Occasionally, a movie turns out to be more complicated and convoluted than what we originally expect.In trying to keep up with the story, however,we often do not have the time and attention span to absorb all the finer details. This is especially true forhorror movies, where our interest is primarily drawn to the creeping dread and the looming anticipation of a plot twist. What we do not realize is that, in waiting for the final surprise, we miss out on the many hints that might have helped us predict it.
For this reason, manytwisted horror movies show the viewer something newwith every rewatch. It is so much easier to grasp all the hidden information when you are not trying to half-cover your eyes in fear of thenext jump scare. And perhaps, on repeated viewings, we do not merely catch subtle visual cues or clever foreshadowing —but also begin to uncover the deeper messages that were there all along.
Get Out
Cast
Jordan Peele made his directorial Horror debut with Get Out, a terrifying Psychological Horror film starring Daniel Kaluuya. In the 2017 release, Chris Washington heads to Upstate New York to meet the family of his girlfriend, Rose. What follows is a horrifying ordeal for the anxious photographer.
Get Outis one of those movies that immediately grabs your attention, with the ominous premise and the political message embedded. Jordan Peele’s debut is a blend of horror and social satire, shown through the vigilant eyes of Chris as he attempts to piece together what is happening. Nonetheless,the public is originally as clueless and primarily concerned with the protagonist’s survival as Chris is,leading to many elements of the film being overlooked.
Get Out(2017) has a 98% rating onRotten Tomatoes.
After repeated viewings, the story’s intricacies stand out more. Once you are aware of the wicked side of Rose and her family, every single moment with them assumes a different angle. Among the manyhidden details that emerge after eachGet Outrewatcharethe subtle political metaphors, such as the meaning of the sunken place, where Rose’s mother sends Chris under hypnosis to take control of his body, a place that symbolizes themarginalization of Black American people. Similarly, there are also many hints at Rose’s psychopathy early on, such as her chilling reaction shown before the deer’s death.
Hereditary
The feature film debut of writer-director Ari Aster, Hereditary tells the story of the unwittingly cursed Graham family. Annie Graham (Toni Collette) lives with her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) and their children Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). After the death of Annie’s mother, the family is beset by disaster and stalked by a supernatural entity that dredges up a past that Annie had spent her life trying to overlook.
Hereditaryshocks on first viewing with its poignant exploration of grief and the violent yet seemingly inevitable unfolding of events. The public is too busy mourning alongside Toni Collette and recovering from each cruel, abrupt plot twist to pay close attention to the story’s subtleties and embedded clues.Ari Aster plays with our emotions in such an unapologetic manner thatwe end up neglecting the warningshe plants from the very beginning of the film.
However, on repeated watches, it becomes much easier to search for all the hints previously missed. One of the most fascinating examples is when, at the beginning of the movie, there is a discussion about Sophocles' tragedies with a peculiar focus on the concept of free will. This speech foreshadows the family’s fate, trapped in a narrative that evokes the dramatic magnitude of a Greek tragedy—where they are nothing but mere puppets, stripped of agency.
Shaun of the Dead
From director Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead stars Simon Pegg as Shaun, an ambitionless slacker who one day finds his world overrun by zombies. From a script by Wright and Pegg, Shaun of the Dead injects comedy into a typically horror-focused subgenre as Shaun and his lazy friend Ed (Nick Frost) attempt to rescue Shaun’s estranged girlfriend and make it through the apocalypse unscathed.
Initially,Shaun of the Deadappears like abrilliant zombie horror with tons of heart, ingeniously witty yet emotionally intriguing. However,the movie is so rich in cultural references and meticulously craftedthat there is a lot more to unpack than what one might originally expect. However, during the first watch, the audience is fully distracted by the relentless comedic gags, and excessive gore while also rooting for its magnetic lead.
From subtle foreshadowings and craftily concealed throwaway comments, Wright rewards viewers who return for more.
This is why the movie has to be watched more than once. From subtle foreshadowings and craftily concealed throwaway comments,Wright rewards viewers who return for more. There is a specific moment before the zombie apocalypse arrives, when Ed attempts to make a plan to help Shaun get over his girlfriend. His discourse ends up being a prediction of their whole adventure. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is howShaun of the Dead’s emotional core deepens as you grow older, turning the movie from a tale about zombies to a lesson on the inevitability of growing up.
Us
Us is a horror film directed by Jordan Peele, depicting the unsettling vacation of the Wilson family, led by Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide and Winston Duke as Gabe. Their beach house retreat turns sinister when unexpected guests, identical in appearance to the family members, disrupt their peaceful getaway.
Jordan Peele is too much of a layered storyteller to leave anything to chance, andUsis proof of that. The plot is entrenched in an enigma while incorporating a powerful social message. It is hard to keep up with everything that unfolds in the movie due to the many intricacies and unanswered questions present. And perhaps, many elements of the story will always remain wrapped up in mystery.
Nevertheless,the reveal of the nature of Adelaide and her origin as a Tethered offers a new perspective, prompting us to rewatch the film with different eyes. Adelaide’s initial reluctance to speak after her presumed “disappearance” looks completely different. She was not traumatized. She was learning to mimic her doppelgänger. Similarly, some of Peele’s choices, such as the evocation of Hands of America, adopted by the Tethered, appear to be a call to the spectacle of performative activism in 1986, an initiative to raise awareness around homelessness and hunger despite America’s general disinterest in those underneath them.
