10 More Horror Movie Twists That Pissed Everyone Off

6. The Water Swerve - Signs

Hellraiser Hellseeker Kirsty Cotton
Touchstone Pictures

Coming hot on the heels of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, hope was extremely high for M. Night Shyamalan's Signs. And to be fair, this 2002 release is actually pretty darn good. Well, until its largely-panned final act.

Of course, Signs focuses on the Hess family as an alien invasion swarms the planet. What do these creatures want? How can they be stopped? Surely mankind won't be any sort of match for these otherworldly beings and their supersmarts?

Nope, water. All it took was a bit of water.

After doing such a great job of exploring the Hess clan - grieving widow Graham, his younger brother Merrill, and Graham's two young children - and in building up palpable dread at the prospect of the world going to the dogs, these aliens just up and leave Earth. It then becomes apparent in the final act - as Merrill battles one of the creatures left behind - that coming into contact with water proves fatal for these travellers from the stars.

That twist is totally dumb in real-time, but gets even dumber when you step back and think about how 70% of the planet is made up of water.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.