10 Times The Movie Killer Was Hiding In Plain Sight
10. Billy Loomis - Scream
Wes Craven's Scream was a perfectly executed satire of the played-out slasher genre, and from the moment Drew Barrymore's apparent protagonist was brutally murdered in the iconic opening scene, audiences were instructed to expect the unexpected.
And so, when Sidney Prescott's (Neve Campbell) horndog boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) was heavily implied to be the killer early on - between some solidly circumstantial evidence and an undeniably "creepy vibe" - audiences were duped into believing that he must be innocent.
Except, Craven pulled an ingenious double-twist by revealing in the third act that Billy so obviously seemed to be the killer because - wait for it - he was.
One of them, at least, along with his pal Stu (Matthew Lillard), accounting for how the Ghostface murders could continue even when Billy was in custody.
The film is so expertly constructed within the context of subverting genre expectations that, especially at the time of its release, Billy being revealed as a co-killer was a total jaw-dropper. All the more so because it was basically spelled out to the audience.