20 Underrated Movies with Huge Plot Twists – MovieWeb

Movies are great when they take you out of your comfort zone and challenge your senses by twisting your perception of reality. The subversion of expectations is always good, especially when a competent filmmaker handles it. The best films with great plot twists do not always have an extensive profile. Many of them are underrated gems that hide one solid script that goes unnoticed for lack of support from the studio or poor marketing.

The following offerings are underrated gems that came and went without gathering the critical acclaim they deserved. Many are beloved cult classics among niche fandoms, while others are the best entry points for the cinematic offering from foreign nations. One thing is assured: these films are designed to churn your insides with impactful revelations that will keep you at the edge of your seat, wanting more.

We hope you enjoy our ranking of the most underrated movies with massive plot twists.

Sisters is an early classic from the mind of Brian De Palma. Aspiring actress Danielle Brenton hooks up with a man named Phillip; after spending the night together, she informs him about a visit from her twin sister and asks him to run an errand. Written and directed by him, the movie includes the talents of Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, and Bill Finley.

By the time Phillip returns home, he's stabbed to death by an unseen assailant. The police won't pay attention to the case since Phillip is a black man, but a reporter decides to dig deeper and find out the truth behind Danielle's sister and why we never get to see her. Its a great story with a ton of social commentary.

Another incredible neo-noir psychological thriller, with a few horror elements sliding in for good measure. Written and directed by Alan Parker, Angel Heart features Micky Rourke, Lisa Bonet, and Robert De Niro. The story begins in New York when a private eye named Harry Angle is hired by an eccentric man named Louis Cyphre to track down a crooner named John Liebling. Harry manages to track down the last location of Liebling and must travel to New Orleans.

The story has a sudden change of pace as the New Orleans background fills the ambiance with mystery and intoxicating visuals related to sorcery and black magic. Each time Harry gets close to a lead, the person who reveals anything to him dies violently. He meets a girl named Epiphany Proudfoot, who might prove crucial to crack the case. The big twist revealed in the end is that Cyphre is the devil himself coming to collect Liebling's soul, but theres more o this claim than we are led to believe.

David Fincher knows how to tell a good mystery. The Game is one of his early works, written by John Bracanto and Michael Ferris and starring Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, and Deborah Kara Unger. The story seems simple enough as Nicholas Van Otto gets gifted by his brother an entry into a game that affects his everyday actions. Against his better judgment, Nicholas accepts to participate in the Game by visiting the so-called quarters of the CRS.

Immediately after signing on, Nicholas's life turns for the worst in every aspect. His brother abandons him as he's being pursued. His bank accounts are drained. Nicholas is left to die by a cab driver. Seeking a safe place, he tracks down the waitress from the restaurant where he accepted his brother's gift to find out she's on the payroll of the people directing the Game; Nicholas forces himself into the agency conducting the Game, only to find out everything that has happened to him has been indeed part of the Game he signed on for.

Based on the novel A Very Private Gentleman, Rowan Joff adapted this excellent spy thriller with Anton Corbijn directing. The American stars George Clooney and Violante Placido. A dormant operative named Jack lives quietly in the Sweden wilderness with a girl. When hired guns come looking for him, Jack quickly dispatches them, but he also kills the girl he is with.

After a quick escape to Rome, Jack contacts his handler, a man named Pavel. Pavel sends him to Castelvecchio and hands him his last assignment. Jack is reluctant, but the pay is excellent, so he accepts the offer. It's a straightforward operation where he must build a custom-made weapon and train another operative to use it. Pavel is setting up Jack to be killed by his replacement, but Jack knows how to stay one step ahead of the game.

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Space stories have a unique appeal when they are surrounded by mystery. Such is the case of Moon. The sole cast member you need to care about is Sam Rockwell, who plays Sam Bell, a lone worker for Lunar Industries, a company solving the problem of depleted energy on EarthEarth by mining a compound named helium-3 on the Moon. This underappreciated film was written by Nathan Parker and directed by Duncan Jones.

Sam's days are uneventful, and he sticks to a daily routine until something happens and he finds a crashed rover on the lunar surface. He rescues the pilot only to find out it's himself. An AI named GERTY reveals Sam is a clone with a three-year lifespan (the duration of his contract). Once he dies, he's replaced by a new one. After doing his best to evade the measures to keep in place, Sam must escape to Earth and reveal the truth to the world.

Inside Man looks like your standard police heist drama, but it's much more once you get past the initial setup. Written by Russell Gewirtz and directed by Spike Lee, this is one of the most overlooked films in his works. He brings along his perpetual partner in crime, Denzel Washington, and heavy hitters such as Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, and Christopher Plummer.

