10 Recent Horror Reveals Nobody Was Ready For
Those recent horror revelations that caught us all off-guard.
By its very nature, the horror genre is one which forever loves to keep its audience on their toes; to zig when we think it will zag, to veer left when you were adamant things were heading right, and to stop dead when you expect it to power full-speed ahead.
With such twists and major revelations involved in these pictures, it's fair to say not every curveball or shock is as curvy or shocking as was intended. Sometimes such swerves fall flat, are predictable, and even the most casual of horror hounds can see what's coming a mile off. Then, well then there's those reveals which caught us all off-guard. And it's on recent examples of such twists that the focus is on here.
Of course, to some people recent is viewed as the past 12 months, while others may view recent as being the past decade. In that regard, this article is going to take a nice sweet spot and focus on horror offerings from the past three years. Well, bar one 'honorary mention' exception.
Taking all of that into account, then, here are ten recent horror reveals that none of us were ready for.
11. Honorary Mention: Angela Rance = Regan MacNeil - The Exorcist
An honorary mention here, as your writer didn't realise it's somehow six years since Fox's The Exorcist TV series last aired... and thus had already written up the below blurb about the show's huge reveal. Some may argue that six years might be viewed as recent, but when the rest of this list features projects released in the last three years, The Exorcist could only get an honorary nod at best.
Throughout 2016 and 2017, Fox delivered some truly stunning, utterly terrifying horror television with its two seasons of this show. Unfortunately, not enough people watched to convince Fox to pursue a third year, although a major part of those low ratings was the network's bizarre decision to air the series in a famously-tough Friday night slot.
For the first season, The Exorcist's attention was on the Rance family, who sought assistance from Fathers Ortega and Keane when teenager Casey becomes possessed by something nefarious. While all involved with the series insisted the show was totally unrelated to the Exorcist movies, that debut season's fifth episode pulled out a magnificent jaw-dropper of a twist.
"My name is Regan MacNeil."
With those words, Geena Davis' Angela Rance revealed she was actually the poor youngster who had suffered so much in William Friedkin's The Exorcist and John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic.
Genuinely, this is one of the most impressive, shocking reveals in modern horror history. And for how they marketed the show as something entirely different, creator Jeremy Slater and his cast and crew deserve all the praise in the world.
Now, if only we could one day get a third season...