Now Scream This: 10 Streaming Horror Movies With Crazy Plot Twists

(Welcome to Now Scream This, a column where horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato tell you what scary, spooky, and spine-tingling movies are streaming and where you can watch them.)Matt: With the impending continuation of the Saw franchise only days away, Chris and I are highlighting twists and murderous mysteries within horror's imprisonment. You'll hear things like "reminiscent of Clue" or "out of left field," because what is horror without suspense? A horror comedy. Alright. BUT STILL. Horror hinged on whodunit intrigue sustains the cat-and-mouse chase of unidentifiable slashers or creatures of unknown origins. Maybe, just maybe, you'll glimpse a hybrid of Murder On The Orient Express and A Nightmare On Elm Street. Keep me guessing, keep me happy!Chris: What a twist! Now Scream This is back with some horror movies with big twists to pay tribute to Saw, since, as I'm sure you know, Spiral: From the Book of Saw is about to open and unleash all new twists and turns. I tried not to be too obvious with my picks – The Sixth Sense is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, but c'mon, you know that one already. Anyway, since we're dealing with twist movies here, I'll try not to be too spoilery. But I can make no promises. 

Deep Murder

Now Streaming on Shudder and Amazon Prime

Matt: My hot take on Deep Murder is, "Imagine Dude Bro Party Massacre III but if a slasher interrupted a softcore porno?" If you've seen the magnificent short Great Choice—where Carrie Coon gets stuck inside a Red Lobster commercial—that's the vibe. It's not a latex-hardcore killer on a porn set. Characters played by Jerry O'Connell, Katie Aselton, and Chris Redd continue being the softcore porno stereotypes that would exist on video, except they trade boning and moaning for a narrative reminiscent of Clue with Pleasantville influences if Pleasantville was slippery with lube. Director Nick Corirossi brings with him years of Funny Or Die experience to make a non-stop hilarious Adult Swim cousin that shouldn't work but commits to its ongoing gag with tremendous conceptualization that, again, stands right next to Dude Bro Party Massacre III.Chris: I prefer shallow murder myself. But seriously folks! I haven't seen this! But I do love Due Bro Party Massacre III, so I'm going to have to check it out. 

The Bar

Now Streaming on Netflix

Matt: From the maestro of mayhem—Mr. Álex de la Iglesia, comes The Bar—Patrons inside a cafe establishment watch two exiting others drop to the ground outside after being shot. The rest stay inside, where suspicions of a guilty party arise amongst the group. Betrayals, bickering, and the works erupt as tensions froth over like a poorly poured draft ale, and then the real fun begins. Frankly, that's where I'm leaving things as Iglesia has a lot more story to tell. Chris: Going two for two here in the "I haven't seen this" department. I'm a failure. 

Hunter Hunter

Now Streaming on Hulu

Matt: If we're highlighting twisted endings, allow me to point towards Shawn Linden's Hunter Hunter. Maybe we've done this already? Even so, let me stress how woodland trappers shift from predators to prey with a killer on the loose. I'll admit the buildup isn't my favorite of last year, but what visual violations occur as the film comes to a close clamp down like a bear's formidable chomp. To even equate a specific French Extremism comparison would be a dead giveaway—but if we're invoking such a subgenre, I think there's enough foreshadowing to reveal what you'll never be able to shake.Chris: Hunter Hunter is incredibly tense, and it definitely builds up to an ending that is bound to make squeamish audience members lose their lunch. 

Parasite

Now Streaming on Hulu

Matt: The most Los Angeles thing that ever happened to me after crossing coasts from New York City occurred the night when Parasite won Best Picture (still pissed at Jim Jefferies)—but that's a story for barroom banter once we're all back inside again. For now, I include Parasite as an astonishingly piercing thriller about greed, class warfare, and an ending that proves what boundaries Bong Joon Ho is unafraid to cross. The mark of a masterpiece is its ability to linger after credits have dropped, and I'm still thinking about peach fuzz years later. I mean, you've seen Parasite already...right?Chris: I remember when I saw Parasite for the first time I had no idea where the hell it was going, and it made me incredibly tense. I also spent the majority of the film worried that the dogs that live in the house would end up dead. Thankfully, they didn't. Some humans weren't so lucky, though. 

