10 Horror Movies That Lied About Their Premise

Those horror offerings that weren't particular truthful with their purported plot.

by Andrew Pollard
From The Depths
ITN Distribution

Few corners of cinema remain as forever popular as the horror genre. Whether it's monster movies, slasher flicks, supernatural shenanigans, psychological torment or more, horror has a flavour for everyone's tastes.

One of the key reasons why this murky realm of film keeps on striking a chord with horror hounds, is often down to how these pictures keep audiences on their toes. After all, this is a genre that specialises in catching you off-guard with a shock twist or two designed to leave jaws agape.

Here, the spotlight isn't necessarily on movies that had a unique twist at play, but instead the focus is more on the features that outright lied to you when trying to entice you in with their plot details. For that part, the promotional push or official synopsis for these movies suggested or stated one thing, yet the end result was something entirely different or at least not totally in-tune with what we were all expecting to see.

With that in mind, then, here are ten such horror offerings that weren't exactly truthful when initially detailing their plot to would-be viewers.

10. Final Destination 5 Was Not A Sequel

From The Depths
New Line Cinema

What we all saw in Final Destination 5 was very much what we were expecting in terms of the Grim Reaper hunting down those who'd earlier managed to avoid perishing as a bridge collapsed. Where the film lied, though, is that it was really a prequel to the original Final Destination rather than the straight-up sequel it was billed as.

As a franchise, Final Destination is a fun concept that's wielded a mixed bag of results where it pertains to the quality of the five films to date. It is without any small semblance of hyperbole, though, to say that the final minutes' prequel twist of FD5 was utterly masterful.

With Death seemingly thwarted as Final Destination 5 starts to wrap up, survivors Sam and Molly take a vacation to Paris as they look to put their recent traumas behind them. There, the penny wonderfully drops that the plane these lovebirds have entered is the one and the same Volée Airlines Flight 180 that explodes at the start of the original Final Destination picture.

Were horror fans lied to? Absolutely. Were audiences left with their jaws agape? Undoubtedly. That is why this fifth FD entry will always be so fondly thought of by so many.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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, 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 dayjob, his role as the 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, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.