10 Recent Movie Twists EVERYONE Hated

A24's new horror film Opus follows journalist Ariel (Ayo Edebiri), who is invited to the remote compound of a reclusive pop music legend, Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich), to hear his hotly anticipated new album.

But it turns out that Moretti is actually running a cult from the compound, leading to a finale where he urges his followers to partake in a mass suicide ritual by drinking poisoned champagne.

Ariel is almost forced to drink until a follower decides to free her, allowing her to escape. We then cut to an epilogue set two years later, where Ariel has written a book about the cult and visits a still-alive Moretti in prison.

Here Moretti reveals that the mass suicide was actually a hoax, and the "dead" followers are all still alive, having vanished and blended into society at various levels where they plan to keep spreading his teachings.

More than this, though, Moretti always planned for Ariel to survive the night, so she could write her book and unintentionally contribute to spreading the cult's message to millions of people.

While the movie is clearly trying to say something about the media's complicity in championing monstrous people, it's ultimately way too contrived for its own good, transforming Moretti from a vile cult leader into a genuine moustache-twirling criminal mastermind.