10 Horror Movies That Weren't What Anyone Expected

10. Barbarian

Barbarian was sold as a seemingly straightforward, single-location horror film in which a woman, Tess (Georgina Campbell), arrives at her Airbnb to find it occupied by Keith (Bill Skarsgård), a man who claims they've been double-booked.

Audiences were naturally led to expect a standard horror-thriller in which Tess has to fend off the creepy advances of her unexpected house guest, but that isn't what Barbarian is. Like, at all.

Instead, Keith is a genuinely good guy, while the real horror is actually waiting for them both in the basement - a horrifically mutated woman with a penchant for murder and her own nauseatingly twisted backstory.

While most of Barbarian does indeed take place in the house, director Zach Cregger ambitiously leaps back and forward through timelines to unfurl the history of said house, and unexpectedly introduces a landlord character, AJ (Justin Long), at the start of the second act.

It's a film that continually surprises, constantly shifting from what the audience is programmed to anticipate from such a setup, making it one of the most distinctive and unforgettable horrors of the last 5 years.