Ben wrote: ↑December 29th, 2019, 9:41 am
The Others, on the other hand, although in basic terms only just kind of reverses the same concept, doesn’t follow the same logic, because events do continue to occur off camera, though we only see what we need to see. And in this case the film does reward on further viewings, as does Fight Club, because we can see things from the other perspective, knowing what we then know.
Oh yes definitely. Another great aspect of both movies is that the “twist” is not just “stuck on” to make the audience do a double take, but has actual thematic/narrative reasons for being there.
David Fincher did a great job of carrying over the ideas of the novel while at the same time putting his own spin on it, even as he stayed very close to Chuck Palahniuk’s actual plot. Probably the most dramatic change is the ending, NOT the famous “twist”, but what follows it and how that expresses the novel’s message. (Similar and yet very different than the film’s.)
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Two movies I’ve seen that had the dumbest twists ever:
Hide and Seek (The Robert De Niro/Dakota Fanning horror flick from 2005. You know: “Charlie’s my best friend!—Who’s Charlie??”).
“Charlie” is really the split personality alter of Robert De Niro, the main character who spends 98% of the film trying to protect his daughter from whoever Charlie is.
The Skeleton Key: (2006) Another awful twist ending from an unbelievably boring film (about ghosts/evil spirits in the bayou of New Orleans) that was somehow supposed to be “scary.” Actually the twist was probably the most entertaining part; it might have even been cool had the script itself been any good. Personally I think the screenwriters just started with the twist and then cobbled together some kind of “plot”.
The amiable young attorney who was supposedly helping the woman journalist uncover the evil ghosts/events or whatever, is actually an evil spirit himself who steals bodies that he can inhabit. His last body was actually the mute old man locked away in this creepy house. And the ACTUAL nice lawyer guy was really that old man all along (The villain trapped him in the old man body.). Ugh, I can’t believe this took so long to write! 
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
