The Most Predictable Scary Movies That We Still Love To Watch

This scary movie, released in 2016, follows The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan as Greta Evans. As a down-on-her-luck nanny in search of a new job, while fleeing from an abusive relationship, Greta agrees to take on a bizarre gig that sees her caring for a porcelain doll. Apparently, Brahms, the boy for whom the doll is modeled, was killed in a fire 20 years earlier, leaving his aged parents stricken with grief.

After her time spent with the doll becomes mired with a number of strange and seemingly paranormal occurrences, Greta learns that Brahms is alive and well and has, in fact been living in the walls of the estate for two decades. The twist isn’t exactly shocking and can likely be predicted as early as 15 minutes into the film’s run time. Of course, the masterful performances and intense dramatic irony make The Boy essential viewing for horror fans the world over.

Jordan Peele‘s second feature film, Us, released in 2019, is a psychological horror starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker. Though the scary movie wowed audiences and critics alike, it isn’t exactly the most unpredictable horror film we’ve seen in theaters.

For starters, the major twist is firmly telegraphed right at the start of the film, as Lupita Nyong’o’s doppelgänger, Red, is seen emerging from the shadows at the start of the film. When the main cast’s doppelgängers suddenly arrive to kill and replace them, it ultimately comes as no surprise that Red is the only one of the “Tethered” species who can speak. The film still excellently pulls of its suspense and horror, but we saw the twist coming from the very beginning.

Happy Death Day is a black comedy that crosses horror with the growing trend of Groundhog Day-style films. The scary movie, which stars Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, and Ruby Modine, focuses on a world where a young student is forced to relive the same day over and over again, ultimately facing her violent demise.

Though a number of Groundhog Day-style films have come out in recent years, including Palm Springs, Naked, and Live Die Repeat, none have blended the time-loop genre with slasher horror quite as effortlessly as Happy Death Day. Despite the film’s incredible editing, performances, and continuity, the big twist falls a bit flat, though audiences are still more than happy to tune in.

Released in 2007, 1408 stars John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, and adapts the Stephen King short story of the same name. This scary movie follows Mike Enslin, a highly pragmatic author tasked with investigating haunted locations to debunk their tales of ghosts and ghouls.

Of course, upon entering room 1408 at a fictional New York hotel, Mike is presented with a series of unexplainable hauntings which leave him reeling. In an homage to the ambiguous short story, it is revealed in the end that Mike may have been imagining everything, allowing for an intentionally ambiguous ending, or a foolish cop-out, depending on how much you enjoyed the journey.

Child’s Play is a classic slasher from 1988, which first introduced Chucky, the evil doll, into the public lexicon. In the film, which is the first of many appearances from the psychotic plaything, an innocuous doll is possessed by the soul of an infamous serial killer named Charles Lee Ray.

Despite being one of the most famous scary movies of the late 80s, Child’s Play is incredibly formulaic. The film follows a tried and true path which makes for excellent viewing but fails to surprise audiences new and returning. Even before the film arrived in theaters, marketing for the franchise pointed to the doll being possessed by an evil killer, ensuring audiences knew what they’d be going into from the get-go.

This 2014 psychological drama stars real-life twins Elias and Lukas Schwarz as a pair of twin brothers who believe their mother has been abducted and replaced with an identical imposter. Susanne Wuest, who portrays the mother in the scary movie, begins behaving erratically after suffering an accident, causing her to lash out at her friends and loved ones.

Over the course of the film, her behavior seems to become more and more over the top until it is finally revealed that there were in fact, not twins and that Elias had been hallucinating his twin brother all along. For any eagle-eyed viewers, this twist could have been called during the first act, though the psychological element of the film makes it worth the price of admission, regardless of its predictability.

The Sixth Sense may be known for its incredible twist ending, which famously reveals that Bruce Willis’ Malcolm Crowe has been dead throughout the film’s entire run time. However, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to imagine audiences of today being taken aback by this reveal. The film’s impeccable direction and gripping performances aside, it seems like this scary movie takes just about every opportunity it can to wink and nod directly into the camera in an effort to alert audiences to the upcoming twist.

Haley Joel Osment’s Cole Sear explains that dead people don’t know that they’ve passed fairly early in the film. This information, compounded with Malcom’s wife suddenly growing cold and distant to him, as well as Malcom’s alleged near-death experience, lays the groundwork for an obvious ending.