7 Scary Movie Twists That Ruined a Great Horror Franchise Forever

Unexpected twists are a classic part of horror movies, and have been for many years. Even when a twist becomes the most famous thing about a film, like with The Sixth Sense, it doesn’t make the movie any worse. People can watch M. Night Shyamalan’s film knowing the ending – or what they *believe* the ending is – and still really enjoy it. A well-done twist, particularly in a horror movie, adds to the overall experience and enhances everything that happens before it, instead of ruining the fun of watching.

Sometimes, a plot twist in a movie doesn’t just damage that particular film – it can retroactively make everything that comes after it, and even earlier installments, worse. It’s unusual, but as horror franchises increasingly contort themselves to come up with reasons for new sequels, we’re likely to see twists that completely unravel a series’ timeline. Be warned: spoilers will follow.

7) 3 From Hell Confirms the Firefly Family Survived

Fourteen years after Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects ended with a violent climax and the apparent deaths of its main characters, he unexpectedly brought them back for a sequel. The beginning of 3 From Hell quickly reveals that, surprisingly, the deranged Firefly family somehow survived their gun battle with the police and have been incarcerated ever since. While this was a necessary plot point – the film couldn’t exist without it – it ultimately diminishes the tragic impact of the ending in The Devil’s Rejects.

6) Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers Introduces the Cult of Thorn

I’ve always been fascinated by the Halloween franchise, but it’s interesting how it started so simply. It feels like with each new sequel, they just kept adding bits and pieces to Michael Myers’ backstory, and it quickly became overly complex. By the time we got to the sixth film, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, things had really gone off the rails! They revealed that Myers had been influenced by a Druid cult his whole life, and that’s why he killed his family – it was all connected to *that*. And then, to top it all off, they introduced this crazy plot about doctors trying to clone him into babies! It basically threw away everything we knew from the previous movies, which was a little disappointing, honestly.

5) Jaws 2 Reveals There’s Just Another Shark Now

To be fair, Jaws 2 actually features some genuinely engaging character development, particularly with Chief Brody grappling with the trauma from the first movie-a performance Roy Scheider delivers convincingly. However, the film immediately throws another massive shark into the mix, seemingly out of nowhere, as it starts attacking swimmers and boats near Amity Island. This is a rather silly way to begin the sequel, and it turns what could have been the peak of an amazing adventure film into the beginning of a long, drawn-out story about a shark family seeking revenge. It just doesn’t make sense.

4) Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III Makes the Family Interchangeable

Tobe Hooper’s original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wasn’t intended to launch a series, explaining the ten-year wait before the sequel. When the third film arrived, the rights moved to New Line Cinema, who wanted to create a new horror series similar to A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, this meant that only one member of the cannibal family from the first movie would return – the one wearing the leather mask. Consequently, every Chainsaw movie after that featured the main killer with a completely new set of family members each time, with no consistent storyline connecting them.

3) Paranormal Activity 4 Tries to Make It All Make Sense

As a big fan of found footage horror, I remember when the original Paranormal Activity blew up – it was inevitable we’d get sequels! With Paranormal Activity 2, things started to get a lot bigger. They began building a more complex backstory, hinting that sisters Katie and Kristi were caught up in some huge demonic plot. What was really clever about that film was the timeline trick – it actually took place *before* the first movie, but then the ending jumped forward in time, showing Katie kidnapping her nephew, Hunter, and vanishing. It left us all on a seriously creepy cliffhanger!

Feeling constrained by its established storyline, Paranormal Activity 3 tried a new approach by going further back in time, offering a found footage film set in the 1980s. This movie broadened the story by showing that a group of witches was at the heart of the bigger mystery. This leads to Paranormal Activity 4, which happens years after the original film and tries to tie everything together. However, the movie struggles to do so, and ultimately just created the need for even more sequels to attempt the same thing.

2) Saw 4 Unmasks Jigsaw’s New Apprentice

The Saw franchise is known for its shocking plot twists, and each film aims to surprise viewers. Saw 4 delivers on this expectation with a couple of twists, notably revealing that the events actually happen at the same time as Saw 3, meaning it’s not a traditional sequel.

Another major surprise in Saw 4 is that Detective Hoffman, played by Costas Mandylor, isn’t a target in Jigsaw’s game-he’s actually helping the killer carry out his plan. While this twist isn’t terrible on its own, it creates problems for the rest of the series. Because of the reveal that “Hoffman is now Jigsaw,” the following sequels lose any sense of a timeline. They all seem to happen right after one another, even though setting up all those elaborate games would clearly take a lot of time and effort. Plus, the series had to do a lot of rewriting of past events just to make the Hoffman twist believable in the first place.

1) Scream 3 Establishes One Guy Planned the Entire Trilogy

As a critic, I remember Scream 3 being pitched as the finale, and it definitely leaned *hard* into self-awareness – more so than the previous films. Honestly, the big reveal felt like it undermined everything we’d seen in the first two movies. The film tries to shock us by revealing that Roman Bridger, the director of Stab 3, is actually Sydney’s half-brother. Apparently, their mother had a short stint in Hollywood, and Roman is the result of that. It felt a little forced, if I’m being honest.

In the movie, he shares that he attempted to reach out to Maureen, but she turned him down, fueling his desire for revenge. Roman then filmed Maureen’s affairs, exposing her infidelity to Billy Loomis and ultimately triggering the events of the original film. With Scream 3, he grew envious of the recognition Sydney received from the first two films and wanted a share of the spotlight. Feeling lost? You weren’t alone.

It’s commendable that Scream 3 attempts to give this plot twist some significance, even admitting how far-fetched it is – a common trait in the often-complicated timelines of horror movies. However, the twist ultimately feels just as illogical and uneven as those in other horror series, and it unfortunately undermines the solid foundation of the original Scream film.

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2025-10-04 22:42