From Chuckles to Chills: 20 Movies with Light-Hearted Beginnings That Take a Sinister Turn
Movies with big twists are some of the most compelling, especially when that twist changes the whole tone of the film. A user on a popular internet forum asked for recommendations of movies that start off funny but suddenly turn sinister and serious by the end. Movie buffs replied with their favorites in the comments.
1. Pleasantville (1998)
When a strange TV repairman puts a '50s family TV series-obsessed high schooler and his sister inside the program the teen loves so dearly, he begins a quiet life in the sleepy town of Pleasantville. But his sister isn't so happy with their new circumstances. She adds a little drama to the once-perfectly calm TV show they live in.
2. Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Sorry to Bother You is a brilliant dark satire that examines racism and corporate greed in America. It's about a young black man who gets a job as a telemarketer to make ends meet. When his supervisor teaches him how to use a “white voice” with customers, he suddenly becomes the top salesman. But is selling himself and his community out worth his ruse up the capitalist ladder?
Eventually, the young man realizes his success may have brought him too far in an insane, disturbing twist that changes everything.
3. Audition (1999)
This Japanese thriller starts off like a rom-com when a widower tries to find love again by using a mock call for “auditions” for women to try out to be his girlfriend. Through the process, he meets a woman he wants to date. But as he learns more about her mysterious circumstances, he realizes he may have pursued the wrong woman.
4. Super (2010)
After having a vision that God chose him to be a superhero, a man whose beloved wife recently left him heads to a comic store to do some research on his new pursuit. Soon, he dons a red suit and the title “The Crimson Bolt” as he wields a pipe wrench with which to beat his foes to a pulp.
5. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
The Banshees of Inisherin is a twisted film about a man's best friend who suddenly stops talking to him and he refuses to accept the loss. The man continues to reach out to his ex-best friend until he's told to stop with one final warning. But the man refuses to back down, eliciting a feud between the two men that continues to escalate.
6. Hot Fuzz (2007)
When a man is promoted to sergeant of the police force, his colleagues are jealous of his success and get him moved from a bustling city to a sleepy town with little crime. The sergeant is bored until he uncovers foul play while investigating a brutal car crash.
7. Click (2006)
Click is a drama film with a dark twist about an ambitious man whose wife constantly tells him to stop spending all his time at the office. When the man encounters a wacky inventor, the inventor gives him a remote that allows him to control time. But is he really in control of time, or does time control him?
8. Palm Springs (2020)
When a man and a woman sneak off to hook up during a wedding reception, the two become trapped in a time loop that forces them to relive the wedding day repeatedly with no escape in sight. The two get to know each other as they're stuck in time but don't always like what they learn.
9. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is an apocalyptic romance movie about a man whose wife leaves him after they learn that a comet is headed directly towards Earth and will collide in one month. In search of a love lost long ago, the man embarks on a cross-country journey to rekindle the romance between him and his true love before life is snatched away from humanity forever.
10. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
What begins as a humorous chronicle of the lives of some wacky characters in the military's basic training turns into a battle for life and death in Full Metal Jacket. The film follows one Private as he makes it through basic training before heading to Vietnam and witnessing the brutal and tragic Battle of Hué.
11. The Frighteners (1996)
Posing as an exorcist, an ex-architect claims he gained his supernatural abilities after surviving the car crash that killed his wife. But people seek his advice when mysterious deaths pop up everywhere in his rural town. Can the man keep up the act and uncover the truth of the deaths simultaneously?
12. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
One day, an unremarkable young man who works at an electronics store and spends his free time at the pub with his best friend wakes up in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. He realizes he must give up his ordinary life to protect his girlfriend and mom.
13. The Kid Detective (2020)
When a famous kid detective grows up, he sticks to solving the same sort of mysteries while questioning what has become of his life. But after a new client asks him to solve the murder of her boyfriend, the kid detective finds himself in over his head.
14. Shallow Grave (1994)
Shallow Grave follows a doctor, a journalist, and an accountant who share an apartment and are searching for a fourth roommate. After they decide on a match, their new roommate soon dies of a drug overdose, and the friends make the unhinged decision to steal his money and cover up his death.
15. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
A lot of people go into The Cabin in the Woods expecting a terrible horrible movie, but it's actually a satirical look at all the horror movies coming out around that time. The movie follows five friends who go to a remote cabin, but there's more to the house than they all expect.
16. Adaptation (2002)
Adaptation starts when a screenwriter is hired to write an adaptation of a book. What seems like it's going to be a basic movie about a man struggling to adapt a book turns into something much darker as the movie continues.
17. Ready or Not (2019)
Ready or Not shows a bride on her wedding night and she joins a very interesting family who forces her to play a game on the night of their wedding in order to join the family. What starts off as a casual game of hide-and-seek ends up being something much darker.
18. The Voices (1994)
Ryan Renolds plays this kind of guy who is really liked by everyone at work, and who finally gets a date with his office crush. But what no one realizes is he's hearing voices from his countless pets who are telling him to do terrible things to his dates.
19. Natural Born Killers (1994)
Natural Born Killers is about two people who were traumatized as kids and who eventually become lovers… and serial killers. After killing Mallory's (Juliette Lewis) father, the pair begin to kill everyone around them. But as they go on their rampage, they end up leaving one person at every crime scene to tell their story to heighten their story.
20. Ruthless People (1986)
Ruthless People starts off as a comedy, but as time goes on throughout the movie, the terrible people really make this film a lot darker. A businessman plans to kill his wife in retaliation for her actions, but they end up getting tossed into a web with a couple who were cheated by the couple.
