6. Chained
Can a films premise be ruined by its ending? Its certainly open to debate, but if we even want to make a compelling case for the argument, we can always bring up Chained, an indie psychological horror/chiller from 2012. For seven-eighths of its runtime, Chained is brilliant, horrible, compulsive viewing, focusing on a boy both before and after his kidnap by an unhinged serial killer who murders his mother. Its thoroughly unpleasant without being gratuitous, marking itself out as a good horror film. Newcomer Eamonn Farren really sells the hell out of his part as the deeply traumatised teen, following on from some sterling work by child actor Evan Bird as a younger version of the main character, who comes to be known as Rabbit. The set design is excellent, and Vincent DOnofrio is deeply unsettling as the boys kidnapper. But the end is just so ridiculous that it invalidates the entire film. What made this film so chilling was the idea that this was completely random, that Rabbit and his mum came across the murderer by chance. To find out that Rabbits Dad orchestrated the whole thing and the murderer is his uncle just seems so bizarre that it utterly ruins what was an otherwise excellent premise.