A group of four robbers devises the perfect plan to rob a bank, but no one has a single idea of what they are doing or how they manage to make their way out of the bank without getting shot. Detective Keith Frazer deduces the man is stalling for time to make his move, but the leader of the robbers, Dalton Russel, has always been one step ahead of him. It's an incredible film, full of twists and turns and multiple satisfying endings.

Based on a story written by Stephen King, The Mist is a horror film with science fiction elements that touch upon many themes, such as fear of the unknown, proselytization, faith, and survival. It all begins in a convenience store located in rural America. The ensemble cast includes familiar faces such as Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laurie Holden. The adaptation was written and directed by Frank Darabont.

A deranged man enters the store, signaling the coming of a mysterious mist covering the town. The people inside have to fend off with the resources they have. While some choose to hold on to their religious belief hoping to be saved, others take action by fighting the horde of creatures. After multiple attempts at survival, the last remaining few of the group decide to take their own lives instead of being slaughtered by the invading creatures, with a very unexpected outcome after most of them have parted this world.

Koren cinema has been elevated to an art form in the past 20 years, A Tale Of Two Sisters. It's an early offering written and directed by Kim Jee-woon in 2003. It's a classic folk tale in the country that has been romanticized and adapted into a modern story. The story begins with a girl named Su-Mi being treated in a mental institution; she's released and allowed to return home. Once settled, her rude stepmom mistreats her and her sister Su-Yeon.

Strange occurrences occur as the family photos are altered to replace her mother's face with her stepmom's. Su-Yeon also claims his father is blind to the actions of her stepmom. The big reveal comes when the father tells her daughter she's imagining everything. Her stepmom and her sisters are only fractions of her imagination. The big twist, however, comes after Su-yeon is institutionalized again.

Predestination is one of those films you must pay close attention to lest you get lost in the plot. It's a time travel story about three different characters whose destiny is dictated by an agency named Temporal Bureau. Written and directed by The Spierig Brothers and starring Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, and Noah Taylor, the movie is based on the novel All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein.

Without dwelling too much on the plot details, the story touches upon intersex people and the nuances of time-traveling paradoxes. The three actors play a singular role after the agency places the same person in specific timelines to encounter himself and exist. It also offers a slight nod to roman catholic mythology by making our main character mother, father, and son in a single spirit.

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European talent always delivers when it comes to shocking thrillers. Buried is a film written by Chris Sparlin and directed by Rodrigo Cortes. It's a daunting story taking place in a coffin. The film's sole star is Ryan Reynolds, who had to endure long hours in a confined space to make this movie rollercoaster. The film opens with a man named Paul buried with a few items in a coffin in the middle of nowhere in the Middle East.

A cell phone rings, and the plot begins to unfold. Paul has been kidnapped by a group of terrorists who make a series of demands. It's up to Paul to do everything he can to ensure he gets out of this situation alive. The emotions conveyed in this film are exasperating. This movie is made to make you feel desperate by design. The betrayals and double-crosses experienced by someone already in the hot seat are only surpassed by the crushing ending of this story.

M. Night Shyamalan's movies may showcase he's a one-trick pony, but he's relatively competent as a writer. Devil is a film taking place in a stuck elevator. With a screenplay by Brian Nelson and directed by John Erick Dowdle, this movie is an absolute claustrophobic ride where five people get trapped. At the same time, a security guard witnesses everything that happens via a camera feed.

As the plot unfolds, we discover all the people in the elevator have a shady past or criminal records. Someone suspects the devil is behind the events as outages affect the elevator. Many attempts are made to rescue the group to no avail. Each time the lights go out, someone dies. The big reveal at the end will catch you out of the left field since it's truly unexpected.

A Cure for Wellness is a psychological thriller written by Justin Haythe and directed by Gore Verbinski. The film stars Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, and Mia Goth. This slow-burn story certainly knows how to take you for a ride with the multiple twists thrown at you as the story develops. A man named Lockhart is tasked by the board of directors of the company he works for to retrieve the CEO from a wellness center located in the Swiss Alps.

Lockhart makes the trip but notices the weird ambiance of the place. After failing to find the man he's looking for, he suffers an accident and finds himself trapped in the spa center. He learns the hideous story behind the spa and the horrors committed by the castle's former occupants from interns and other people. Lockhart must face a grand conspiracy to hide the secrets to immortality and the deranged wishes of a father looking to preserve his legacy with a purebred progeny.

Chinatown is one of the most influential films ever made in 1974; it's a neo-noir mystery full of political drama with an impactful revelation that can twist your stomach. The story begins when a woman named Evelyn hires private eye Jake Gittes to locate her husband. Written by Robert Towne and directed by the ever-polemic Roman Polansky. The film has an all-star cast headlined by Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.