Scream
1996’s Scream follows a teenage girl who is targeted by a masked killer a year after her mother’s murder who uses horror movies as a deadly game against her and her friends.
The premise ofScreampays tribute to the cultural relevance of countless horror movies that came before. As a consequence, Craven’s 1990s slasher is atapestry of horror pop-cultural references and Easter eggsthat often serve as foreshadowing about what is going to happen. At the same time, each of the series' films, especially the first, heavily plays with the mystery surrounding Ghostface’s identity.Although the reveal always comes as a shock, there are many hints about it as the story unfolds.
Depending on how often—and when—you rewatchScream, you’re likely to notice something new each time. For instance, the more you nurture your horror film culture, the more references you’ll catch and realize how cleverly they intersect with the plot. One example is when Sidney’s boyfriend, Billy Loomis, makes a brief nod toThe Exorcistas he mentions to her, he was watching it and how it reminded him of their relationship. In hindsight, after learning of Loomis' involvement in the series of murders, this throwaway comment is a hint at his wicked, sinister side.
Stanley Kubrick’sThe Shiningis not simply famous for how disturbing it is but also for how interpretable the story can be. The movie sparked countless fan theories about the mysterious Overlook Hotel. The intricate plot is rich in details that need many rewatches to notice them all. Initially, the viewer is primarily drawn to the sinister descent of Jack Torres, crushed by the isolated setting he moves to with his family.
Upon revisiting the film, the Overlook Hotel becomes a labyrinth of meaningsthat might trigger new conspiracies. One of the most famous theories stems from a throwaway remark by Stuart Ullman, who casually mentions that the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground. What initially might sound like a meaningless comment assumes a darker implication, especially considering the Native American imagery of the movie. This ghost tale could hide a social commentary on the history of injustices perpetrated against the American indigenous population.
4The Cabin In The Woods (2012)
Directed By Drew Goddard
The Cabin in the Woodsis a hilarious homage to the horror genre. The film uses the most standard tropes of our favorite scary B movies and subverts them to shock the public. Because of its celebrative intentions and the completely shocking twist in the finale, the story has too many references, and warnings, for the viewer to notice them all on first watch.
However, once the public is aware of the larger conspiracy at play and that their beloved heroes are nothing but pawns in a much more important story, noticing the different hints and Easter eggs becomes almost like a hunting game.Each return to the film brings in more subtly witty references to beloved classics of the horror genre, while all the different dialogues between the characters and the seemingly absurd rants of Marty assume a completely different and ominous connotation.
Final Destination
Final Destination follows a teenager who experiences a premonition of a fatal plane crash. After preventing the disaster, he and his friends are pursued by a malevolent force seeking to reclaim the unintended survivors. Released in 2000, the film explores themes of fate and mortality.
Even if you are watching a horror movie, there is always a subtle glimmer of hope that, regardless of how many deaths you will witness, the final survivors can make it and break whatever curse they are under. The problem withFinal Destinationis that the ultimate enemy is death-methodical and entirely unseen.
The first time the viewer experiences it, they are nonetheless primarily concerned with the unlikely survival of its protagonists. However, once they learn the rules of the film, upon multiple viewings,they notice all the details they might have missed the first time. This is what makesFinal Destinationso interesting to revisit more than once.Every single element, and every scene became a possible omen.From a foolish gesture to a seemingly irrelevant picture,they could all show warnings about the gruesome deathsof each character.
Saw
Saw is the first installment in the horror franchise directed by James Wan. Released in 2004, the film follows two men who awake shackled in a derelict bathroom, discovering they are part of a sadistic game orchestrated by the enigmatic Jigsaw, requiring them to follow cryptic instructions to survive.
As the name of the sadistic serial killer suggests,Sawis an enigma waiting to be solved. And if you missed the cues the first time, the more you revisit the movie, the more you are likely to notice the various hints pointing toward the solution.James Wan’s masterpiece almost feels like a puzzle, where every scene functions as a piecethat might or might not be indispensable to completing the final picture.
From Jigsaw’s slow breathing to the scene in the hospital, thehorror gave countless leads about the identity of its villainwhile also, throughout the series of movies, making several references to past and future games. At the moment when John Kramer is first shown on the hospital bed, in particular, it is possible to see some drawings that reveal Kramer’s identity as the Jigsaw killer.
The Others
Alejandro Amenábar wrote and directed this cult-classic 2001 Horror film starring Nicole Kidman and Fionnula Flanagan. The premise follows a mother and her two young photosensitive children as they attempt to deal with a mysterious and possibly sinister presence in their New Jersey home.
The final plot twist inThe Othersmight have come as a shock to the viewer when they first experienced the movie, but a closer look at the story reveals thatthe indications about the “conditions” of Grace and her children were there all along. Nonetheless, the spectral atmosphere and commanding performances of Nicole Kidman and her co-stars steal the attention of most first-time spectators.
On repeat watches, however, the film transforms, and most of the scenes assume a different, ominous tone.
On repeat watches, however, the film transforms, and most of the scenes assume a different, ominous tone. The interactions with the eerie house staff, Anne and Nicholas’ mysterious allergy to sunlight, and the strange occurrences Grace interprets as a haunting of her house all point to a darker truth. At the same time, if you reexperienceThe Othersaware that the protagonists are dead, thehorror moviebecomes a profound meditation on grief and denial.
