Contains discussion of sexual violence, murder, and spoilers for all movies discussed.
Many of thebest movies of all timehave an innate knack for leaving their viewers utterly lost for words by the time that proceedings draw to a close. While this is often a testament to the sheer quality of the wider production, it’s worth noting that this state of affairs typically persists in cinema’s most shocking entries, be that off the back of a uniquely dark central premise, a jaw-dropping plot twist, or a mind-blowing conclusion that leaves viewers totally lost for words.
Fromacclaimed dramas that verge on becoming horror moviesto complexsci-fi films that require multiple watches to fully understand, many of cinema’s most jarring numbers have a habit of lingering in the viewer’s mind long after the credits have rolled on proceedings, leveraging explosive bombshells and harrowing subject matter to the maximum effect possible. I was left completely speechless after the credits rolled for these movies, with these showstopping films standing as a testament to the impressively twisted capabilities of some of Hollywood’s greatest creative minds.
Promising Young Woman
Cast
Starring Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman follows Cassie, a college dropout intent on getting revenge for the unprosecuted rape of her deceased best friend, Nina. As she becomes deeper involved in tormenting those she sees as complicit in Nina’s rape and subsequent suicide, Cassie begins to travel down a more dangerous path than she realizes. Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, and Connie Britton also star.
Featuring an electrifying Carey Mulligan performance in the leading role of Cassie Thomas, it’s hard to accurately describe just how empty I felt after the credits rolled on 2020’sPromising Young Woman. Haunted by the death of a close friend who took her own life after being raped at a college party, Cassie abandons a medical career to enact a campaign of retribution against those she deems responsible in Emerald Fennell’s revenge thriller, a series of events that eventually culminates in her own demise.
Promising Young Woman: Where Else You Know The Cast From
Promising Young Woman has an all-star cast that brings this story to life. Where else have fans possibly seen them in TV and film?
Mirroring the fraught nature of its premise,Promising Young Womanis unapologetically devastating, tackling the harrowing themes of trauma and sexual assault head on. Seeing Cassie die horrifically at the hands of Nina’s rapist makes for indescribably desolating viewing, even ifPromising Young Woman’sendingreveals she left arrangements to ensure justice for her friend. While it’s cathartic to see the movie’s villains get their just deserts, it’s hard to feel anything other than mute emptiness in the aftermath.
Oldboy
Oldboy follows the story of a man mysteriously imprisoned for 15 years without explanation. Upon his release, he embarks on a quest to uncover the identity of his captors and understand the motivations behind their actions. This gripping tale navigates through themes of vengeance and discovery.
While its visceral performances, brutal action sequences, and masterful cinematography left me transfixed,Oldboy’sunforgettable twist endingvirtually removed my ability to speak. Following Choi Min-Sik’s Oh Dae-Su as he seeks vengeance against a mysterious man who imprisoned him in a hotel room for 15 years, Park Chan-wook’s 2003 action thriller is notorious for one of cinema’s most harrowing endings, a conclusion that whips the rug out from underneath the unsuspecting viewers and completely changes the landscape of the entire movie.
One of the most disturbing twist endings of all time, the shock factor of this earth-shattering revelation is compounded by the fact that it comes completely out of left field.
After tracking down his tormentor, Yoo Ji-Tae’s Lee Woo-Jin, Dae-Su’s world is shattered by the revelation that his love interest Mi-do is none other than his long-lost daughter. Threatening to tell Mi-do the truth, Woo-Jin gleefully reveals that he engineered their relationship through hypnosis in revenge for Dae-Su’s part in his sister’s suicide, prompting Choi Min-Sik’s charge to cut out his own tongue as penance. One of the most disturbing twist endings of all time, the shock factor of this earth-shattering revelation is compounded by the fact that it comes completely out of left field.
Life
A six-member crew is tasked with studying a sample from Mars that may be the first proof of extra-terrestrial life.
In a genre notorious for bleak and harrowing finales, 2017’sLifemight possess modern sci-fi’s most terrifying conclusion. Chronicling the rampage of a murderous extraterrestrial entity dubbed Calvin aboard the ISS, the closing act of Daniel Espinosa’s picture features one of the nastiest twists in cinematic history. Evoking a sensation of pure despair within me,Life’sshock endingsees an attempt to fire Calvin into deep space using an escape pod backfire in spectacular fashion.
