20 Horror Movies That Fall Apart In The Final Act

10. High Tension

High Tension Marie
Lionsgate

High Tension is perhaps the poster child for an awful plot twist sabotaging a previously successful work. That assessment is overly generous, as the earlier parts of the movie aren't that good either, but there's no denying that this climactic twist was one of the worst ever put to film, and it positively annihilated any good work the earlier parts of the picture had done.

A film from the French New Extremity movement, High Tension is an uber-gory slasher flick in which a truck driver goes on a brutal killing spree, while protagonist Marie (Cécile de France) tries to protect her best friend and secret crush Alexis (Maiwenn) from the murderer. At least, that's how it all seems at first. In fact, as we learn late in the film, Marie is the killer and the truck driver is just a hallucination. She's obsessed with Alexis and killed her family so that she'd have her all to herself. 

Alongside being a pointless twist that didn't add anything of value, it negates pretty much the entire movie, as little of what we'd previously seen was real. It's an ending that gave everyone the finger, and not in a good way. 

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.