The 1980s were a heyday for themystery moviegenre.The popular Italian giallo genrewas blowing up in Europe, while a slew of Hitchcock-inspired directors were pumping out suspenseful Hollywood thrillers every year. The decade offered up many of cinema’s finest whodunits, although not all of them had the most exciting of final reveals.
Most times, a shocking and completely unexpected twist can make (or break) a mystery movie, but there are a select few whodunits that don’t rely on the final reveal to impress audiences. Take Mario Bava’s excellentA Bay of Blood(1971), for example, which reveals very early onwhothe killers are andwhattheir motive is, but still continues to captivate until the end with its lush visuals and nail-biting situational suspense. On a similar note, some mystery movies pack downright obvious “reveals” that the aficionados of the genre are bound to see coming from a mile away. Most often, these types of films are disappointing, but on rare occasions, a truly great film isn’t tanked by an underwhelming reveal. In the list below, we’ve collected 10 such excellent films with not-so-excellent twists!
WARNING: Massive spoilers abound for each of the following movies!
Stage Fright (1987)
Stage Frightis a thrilling Italian slasher film from Dario Argento protégé Michele Soavi. It centers around a hapless group of theater actors who become trapped inside the theater with a crazed serial killer.
Why it Makes the List
Stage Frightis low on mystery but high on creative kills and a dark, brooding atmosphere. Despite having a masked killer lurking about, the movie makes no bones about who that killer is after the first act. Even when the mask eventually comes off in the climactic finale, the reveal doesn’t surprise one bit, as the killer is exactly who all the characters had imagined it would be. Regardless of the lackluster mystery, however, the film is energetic and engaging, with plenty of interesting characters and several scenes of satisfying, graphic comeuppance.
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A Blade in the Dark (1983)
A Blade in the Darkis a wildly entertaining Italian giallo flick about a composer who moves into an isolated villa while recording the soundtrack to a horror movie. The film was directed by Lamberto Bava, the son of the great horror maestro Mario Bava, and is packed to the brim with colorful and stylish action that would make the senior Bava proud.
In classic giallo fashion,A Blade in the Darkis an Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery with heavy horror elements. Unfortunately, the mystery behind the killer — the crux of the story — is fairly obvious from the get-go. By the time it’s revealed, the audience is not so much surprised by who the killer is rather thanhowit is revealed. Believe it or not, that doesn’t ruin the fun one bit, as the suspense is killer throughout, and the film is really an exercise in style over substance anyway.
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Jagged Edge (1985)
Jagged Edgeis a criminally underrated mystery thriller starring Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close. It follows a lawyer who must defend a publisher suspected of murdering his wife.
The big reveal at the end of this movie is that the suspected publisher — Bridges’ Jack Forrester —isin fact guilty of murdering his wife. The movie makes this pretty clear from the beginning, however, and the red herrings it throws out here and there are flimsy at best.
Despite the above criticism,Jagged Edgeis a ton of fun. Bridges shines bright as the manipulative and charming bad guy, while Close does an excellent job as his foil. The trial and the suspense both come to a rousing conclusion that, while not entirely surprising, is memorable and utterly creepy.
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Witness (1985)
Witnessisa classic Harrison Ford movieabout a young Amish boy who becomes the sole witness to a murder at a train station. Ford plays John Book, a good-hearted detective committed to solving the case and protecting the boy.
Witnessis an interesting movie because of the way that it melds genres and evolves as it goes along; the movie commences as a murder-mystery, but Book quickly puts together the puzzle pieces and determines that his best suspect is a fellow police officer. By the time the actual “reveal” takes place – which confirms Book’s suspicions – it’s a little underwhelming, as we’ve already seen plenty of shady dealings between the main group of crooked cops.
The underwhelming reveal doesn’t hurt the film at all, however, asWitnessisn’t all that interested in being a mystery film. It quickly turns into a powerful romance drama, before taking a hard left turn into nail-biting suspense thriller territory.
Rent on Apple TV.
Macabre (1980)
Another film byA Blade in the Darkdirector Lamberto Bava,Macabreis a bizarre horror mystery about a woman who moves into a boarding house following the death of her lover. Meanwhile, her blind landlord suspects that the woman’s lover may not have died at all.
Macabreplays out like an extended episode of theTwilight Zone, albeit seen through a 1980s Italian sleaze lens. The woman is certainly up to something mysterious in her room in the boarding house, but it’s unclear whether she has found a new lover, imagined her old one’s return, or is engaged in something, well, moremacabre.
