10 Horror Movies That Cleverly START With Huge Twists
8. No One Lives
The rather underrated horror-thriller No One Lives offers up a trio of gnarly twists in swift succession just 20 minutes in.
The movie begins ordinarily enough for the genre, with a couple, Betty (Laura Ramsey) and a man known only as "Driver" (Luke Evans), being assailed by a gang of thieves led by the vile Hoag (Lee Tergesen).
But once the pair are captured, three unexpected events occur. Firstly, Betty kills herself by leaning forward into one of her kidnapper's knives, slashing her own throat.
Then an enraged Driver breaks out of his handcuffs and brutally kills said kidnapper, Ethan (Brodus Clay), confirming him to be anything but a regular guy.
And thirdly, the gang inspects Driver's car and finds a young woman, Emma (Adelaide Clemens), kidnapped in the trunk, revealing him to be a serial killer - quite possibly the worst person they could've tried to victimise.
As for why Betty took her own life? We can infer from her dialogue that she's grown tired of serving as an accomplice in Driver's crimes and took the opportunity to, er, duck out permanently.
That's... a lot for any movie to throw at the audience in the establishing scenes, but it at least prevents No One Lives from tracing too keenly inside the lines of the played-out "couple gets preyed upon by local creepers" subgenre.