10 Utterly Devastating Horror Movie Endings You Didn't See Coming
8. Scream
With the entire genre falling into a pit of formula and predictability, Wes Craven took the slasher film in 1996, much like he did with A Nightmare on Elm Street 12 years earlier, and rejuvenated it with Scream.
The movie that would spawn a franchise that is still relevant 30 years later actively played on the expected tropes and called them out beautifully while still employing them, bringing a whole new meta dynamic to the screen.
However, not everything was played by the rules so eloquently laid out by Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) throughout Scream. The first shocking twist came early on, as Drew Barrymore's Casey Becker, the heavily advertised lead character, was killed off within 12 minutes to be replaced by Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott, and the second shocker came with the killer reveal at the end.
Having Sidney's boyfriend be the man behind the mask wasn't exactly a huge surprise, but having multiple killers, with Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) joining Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), and both being so close to Sidney, was a gut punch. The double killer is something that has been utilised by the franchise in almost every film since, all because of how well this first one was executed.