10 Horror Movie Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won

Malignant's utterly loony twist reveals that the movie's shadowy serial killer, Gabriel, is actually protagonist Madison's (Annabelle Wallis) parasitic twin brother, the vestigial remnants of whom have laid dormant within Madison's own skull.

And when Madison's abusive husband pushed her into a wall at the start of the film, this "awoke" Gabriel, who then embarked on a killing spree while effectively possessing Madison's body, piloting her from the back of her head, explaining why Gabriel's movements are so uncannily jerky.

At film's end Madison manages to take back control of her body and lock Gabriel into a mind prison of sorts, promising that she'll be ready for him if he ever breaks out. 

It's a seemingly happy ending, then, no matter that it completely ignores how, as far as the outside world knows, it was an insane Madison who carried out the several-dozen deaths actually caused by Gabriel.

It's intensely unlikely, even impossible, that the law will believe Madison's tale - even with medical documentation of her condition - and so it's far more likely that she ends up thrown in a psych ward for life if not executed for the killings.

While Gabriel doesn't accomplish his operating goal of taking permanent control of Madison's body, he's at least ensured that if he's going down, she's sure as hell going down with him. 

A classic Pyrrhic victory, then, even if the film itself totally glosses over this fact.