Super Dark Times

Now Streaming on Shudder

Matt: Admittedly, Super Dark Times isn't exclusively a mystery. It's more true crime through the eyes of 90s nostalgia and hapless children who accidentally commit murder—but is it murder if it's an accident? Counterpoint. What if it wasn't an accident? Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski of upcoming Hellraiser fame prove they've got the "super dark" goods without any additional demonism here, as the film is like one Mayweather gut-punch after the next. The way realities leak through social facades is all thanks to director Kevin Phillips, who seals the deal in this dreadfully dismal work of malicious magnificence.Chris: I've heard this movie is very unpleasant and that's kept me from checking it out, primarily because I am in a constant fragile state. Maybe one day! 

Carnival of Souls

Now Streaming on The Criterion Channel

Chris: Herk Harvey's low-budget creepshow Carnival of Souls follows a very nervous young woman (Candace Hilligoss) who survives a car accident only to find herself haunted by terrifying, unexplained apparitions. It's creepy and strange, and you can see the seeds of many horror titles to come buried within (Twin Peaks and other Lynchian entries seem particularly influenced by this one). This one is up there with Night of the Living Dead in terms of movies that prove you don't need a huge budget to create an iconic horror film. Matt: Chris is always nice enough to remind me that I'm not using my Criterion subscription to the fullest. Maybe one day I'll get better!

Dressed to Kill

Now Streaming on Max GO

Chris: The politics of Brian De Palma's riff on Psycho have not aged well, and there will be those who find this film abhorrent. That's perfectly fair. But if you can get beyond that, you'll find a twisty, sexy, strange thriller about a prostitute (Nancy Allen) who teams up with a murder victim's son (Keith Gordon) to try to solve a mystery. You might see the Dressed to Kill twist coming, but it won't make it any less shocking. Matt: De Palma is an overall blind spot for me. There's a De Palma marathon weekend in my future.

Knowing

Now Streaming on Hulu

Chris: Nicolas Cage is surprisingly reserved in this creepy disaster pic from The Crow director Alex Proyas. Cage plays an MIT astrophysics professor who discovers a code left in a time capsule by a young girl in the 1950s. When deciphered correctly, the code predicts disasters, be them natural or man-made, and their death tolls. Can Cage crack the code and stop more death and destruction? Or is it already too late? Knowing is a film that's somehow both very silly and weirdly effective, and it has a twist to end all twists. Matt: It's somehow not the Cage-ified apocalypse flick you'd expect, but it's been so long I can't remember my actual thoughts on the film beyond, "Wait—am I remembering Knowing or 2012?"

From Dusk Til Dawn

Now Streaming on HBO Max

Chris: The story goes that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino wanted to keep From Dusk Til Dawn's big twist – that it's a vampire movie – a secret. They wanted all the marketing to make it look like a gritty crime thriller with hopes that unexpecting audiences would go in and suddenly be caught off guard when vampires start showing up. That didn't happen, though – the marketing put the twist front and center, which makes sense, really. If you have a movie where George Clooney is fighting stripper vampires, you're probably going to want to put that in the trailers. Matt: Forever and ever a Donato favorite as criminal seediness turns into vampire sleaze. I'll be writing about this film until I croak. The zoom-out ending still gets me with that out-of-left-field final zinger.

Identity

Now Streaming on Hulu

Chris: Identity's twist is such a whopper that it soured a lot of people on the flick. But I still dig this stylish, weird James Mangold pic that traps a bunch of people (including John Cusack as a miserable ex-cop turned limo driver) at a roadside motel. In true locked room mystery fashion, the guests at the hotel start getting bumped off one by one. But things get even weirder from there, and the mysterious soon turns to the inexplicable.  Matt: Identity is the realest of reals if we're talking about whodunit horror. Chris has good taste.