This might be a controversial choice, because Bill Paxton's debut film has many defenders... including myself. I happen to think that Frailty is a very interesting and well-made horror film, but it has one of the most ham-handed twist endings in recent memory. In the film, Matthew McConaughey plays Fenton Meiks, a small town ne'er-do-well who tells FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) that his brother, Adam, is the prolific God's Hands killer. Fenton then proceeds to explain that he when he and his brother were children their father told them that he had received divine instructions to be a "demon" killer. According to Fenton, he and Adam were forced to aid their father in killing numerous "demon"s, although as far as Fenton was concerned they were simply regular people they were murdering. Now years later, Fenton believes that Adam has taken up his father's mantle. Fenton takes Agent Doyle to the rose garden where he believes his brother has been hiding his victims. While there, Doyle remarks that something about Fenton's story doesn't make sense, to which Fenton replies, "It does if the person standing in front of you is Adam Meiks." What the fuck? You mean the person guiding the audience through this narrative wasn't Fenton, but Adam? I've never seen that kind of twist before!! I've also never seen that twist executed so haphazardly. Imagine watching the Usual Suspects and at the end of Agent Kujan's interrogation of Verbal Kint, Verbal says, "Wouldn't it blow your mind if I was Keyser Soze?!" Yeah, that would have been awesome.
Timur Bekmambetov's record-breaking Russian film is an imperfect but highly cinematic experience. Unfortunately, it falters under the weight of an impossibly convoluted narrative and its attempts to craft a horror ensemble film. The film begins with a deceptively simple premise: the forces of light and dark are locked in an age-old truce, but it is prophecized that a human child will shift the balance of power. From here, however, the film becomes embroiled in a clusterfuck of occult minutaie and dizzying action sequences, all leading up to a truly confusing, what-the-fuck ending, and not in a good way. In the film's climactic last scenes, the main characters rush to... do something to a... vortex, or a portal, or something? Honestly, I still don't know exactly what it was, or how it connected to the narrative.
Its ending not withstanding, I was never a huge fan of this film to begin with. However, in addition to solid supporting roles by Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman, this film presented a rare occurence for cinema in the 21st century: Nicholas Cage actually trying to give a good performance. Did he succeed? Yes and no. Playing Roy Waller, an obsessive-compulsive con man who finds out he has a teen aged daughter, Cage's performance occasionally steps into vastly overdone territory, but it is to Cage's credit that the character never fully succumbs to caricature. Rather, Cage adds layers of disconnection to Roy that are both poignant and tragic. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott wouldn't allow this film to simply be an engaging character story; it had to be a con artist movie. And so, like almost every con artist movie, it ends with the obligatory "everything was a con" twist. Put simply... during the course of the film, Roy develops an unexpected relationship with his estranged teen aged daughter and eventually involves her in a major con. Of course, the con goes terribly wrong and Roy's daughter has to go into hiding. He gives her everything he has ever earned as a con man, only to find out later... the con was on him. Big surprise? Only to anyone whose never seen a con movie.2. Unbreakable (2000, dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
It's strange to think that M. Night Shyamalan's films used to be highly anticipated because we thought they would be good. However, I think that officially ended after Lady in the Water. Despite the fact that his reputation has diminished recently because of a string of laughably, utterly bad films, it should be said that he does have a few good movies to his credit, including this potently atmospheric tale of a ordinary man who seemingly can't be harmed. After emerging unscathed from a catastrophic train accident, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) meets Elijah Price, a comic book enthusiast with a rare condition that makes his bones extremely fragile. Elijah believes David to be a superhero of sorts, a fact that David think is crazy. Over the course of the film, however, he comes to accept his special abilities and their potential to help people. For most of the film, Shyamalan demonstrates an impressive visual and tonal command. Unfortunately, in the film's ending Shyamalan lets his more ridiculous side get the better of him. In Unbreakable's final scene, David finds out that Elijah not only purposefully caused the train accident that revealed David's abilities, but he was also responsible for numerous other disasters. This twist is actually quite effective, but what happens after is not. First, Elijah senselessly babbles on about knowing one's place in the world and how to spot the archvillian in a comic book? What? Then, as David stalks away, Elijah calls out to him, "I should have known way back when. You know why, David? Because of the kids! They called me Mr. Glass!" Finally, a title scroll appears, explaining that David would later lead police to Elijah and that he would be admitted to a mental institution for the criminally insane. And with that, what had been a darkly realistic take on a superhero story turned into Shyamalan farce.
1. High Tension (2003, dir. Alexandre Aja)
This is not only the best film on the list, but it is also, possibly, the most frustratingly inartful with its ending. The film follows Marie and Alex, two college girls who come to the country house of Alex's family to study for their upcoming exams. All is well until a mysterious psychopath invades the family's home, murdering Alex's mother, father, and brother, and kidnapping Alex. Marie escapes death by hiding in the house, but she goes after the killer to rescue Alex. This leads to a thrilling climax in which Marie, harnessing all her primal energy, turns the tables on the crazed murderer, eventually killing him. End of story, right? No. Although if that had been the end, I probably would have thought that High Tension was the best pure horror film of the 21st century. Unfortunately, High Tension made a classic mistake: it over thought itself into oblivion. Flashback to the beginning of the film: Marie dreams she's being violently chased through the woods. When Alex asks who was chasing her, Marie replies that she was chasing herself. When I first saw this scene in theaters, I said to myself, "Is this going to be another ridiculous multiple personality movie?" Well... sure enough, at the end of the film after Marie has killed the psychopath, she frees Alex. But Alex recoils from Marie, completely terrified. This is when it comes all too apparent to the audience what is happening: Marie was the killer all along. Seriously? Yes, seriously. It wasn't cool. 
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