10 Movies Where The Villain Isn't Seen Until The End

Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale kind of came out of nowhere in 2018, offering up an all-star cast comprising Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson and others for a noir thriller quite unlike any other.

Riffing on traditional murder mystery films, the macguffins are a big bag of cash and a incriminating piece of film, and the action is contained to the El Royale, a hotel resting precariously on the California-Nevada border with hidden corridors and dark secrets aplenty. While Bad Times is rife with ne'er-do-wells and double-crossers, allegiances turning on a dime and big-name characters getting blown away on a whim, there is only one true villain, and he's not a guest.

Sadistic, Manson-esque cult leader Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth) makes his entrance once the action is almost at its conclusion, bringing the established conflicts crashing down and setting a new dramatic line. Trying to score a piece of the cash everyone has been fighting for while murdering him a few guests in the process, Billy Lee reveals himself to have been tracking a couple of ex-members of his cult.