After unintentionally colliding with debris in her own pod, Rebecca Ferguson’s Miranda North is the unfortunate individual left to tumble uncontrollably into deep space as she screams in despair. Compounding matters, Jake Gyllenhaal’s David Jordan had willingly sacrificed his own life to try and pilot Calvin’s pod into space. The only reward for his heroism? Jordan gets a front-row seat for the end of the world when arriving fishermen open his pod after it accidentally splashes down on Earth instead, unleashing Calvin and presumably signaling humanity’s demise. Simply put, it’s so bleak that I was lost for words.
Shutter Island
Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Ben Kingsley. Set in 1959, Shutter Island follows two U.S. Marshalls - Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) as they are sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital specializing in psychiatric care.
A masterfulpsychological thriller guaranteed to mess with your head, 2010’sShutter Islandis known for one of cinema’s most shocking endings. Martin Scorsese may be one of cinema’s finest directors, but he’s not necessarily known for his twists, compounding the mind-blowing aura of the movie’s iconic curveball revealing that Leonardo DiCaprio’s U.S. Marshal, Teddy Daniels, has actually been a patient in the island’s mental hospital all along.
Teddy Daniels is an anagram of DiCaprio’s charge’s real name, Andrew Laeddis.
The discovery that the hospital’s doctors had simply been playing along with the delusions of Andrew Laeddis, a psychotic patient who killed his wife after she drowned their three children, is so mind-blowing on first watch that it left me utterly gobsmacked; a seismic narrative development that instantly casts the entire film in an entirely new light. The exemplary quality of Scorsese’s psychological thriller lulls viewers into dropping their guard before the director deals out a devastating narrative knockout blow they never saw coming, a plot twist that frequently leaves its open-mouthed audiences incapable of speech.
The Prestige
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, The Prestige follows the lives of two stage magicians in Victorian London. Once colleagues, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden become hated rivals after a tragedy involving Angier’s wife tears them apart. The two magicians each go on to have their own lives and careers while competing to see who can pull off a seemingly impossible teleportation trick. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale star as Angier and Borden.
Christopher Nolan has produced some of cinema’s most memorable endings, but arguably none can match the conclusion of 2006’sThe Prestigefor sheer shock factor and entertainment value. Chronicling the bitter rivalry between two magicians as they seek to upstage one another using their own versions of a teleportation illusion, Nolan was already notorious for whipping the rug out from beneath his audience following his twist-loaded triumph, 2000’sMemento.However, this still wasn’t enough to prepare most viewers for what he had in store for them on this occasion.
The main characters' initials, A.B. and R.A. for Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, respectively, form the beginning of the common magician’s phrase,“abracadabra.”
Loaded with mind-blowing bombshells and jaw-dropping twists, the gruesome truth behind the"Transported Man"magic trick and the revelation of Borden’s twin brother’s existence left me dumbfounded upon first viewing, transfixed by the sheer intricacy of the director’s narrative. ArguablyChristopher Nolan’s best movie twist, this jaw-dropping finale never fails to leave audiences in a state of silent shock.
The Substance
Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading celebrity, turns to a mysterious drug that promises to restore her youth by creating a younger, more beautiful version of herself. But splitting time between her original and new body leads to horrifying consequences as her alternate self, Sue, begins to unravel her life in a disturbing body-horror descent.
It stands to reason that one of the most shocking movies in recent memory would leave my jaw on the floor by the time the credits rolled, and Coralie Fargeat’sThe Substanceproved to be no exception. A spectacularly gruesome 2024 body horror that deftly balances cutting social commentary on societal attitudes towards women with some of the most grotesque visuals in cinematic history, I had never seen anything quite like this gleefully satirical tour de force.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Original Screenplay
Nominated
Featuring a knockout performance from Demi Moore, early reviews for Fargeat’s outing had painted the movie in a promising light, but did little to prepare this writer for one of the most impressive and ambitious horror films of the 21st century.The Substance’sblend of haunting scenesand nauseating visuals makes for an outing that invariably leaves audiences completely dumbstruck, building to a psychedelic blood-soaked crescendo that captures the essence of a living nightmare.
The Usual Suspects
Written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects is a Mystery film that features Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, and Benicio del Toro. The plot unfolds during an interrogation in which a con man speaks to investigators about what happened, being one of only two men that survived a massacre at the Port of Los Angeles.
An iconic entry that turns thirty this year, 1995’sThe Usual Suspectsis notorious for one of cinema’s most famous plot twists, a divisive narrative curveball that is typically either revered as a stroke of genius or dismissed as a predictable load of nonsense. This writer falls into the former camp, considering that the twist unmasking Kevin Spacey’s unassuming con artist Roger"Verbal"Kint as the legendary crime lord, Keyser Söze, left me thoroughly lost for words on first viewing.
