10 Movies That Subverted Expectations (And Fans Hated It)

Remember those days when M. Night Shyamalan was lauded with praise for being a master of shock and suspense? That, of course, was the consensus on Shyamalan after his stunning 1999 effort, The Sixth Sense.

To this day, that movie has one of the greatest plot twists in cinema history. And in all of his films since then, Shyamalan has made a point of having at least one major twist feature in the plot. Unfortunately for the filmmaker, though, not all of these twists have been quite as well received as the “Bruce Willis was totally dead all along” twist of his ’99 horror classic.

Of his movies to date, it was The Village that produced the most amount of facepalms and groans of disappointment.

Set in a 19th century village where terrifying creatures patrol the surrounding woods, fans went in expecting a traditional tale of suspense that played up the 19th century setting and explored the themes of the time and those beasties that lurked nearby. For the majority of the movie, that was largely what we got… until that twist.

The 19th century setting was all a charade, the creatures were really the elders of the village, and the village itself was actually based in the present day setting of a wildlife reserve. Shyamalan had given audiences something they totally weren’t expecting, and they responded by absolutely hating it.