10 Convoluted Movies That Ruined Great Ideas

By Shaun Munro / July 8, 2013

There are so many great movie concepts that have been failed by inept scripting, and though the term "convoluted" does not explicitly indicate badness, that is often what it results in. Sure, the likes of Mulholland Drive, Inception and Memento are convoluted, but that tends to work to the nature of the narrative at hand, and more than just being senselessly confusing, they are complex works that will reward a viewer that pays attention. These 10 movies, however, threw all their promise away with a plot that wasn't so much complex and intelligent but just needlessly elaborate, turning viewers off as a result. There's little point setting up a contraption of plot points and circumstances if the explanation isn't at least adequate, and these 10 films, though boasting promising concepts, bungled them with a reveal that demonstrated writers who clearly thought themselves much smarter than they actually are. The result? Audiences left with a sour taste in their mouths...

10. Silent Hill

Silent Hill was, for much of its runtime, seemingly the first video game adaptation to both live up to the brilliant source material narratively, and also to do so in an artistic, visually stunning manner. The first hour of the film is pure bliss for any fans of the games, but it all begins to fall apart when scribe Roger Avary realised that he actually needed to provide some answers for those who haven't played the games. The result is a dodgy expository film reel reveal in the final act which lazily explains the contrived history of the town and all other relevant plot details Avary couldn't more cleverly cosset into the narrative.

From the guy who helped write Pulp Fiction, we expected a little more. And then, just as the film gets itself back on track for the finale, Avary throws another WTF curveball at audiences, as protagonist Rose (Radha Mitchell) and daughter Sharon return home, but are still trapped inside the Silent Hill dimension, a rather bizarre affectation that begins to hew away from the "rules" of the video games.