10 Horror Movie Plot Twists EVERYONE Guessed
6. Red Dragon - Francis Goes For Graham's Family
So, so many horror films have a fake-out death or defeat for their villains - it seems like all is OK but then the villain bursts out of nowhere alive and well, leading to either one last showdown or a sequel-baiting cliff-hanger. Red Dragon, the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs - an enjoyable watch, though it inevitably pales in comparison to its predecessor - boasts a particularly jarring example of this.
The film's main antagonist, serial killer Francis Dolarhyde (a superb Ralph Fiennes, who's the best thing in the movie by far) apparently kills himself during a set-piece. He does this in a burning house, which would make the body difficult to identify, and he also 'kills himself' off-screen.
When it turns out that the body the FBI find is actually someone else and when protagonist Will Graham (Edward Norton) finds Dolarhyde holding his family hostage, it's supposed to be a twist... it absolutely isn't. Even ignoring the fact that the trailer showed a scene of Graham's son opening the door to Dolarhyde, the supposed suicide wasn't shown and there was still a fair bit of the film's run-time left, so this fake-out was blatantly obvious.
Frequently, if a horror film doesn't do this kind-of fake out, that in itself feels like a massive plot twist. Maybe that could become more of a trend instead?