For the past couple of weeks I’ve been busy working on a treatment for a new horror script named House no.13 (hence the lack of activity here on the blog). The movie is going to be a throwback to some of the classic old-school stalker/slasher films (which are making a comeback), and so far the story’s coming along pretty well. Except for the end. You see, I’ve got it all set up for a really good twist ending, but for some reason I just can’t bring myself to do it. Let me explain…
My own philosophy is that even though there are dozens of possible endings for a movie, only one of them is the right one. For an ending to be truly satisfying, it has to be the natural result of all the events that lead up to it. In other words, given everything that happens in the movie, there really is only one way it can end. Cause and effect. This doesn’t mean it has to be predictable and boring. Everyone knows that the hero of the action movie is going to save the day. You just don’t know how he/she is going to do it. The fun part is finding out. The really good movies are the ones that actually get you to believe they might actually fail (even though deep down you know they won’t).
For a good twist ending to work, it too has to be the natural result of all the events that lead up to it. You just didn’t see it coming. It should be the kind of thing that when you watch the movie again, it’s right under your nose and clear as day and you can’t believe you didn’t spot it the first time. ‘Cause really, it was the only way it could end. If you’ve spent the whole movie pointing toward one character as the killer, only to have it turn out to be someone else, then you better make sure you’ve given the audience enough possible clues to justify it. Otherwise, it’s not really a twist ending. It’s just a crappy one and the audience will most likely feel cheated. When used properly, though, the twist is a helluva’ lot of fun. Who could forget the mind-blowing end of Sleepaway Camp?
Back in the day, it was simple. You had a killer, a bunch of teens who usually “deserved” to die (except for one virginal heroine), and an easy ending (she survives). But since mid-90’s movies like Scream and The Sixth Sense, audiences have come to expect some sort of twist, so much so that even the twist itself is getting cliche and predictable. Everyone knows the killer isn’t who the filmmakers are implying and that it’s really the heroine’s bestfriend or boyfriend or (lately) the heroine herself (’cause we wouldn’t see that coming).
Which finally brings me back to my problem. I can go ahead and end House no.13 with a pretty good twist, but part of me just doesn’t want to. Part of me just wants to keep it simple: there’s a killer and people need to fight for their lives to survive. What to do, what to do, what to do…
So I figured I’d put this out there for discussion. Are you tired of twist endings and just want to sit back and turn your brain off? Or do you still get a kick out of trying to figure it out and getting surprised in the end?
Let me know what y’all think.
In the meantime, I’m going to keep coming up with creative ways to kill people. Uh, I mean characters…