10 Horror Movie Opening Fakeouts We All Fell For

by Andrew Pollard

1. Barbarian

Barbarian Bill Skarsgard
20th Century Studios

For those who'd seen the trailers for Barbarian, we were all expecting an extremely different movie.

In that preview footage, Georgina Campbell's Tess arrives at a rental property in a rough area of Detroit. To her surprise, the house has seemingly been double-booked when Tess discovers Bill Skarsgard's Keith there. While Keith is happy to take the sofa and let Tess stay in the main bedroom, Campbell's character is clearly a little unsure of all of this - especially when Keith seems a little too nice and things start to go bump in the night.

Is Keith hiding a murky secret? Can he be trusted? Is he spying on Tess while she sleeps? What's with the hidden passageways below the house?

Well, it turns out Keith really is just a nice, friendly fella; a nice, friendly fella who's killed during Barbarian's opening act by an eerie, mutated being known only as "Mother" which resides under the property.

Given how Bill Skarsgard's turn as Pennywise in Andy Muschietti's It movies often brings certain sinister expectations to Skarsgard roles - especially with Barbarian being a horror film and how those trailers framed the story - this was a brilliant swerve which caught us all out.

Instead, Justin Long's AJ - the owner of the house - is introduced, as he and Tess find themselves in the twisted clutches of Mother.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.