20 Recent Movie Twists That Fell Completely Flat

Everyone loves a great plot twist, so it's not surprising that so many contemporary films include them. It is, nevertheless, regrettable that so many of today's films bungle this part of their stories. In recent times, bad plot twists have started to feel more common than the good ones, as far too many films throw in twists just for the sake of it and do this without the commitment and craft that go into a rug-pull that actually works. 

These following twenty movies are some of the very worst recent offenders. Most of these films aren't bad overall (although there are a few noteworthy stinkers) but all of them had poorly-executed plot turns that'll have everyone face-palming like Captain Piccard. They range from jarring 'everything is connected' moments to ill-judged deaths, from film-wrecking absurdities to painfully bad surprise villains - in short, they differ a lot in content. 

In terms of quality, however, they're uniformly terrible, and their movies would've been so much better had these plot-points been reworked or, in certain cases, ditched altogether. Of course, a spoiler warning is in effect here but then again, most will guess some of these 'reveals' well in advance...

One of the most annoying trends in modern Hollywood is this: everything always seems to be connected. Secret family members, unearned call-backs to past stories, it's all so annoying! 

Black Phone 2 features one of the most jarring recent examples of this. Thankfully, it didn't go down the route of the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) being the protagonists' lost brother or something ridiculous like that, but it did reveal that the Grabber killed their mother, who was previously believed to have committed suicide. 

This fell flat because it was the epitome of a twist for the sake of it that added nothing whatsoever to the story. In fact, it undermined it. The idea that the Grabber was a random, unrelated force of evil that protagonists Finney and Gwen (Mason Thames & Madeleine McGraw) encountered by pure misfortune within a seemingly normal neighbourhood was far more powerful. 

Additionally, their mother's apparent suicide due to her psychic visions had been an important part of the first film, as it made the siblings frightened of the supernatural gifts that motivated their alcoholic father to abuse them, yet these very gifts ended up saving Finney's life. Therefore, their mother's death not being a suicide after all retrospectively undermined the first movie too. 

Black Phone 2 was surprisingly alright as unasked-for horror sequels go, but it would've risen even higher had this empty call-back been left on the cutting room floor.