10 Horror Movie Twists That Rewrote The Rules
1. The Protagonist Was Dead All Along - The Sixth Sense (1999)
M. Night Shyamalan is synonymous with twist endings. Although he’s had some great ones – and some awful ones – over the years, it’s the earth-shattering revelation that wraps up The Sixth Sense that remains his most astonishing, brilliant, and everlasting “gotcha!” moment.
Long story short, the plot revolves around a child psychologist named Malcolm who befriends and supports a disturbed boy named Cole as he wrestles with the trauma of seeing ghosts.
Beyond his typical professional desire to help the young man, Malcolm hopes that his work with Cole will help him reconnect with his estranged wife, Anna, and find redemption for failing to help a similarly troubled patient (Vincent, who, as an adult, shot Malcolm and then himself as the film opened).
As the iconic line goes, Cole indeed “see[s] dead people,” and during the last act, Malcolm realizes that he’s one of the lost souls Cole is talking about. The final moments of The Sixth Sense find Malcolm reflecting on all the signs he missed regarding Vincent’s gunshot being fatal and Anna’s detachment really being her grieving process.
Undoubtedly, The Sixth Sense rekindled the “dead all along” twist for years to come, and the gimmick of catching all the clues upon later rewatches is now a staple not only of Shyamalan’s filmography but of movies with surprise endings overall.