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

The Boy (2016) built upon director William Brent Bell's budding career in horror by presenting viewers with a cursed object movie with a difference.

Brahms is the star of the piece, a creepy, life-size porcelain doll boy whose "parents" -- the Heelshires -- bring in a real-life nanny, Greta Evans (Lauren Cohan), to take care of him. What starts out as a bit of wacky shenanigans soon turns dark, with the doll seemingly moving on its own, leaving messages and scaring the bejesus out of everyone.

While, for the duration of The Boy, we are led not only to believe Brahms is a doll, but that the doll is alive, a slightly preposterous twist flips the script and reveals the real Brahms Heelshire (James Russell) -- an adult boy who lives in the manor's walls, using the doll as his surrogate.

The true villain of the piece, Brahms has been terrorising the household for years, wearing a mask, stalking the halls in secret and driving his parents to suicide. It's an undeniably interesting twist, but many of us would rather have just suffered the haunted doll -- something which Bell unfortunately retconned into the 2020 sequel, in an attempt to have his cake and eat it.