10 Awesome Horror Movie Twists You Never Saw Coming
1. Simon Was Accidentally Killed Early On - The Orphanage
J. A. Bayona's brooding, psychological horror movie that sees young Laura buy an old orphanage to turn into a home for sick children feels like it can only go one way. It's got the classic creepy setting, a mystery to uncover, and a whole bunch of unsettling horror movie children to populate its dark corners - so what more can it have to offer than the standard genre fare?
The answer, as it turns out, is plenty. What could so easily devolve into a trope heavy mess manages to take a sharp turn at the end that encapsulates all the tragedy and heartbreak seeded carefully throughout the narrative, flipping the terrifying into the traumatic with one sickly revelation. After Laura moves in to the orphanage to fix it up with her son Simon, he hides from her at a party after an argument - meaning Laura then spends the rest of the film trying to find her missing son.
What she doesn't realise is that by searching for him and moving construction scaffolding, she traps her son in his hiding place where he accidentally breaks his neck trying to escape. Discovering the truth of the situation is one of those moments that truly tugs at your heartstrings - something not many horror movies can boast about in recent years.