8 Unpopular Movie Plot Twists That Don't Get Enough Credit

By T.J. Barnard /

A movie can live or die by its plot twist. Employed by writers and filmmakers alike as a way to make you rethink everything you've just spent two hours watching, a plot twist can enhance the quality of a movie in ways you never thought possible, or spoil the narrative entirely for the sake of a quick shock. Because most of the time, plot twists just don't work - revisiting a movie with the twist embedded in your mind will often expose gaping plot holes and logical flaws that render the story unworkable. When a plot twist does work, of course, it can bring a whole new perspective and added layers to your movie - but let's be honest, most movie twists only ever cause us to shake our heads and sigh, because it's actually incredibly difficult to write a genuinely brilliant one that holds up on a second viewing. As a result, there are tons of motion pictures out there that feel like they've had shocking twists dumped onto the end for the sake of it, just because it seemed like a better idea than ending the movie, you know, normally... In its most basic form, then, a plot twist can be regarded as "a sudden or unexpected change in a movie's direction," which is the criteria I'll be using for motion pictures I've assembled here. So whereas there are some pretty unforgivable twists inherent to a lot of movies nowadays, here are 8 that are pretty much loathed or looked upon with disapproval by the movie-going public at large, although - in retrospect - they're probably nowhere near as bad as we've made out...