10 Awesome Plot Twists That Totally Saved Awful Horror Movies
1. Dead Silence
In Dead Silence, Jamie becomes obsessed with a ventriloquist dummy after he receives it hours before his wife is murdered. After speaking to his wheelchair-bound father, Edward, Jamie learns his bloodline is being targeted by the ghost of a killer ventriloquist called Mary Shaw.
Before you ask, yes, Dead Silence is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. It doesn't help that the story is hampered by jump-scares, formulaic tropes, and abominable CGI.
Until the final 90 seconds, you'd think this dummy horror was a total dud. But then Dead Silence hits you with the best kind of twist.
After Jamie believes he has defeated Mary's spirit, he returns to his family home. As he approaches his father, Edward slumps forward, revealing his spinal cord has been replaced with a massive ventriloquism pole.
Through flashbacks, we learn Mary was possessing Edward's wife, Ella, and she'd been using her ventriloquism skills to control Jamie's dead father like a puppet. Speaking through Edward, Mary was able to manipulate Jamie without him noticing.
What makes this twist work so well is how you should've seen it coming. When Ella claims Edward is "not the same man you remember", we should've known she was being literal. We should've been suspicious how Edward doesn't move unless Ella is standing behind him.
Also, Ella's throat moves intensely while Edward recounts the tale of Mary Shaw's murder. On a first viewing, you think it's because she's horrified to hear the grisly details. But after watching it again, you realise her throat is pulsating because she's throwing her voice so it looks like Edward is talking.
No matter how bad you think Dead Silence is up until the closing moments, you'll feel like this ending redeems the entire movie.