10 Horror TV Shows With Terrifying Surprises
Sometimes, the scariest surprises in horror TV shows are hidden until the last minute.
Shock and horror often go hand in hand, with horrific revelations being part and parcel of the genre. The killer hiding in plain sight only to be revealed last minute? Scary stuff! The innocent little girl turns out to be possessed? How chilling! Hearing the doorbell ring when you’re on the toilet? God save us all!
Sometimes the scares are right before our eyes, and sometimes they hide in the background. However, some horror shows take it to the next level, and hit us with scares completely out of nowhere.
Plot twists, when done well, can be an incredibly effective way to subvert the audience’s expectations and really frighten them. It can also be played for laughs, or simply a way to shake up the story. Take the iconic trope in Scooby Doo where The Gang unmask the killer – its surprising, spooky and often pretty clever. But the horror hounds that grew up with these surprises have grown to want them more and more from the genre.
These horror shows have shocking surprises that end up being some of the most memorable moments in the whole series, and they are absolutely terrifying too. This list will contain spoilers.
10. Demon Dean - Supernatural
The world feels weird without Supernatural. It ran for fifteen years and boasted over 300 episodes, plus it had one of the most uh… passionate fanbases of any television show. For all its highs and lows, monster hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester will sorely missed for a long time.
The show, being as long s it was, often had to come up with new ideas to keep it going (killing off the main characters over and over again lost its’ impact pretty quickly). One of the most shocking twists occurred at the end of season nine, when Jensen Ackles’ Dean is killed by Metatron, the Scribe of God.
Prior to his death however, Dean was afflicted with the Mark of Cain, which prevented his death from being permanent. The demon Crowley hands Dean a weapon known as The First Blade, and the camera lingers on Dean’s unmoving face for a few moments. The his eyes open, and they are pitch black: the eyes of a demon.
This cliff-hanger caused a huge amount of theorising within the always energetic Supernatural fandom, as what became known as Deanmon became one of the show’s most surprising twists. It was hauntingly foreshadowed back in Season 3, but seeing Dean become the thing he hated most was nothing short of jaw-dropping.