10 Horror Movies With Terrifying Surprises

2. Curiosity Killed The Jack - The Shining

Urban Legends Final Cut
Warner Bros.

Technically, it was freezing temperatures that killed Jack Torrance, but hey, that's not quite as catchy as the title of this entry.

A wee while before he ended up frozen to death in the garden maze of the Overlook Hotel, The Shining had Jack Nicholson's Jack get quite the surprise when he found himself exploring Room 237 of this lavish locale.

After Jack's son Danny is left bruised following a visit to that room, the insanity-descending Jack finally relents and checks out the room for himself. There, he famously thinks his luck's in, as he's greeted by the visage of a beautiful, naked young woman who steps out of the tub and makes her way over to him.

While this was a pleasant surprise for the crazed Jack, far from a pleasant surprise for him was seeing this woman turn into a decaying old woman looking to suck on his face.

Shortly after this, Nicholson's character ends up hitting the bottle hard, which only accelerates his descent into madness as the Overlook fully starts to corrupt him and has him planning the death of his wife and son.

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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, 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.