As it turns out, at the end of the second act, it is revealed to be the third option: the woman has kept her lover’s severed head and makes love with it every night. This might have been a shocking twist had it not been for the obvious set-ups throughout the beginning of the movie, such as repeated scenes depicting the woman carefully tending to a head-shaped object in the freezer. Despite the unsurprising twist, however,Macabreis a thoroughly deranged and unsettling little horror flick that deserves more love.
The New York Ripper (1982)
The New York Ripperis a classic Italian giallo film about a serial killer who talks like Donald Duck, chopping up women in the Big Apple. Directed by the Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci, the film is stylish, vicious, and downright terrifying at times.
There are plenty of great things to be said aboutThe New York Ripper– it’s a slasher fan’s dream movie, packed to the gills with inventive and unexpected kills, as well as a surprisingly engaging police procedural.
What’s not so surprising, however, is the final killer reveal; after a series of red herrings are debunked, all signs point to the disgruntled and resentful but highly intelligent Peter. Despite this, the cops continue to investigate other suspects right up until the final few minutes of the movie. It suddenly dawns on the lead inspector that the killer must be Peter, and he catches him in the act of trying to kill another woman. Fortunately, theexplosiveway in which Peter is dispatched more than makes up for the excruciatingly obvious nature of the reveal.
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Clue (1985)
Clueis a film adaptation of the popular board game of the same name. Featuring an ensemble cast including Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Brennan, and Madeline Kahn, plus a campy sense of humor and quippy script,Clueis a true ‘80s mystery gem.
TheCluemovie is famous for its multiple ending marketing scheme; three very different endings for the movie were filmed, and different theaters would show different endings, giving fans incentive to go and see the movie again and again. The thing is, critics generally agreed that, regardless of the ending you got, the final reveal was ultimately unsatisfying. With so many characters and a massive, overcomplicated web of motivations to keep track of,Clueindulges in so much fluff and gimmickry that the ending revelations don’t hit as hard as they should. This is easily forgivable, however, as the rest of the film is charming enough to secure its status as a cult classic.
Tenebre (1982)
Tenebreis an archetypal giallo film fromthe master of the genre, Dario Argento. It follows an American mystery novelist on a business trip to Rome, where a series of killings inspired by his book begin.
Tenebreis a near-perfect example of the giallo genre. It’s got all the stylish murder set-pieces, swanky sets, gorgeous compositions, and nail-biting suspense that the genre is acclaimed for, but its mystery falls just a little bit flat.
Try as the film might to throw the audience off the track, it is obvious from the very beginning that the killermustbe the novelist, and so when the reveal finally does happen in the penultimate scene of the movie, it really doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Luckily, the subsequent explanation of his disturbing motivationsdoesshock and surprise.
Psycho III (1986)
Psycho IIIis the severely underrated threequel to the famous Alfred Hitchcock classic. Directed by its star, Anthony Perkins, with frenetic energy, the film is a rock-solid slasher that deserves more recognition than it gets.
Following up an incredible and legendary movie likePsychois hard enough, but when Richard Franklin already did it once against impossible odds withthe shockingly goodPsycho II(1983), Perkins had some incredibly large shoes to fill when he took onPsycho III. Fortunately for movie fans, Perkins had what it took, and made a creative and fun sequel that easily ranks among the best “Part 3s” in horror movie history. It is not perfect, however, and most critics agree that its weakest element is its ending.
AfterPsycho IIbrilliantly subverted expectations with a killer final reveal – establishing that institutionalized diner waitress Emma Spool was actually Norman Bates’realmother – the ending ofPsycho IIIattempts to surprise audiences again by canceling out the ending of the preceding film. It is explained that Spool isnot, in fact, Norman’s mother, but rather his mother’s jealous sister. Things get very complicated very fast, and all the last-minute exposition dumping adds up to is a hill of beans. To make matters worse, the final moments of the movie squander any previously hinted-at hope that Norman could ever be rehabilitated.
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Dressed to Kill (1980)
Dressed to Killis a thrilling murder mystery from Brian De Palma.A defining film in the career of the “New Hitchcock,”the giallo-influencedDressed to Killtracks the efforts of a prostitute and a young man to uncover the identity of a serial killer.
AlthoughDressed to Killis undoubtedly a movie that keeps you guessing, many eagle-eyed viewers are sure to guess early on that the killer is none other than the shifty psychiatrist Dr. Elliott – the straight razordidbelong to him after all. When the final reveal comes, some viewers might find themselves wondering, “is it really that simple?” The answer is yes, it really is.
Underwhelming reveal or not,Dressed to Killis a truly great movie. The awe-inspiring stylization, fancy camerawork, wonderful performances, clever dialogue, and extremely suspenseful chase and murder sequences go a long way to make up for the predictable ending. All in all,Dressed to Killis a testament to the fact that a great mystery movie doesn’t have to have a mind-blowing twist at the end.