While there is some truth to the criticism that labels much of the movie’s plot as clichéd and easy to predict, all of that is forgiven in light of the sheer intricacy and epic scale ofThe Usual Suspects’final twist. A wicked array of red herrings provide hints that Kint was Söze all along on a second viewing, but the movie’s brilliant bombshell ending is so meticulously constructed and executed that it’s consistently been leaving first-time watchers utterly speechless for three decades.
Hereditary
The feature film debut of writer-director Ari Aster, Hereditary tells the story of the unwittingly cursed Graham family. Annie Graham (Toni Collette) lives with her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) and their children Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). After the death of Annie’s mother, the family is beset by disaster and stalked by a supernatural entity that dredges up a past that Annie had spent her life trying to overlook.
One of themost terrifying horror moviesof all time, it’s hard to express just how frightening Ari Aster’sHereditaryis on first viewing. Many of the iconic horror movie’s scenes are so disturbing that they literally leave their viewers frozen in silent fear, from Charlie’s appalling decapitation in a car accident, to Annie beheading herself with piano wire. Many ofHereditary’smost nightmarish visuals remain seared into my mind’s eye to this day, underlining Aster’s offering’s credentials as a movie that is so unsettling that it will leave you lost for words.
It wasn’t entirely clear what I had just witnessed on first viewing, but the immediate aftermath of Aster’s film left me tongue-tied with terror all the same.
Case in point?Hereditary’sending sees the ghastly coven members gather to worship a mannequin bearing Charlie’s severed head in her old treehouse, before crowning Alex Wolff’s newly possessed charge as the demonic"King Paimon"to conclude proceedings in indescribably eerie fashion. It wasn’t entirely clear what I had just witnessed on first viewing, but the immediate aftermath of Aster’s film left me tongue-tied with terror all the same.
Parasite
Parasite is a 2019 South Korean film directed by Bong Joon-ho. The film follows the destitute Kim family as they infiltrate the affluent Park household by manipulating their way into various household roles, leading to unforeseen consequences.
The first non-English-language movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture,Bong Joon-Ho’sParasiteis the quintessential example of a film where nobody wins. Following a poor family who insidiously infiltrate a wealthy family, this wicked 2019 black-comedy thriller concludes in morbid fashion befitting of its relentlessly nihilistic vibes, an ending that sees Song Kang-Ho’s Kim Ki-Taek purportedly condemned to a lifetime of existence in the house’s subterranean bunker after murdering Mr Park in the chaotic medley precipitated by Geun-Sae’s breakout.
Best Production Design
Compounding the harrowing aura of proceedings, Ki-Taek’s morally devoid family are the ones who suffer the most in the aftermath. Placed on probation for fraud alongside his mother, Ki-Woo has lingering brain damage from Geun-Sae’s attack, while his sister Ki-Jung is revealed to have died from her wounds. Simply put, it’s one of modern cinema’s most devastating and shocking entries, a movie that ends in such bleak fashion that it knocked the words out of me.
Se7en
David Fincher’s crime thriller Se7en follows the seasoned Detective William Somerset after he is assigned a new partner, the young and idealistic David Mills (Brad Pitt). The two find themselves investigating a deranged killer staging murders inspired by each of the seven deadly sins. On the hunt for the twisted John Doe (Kevin Spacey) before he can kill again, the two detectives soon discover that they’re much deeper into the case than they realized.
Following a serial killer who commits his murders based on Christianity’s seven deadly sins, 1995’sSe7enis renowned as one of cinema’s most dark and brutal entries. It was a reputation that I was aware of before embarking on David Fincher’s acclaimed crime thriller, but it didn’t make what was about to come any easier when it arrived. The sheer brutality of the murders perpetrated by Kevin Spacey’s"John Doe"left me gobsmacked with horror long before the movie’s notoriously desolating ending rolls around.
Se7en Review: David Fincher’s Grisly Style & Well-Chosen Actors Force Us To Reconsider Human Nature
Se7en is a grisly murder thriller, with an intriguing discourse surrounding the symbolism of the murders and Freeman and Pitt as a strong lead duo.
Promising to disclose the location of the"envy"and"wrath"victims, Doe gets the depraved end to the game he was after. Revealing that he envied Mills' wife, Spacey’s psychotic killer coerces Brad Pitt’s charge into vengefully shooting him by having her severed head delivered to him in a box. Leaving this writer in a state of speechless dismay,the pair complete Doe’s game by becoming the embodiment of the two final sins in one of cinema’s darkest endings.
