversations is hard. Penning a killer twist ending is darn near impossible.
(Photo: Cecile De France battles back in the French horror film “High Tension.”)
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Actually, writing a twist ending is like the clichéd game pitch, “easy to learn, but hard to master.” The simplest way is to get the audience emotionally invested in the character and his goals. Once you have done that, you can then turn the character’s world upside down and take the audience with him. That was how it worked in “The Sixth Sense,” as audiences identified with Bruce Willis’ character and made his goals their own only to find out that not all was as it seemed. Shyamalan could not reproduce that same thing in “The Village” because he spent too much time on the fright aspect and too little time in getting us to identify with the characters (and the stilted speech kept audiences at a distance as well).
Well said … actually, better than what I just wrote. Dang.
cftoto , don’t you hate when that happens?
The twist in “The Uninvited” was hinted at strongly enough. After the big reveal, I went back to look at certain scenes again, and I saw hints, but they were a stretch.
I meant to say the twist WAS NOT hinted at strongly enough.
I was just trying to extend your remarks, not show you up.
After all, you can not get the audience invested in a character or group of characters without good writing.
Kbiel — show me up all day long! I love intelligent, spirited debate here and you provided it in spades.
Also the degree of difficulty in twist endings is high. I’d wager the audience of good horror (as opposed to splatter-fests or torture pron — misspelled intentionally for trolls) films is very sophisticated — hard to surprise totally.
I liked The Others. I kinda saw it coming, but it was dark and moody — though to pile on kbiel’s point I wasn’t as invested in Kidman and the kids as much as Bruce Willis’ character in Sixth Sense.