After doing some digging, Jake finds the man denying access to publicly funded utilities and having an affair. His findings make it to the press, which brings heat to Jake, who realizes he's been had by someone posing as Evelyn. As he digs deeper, he uncovers a plot from real state moguls buying land for cheap and building gentrified urbanisms, but not before finding out the woman he's working for is both mother and sister to his own progeny.

Now this film will keep you guessing! Identity is an early offering by James Mangold, written by Michael Cooney; this mystery thriller goes back and forth between two narratives that seem disconnected from the start. On one side, we have a convict named Malcolm Rivers being subject to in-depth physiological evaluation after a mass murder case that took place in an apartment complex.

Meanwhile, ten strangers gather in a remote Nevada motel while a storm holds them all in place, as there is no way to go without finding blocked roads. The all-star cast includes John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Alfred Molina, and Amanda Peet. One by one, each of the guests in the motel is killed by an unseen assailant. The final revelation connecting both stories will make you wonder what exactly you witnessed in the end.

Written and directed by James Ward Byrkit, the surreal thriller Coherence it's unlike anything you've ever seen. The passing of a comet near the orbit of planet Earth triggers an unlikely situation that would put the concept of multiversal realities being explored by Marvel Studios right now to shame. A group of eight people is attending a dinner party when a sudden blackout impacts the neighborhood.

Two guests go out to check what has happened, but they return with a box containing various items, among them photos of the party attending the dinner taken that very night. The group realizes they are dealing with alternate versions of themselves as the comet has altered reality by creating a quantum decoherence phenomenon. From then on, no one can trust anybody, and the group must do everything possible to stay alive.

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Cinema rarely explores Surrealism, given how much this artistic expression relies on visuals to get the point across. However, Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley, tells a story that goes above and beyond the surreal tropes. The cast includes working actors like LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Patton Oswald, and Danny Glover.

The story is about a black man named Cassius Green who struggles to pay the bills as an artist. He's forced to take a job as a telemarketer but fails to achieve much success until a coworker suggests he starts using a "white voice" to seal the deal. He follows the advice to become the most successful employee of the company, which drives him away from his lofty idealistic goals and turns him into a corporate monster until he finds out the actual dealings of the company he's working for.

Pedro Almodovar is famous for his impactful melodramas, but this time he's taking us through a thrilling ride with the movie The Skin I Live in (or La Piel que Habito). With the help of frequent collaborators Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya, the story explores the achievements of a plastic surgeon called Robert Ledgard, who has created artificial grafts of human skin resistant to burns and insect bites using very illegal means.

After being chastised by the medical community, we learn he's keeping a patient named Vera captive in his state. The surgeon runs a house full of secrets, and the most loyal servant is his mother. Vera, on the other hand, is not what it seems to be, as she's not exactly what we have been told from the start. The brutal revelations either keep you on the edge of your seat or are revoltingly disgusted.

Lars Von Trier is no stranger to physiological horror; as a matter of fact, you could make a case that all his films explore human nature. It's kind of worrisome, however, that he only focuses on exploring the worst in all of us. The House that Jack Built is no different. The solid cast includes Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, and Uma Thurman. This slasher follows the story of Jack, a failed architect with an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Jack is compulsive to kill and find the best materials to build the perfect house. Both quests become entangled in the final act of the film. We find ourselves digging deeper into Jack's thought process and how he becomes complacent as he gets away with more killings throughout the film. Ultimately, he achieves the goal of building a great home that leads him to the only place someone like him deserves.

Bill Paxton was a great talent taken too soon from us. One of his two directing credits includes a mystery thriller called Frailty. The story begins when an FBI agent named Wesley Doyle kills himself after his brother, a man named Adam, is revealed to be the serial killer known as God's Hand. The movie includes the acting talents of Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, and Luke Askew.

The movie is a complex mix of religious zealotry and mysterious visions revealing the events leading to the killings of multiple young boys and the people who cover up the conspiracy. The shocking twist is more impactful after realizing who is the unreliable narrator depicting all the events we have seen for the film's duration.

The top spot couldn't go to any other film in this ranking. Oldboy is not as popular as it should be, yet it is probably the most influential Korean film ever made and the best entry point to Korean cinema for the uninitiated. The movie tells the story of a man who gets kidnapped out of nowhere after missing the birth of her daughter and kept in seclusion for nearly 20 years. This violent thriller is written and directed by Park Chan-Wook.

While in captivity, he learns his wife was murdered, and he's the prime suspect in the homicide. He's doused with sleeping gas every day, and any attempt to end his life is fixed in his sleep. After being released, he must put together the pieces that led to his entrapment with the help of a girl named Mi-Do. The twists and turns of this movie keep hitting you like speeding bricks, but it's a damn solid story that only gets better with time.

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20 Underrated Movies with Huge Plot Twists - MovieWeb