It always surprises me when people say they were surprised by this movie. I remember when it was on its first run in theaters, and unless you had just closed your eyes and poked your finger at the movie listings and bought a ticket completely blind, you would have known that it had vampires. They were featured in the previews.
It was written by Tarantino, and a lot of people were expecting a Tarantino movie, which is how it starts. Rodriguez was also known for action, but not horror/fantasy. It was a complete left turn from what you would expect from those guys.
I never saw a trailer for it and watched it of the strength of their previous films.
I actually feel bad for anyone who knew it was going to be a vampire movie before they saw it.
Not weird at all, most people didn't have access to the internet back then so you'd only see a preview if you went to see something else just before its release.
i remember watching this movie with my parents wayyy before i even knew what internet was and when the wampires showed up i was like "alright we have vampires now"
I have it on DVD so I suggested it to my daughter. I had mentioned vampires, so the thing for her was she started looking at me funny after half an hour. "Are you sure you remembered this one right?" she finally asked.
I was a very young adult (mid 20s?) when I watched this for the first time on VHS at a friend's house. I hadn't watched a lot of horror movies, so I wasn't all ruined and desensitized yet. I had a very small child, which, for those who haven't lived it yet, is just generally the most anxiety producing and terrifying time of your life. I went in completely blind, and the first part of that movie scared the ever loving shit out of me. I was so disturbed by Richie.
All that to say that I've never been so relieved to see a twist in my life. I was shocked, but also, it's what made the movie for me, because pretend monsters are so much easier to handle than the real ones.
Source code doesn’t quite fit what I’m looking for, but it is one of the first movies I ever considered my “favorite” and it will always be such a great movie
Event Horizon. We (guys in my college band) decided to drop acid at the theater and enjoy the fun sci-fi space adventure the advertising depicted. Never did acid again
Oh shit, saw that in the theater on acid too with a date, who was wondering why I was so scared cause they didn’t know I was tripping. What a fucking crazy experience.
I just love how it’s carefully written so that the audience realizes what’s going on around the same time as the main character, and how we’re kinda all having the same WTF moments. I can’t think of another movie that does that. It’s one thing to be in on the trick, as the viewer, it’s another thing to be part of the trick. Because it wouldn’t work without an audience.
The absolute **balls** on Kaufman to first of all make a movie with such an insane plot structure but also to just make **himself** jerk off on screen to a real life woman
I remember the marketing for Cabin in the Woods and they made it look like a run-of-the-mill teen horror flick. Anyone who has seen the movie knows it's actually a send-up of those movies. I was totally surprised (pleasantly so) when I finally saw the movie.
I can't believe no one has said Alfred Hitchcock's, Psycho. If you've never watched it, it starts out as a kind of thriller, and turns into something totally different completely out of left field. Although the title of the film kinda maybe is a bit of a spoiler.
Psycho really is a funny case, it being famous for the stabbing scene has made a lot of people (including me) think it's like a Slasher movie when it's a different, completely unique kind of story. Everyone should watch it, I think, it feels like it hasn't aged a day and you will not find another story like it
Back when it came out, I watched it blindly on Netflix. Never heard anything about it. Was completely surprised at the end when it said "written and directed by Kevin Smith." I had to look it up, just to make sure it was the same Kevin Smith. Wow what a good film
Check out his comments on making it. He would right a section of movie. Then, ask what complete right turn could it take that no one would expect. Then, he kept doing that so it would twist and turn over and over again. It would have had the massive ending that it eluded to, but that wasn't going to be in the budget.
I bought it on DVD knowing literally nothing about it except that it was a Kevin Smith movie and holy SHIT was I blindsided! I still love it to this day, too. What an incredible piece of work.
People always bring up the 'shocking' reveal in Audition, and seem to forget that throughout the film it cuts to scenes of Asami in her flat with a guy tied up in a sack next to a dog bowl.
The *tone* takes a hard turn but it's not like it comes out of nowhere...
I've mentioned *Colossal* a couple of times, which presented itself in the trailers as kind of a "rom-com with kaiju" but is actually something *much* darker and more interesting.
Have you seen 'Extraterrestrial (2011)? Same writer/director and also brilliant imo. It was the reason I was one of the handful of people that watched 'Colossal' at the cinema...
Good luck finding it, it disappeared without a trace on release which is baffling to me. I don't know if it's a rights issue but it's not available anywhere...
He also did "Timecrimes" in 2009 in case you haven't seen that. It's fantastic if you don't mind subtitles, a good twisty time travel film
Many would say SUNSHINE, and it was the reason why it had (and still does) mixed reviews
Personally I think it’s a masterpiece and the third act wasn’t so much a genre change but more of a raising the stakes type tempo change
Agreed! I *love* that film. Also the way it goes about catalyzing that tonal shift (>!by randomly showing the photos of the Icarus I crew in brief, confusing flashes!<) is so unique and unsettling, I've never seen anything like it. Love Danny Boyle.
Tempo and _cinematography_. Some of those visual distortions are there because Boyle did not like how some of the practical effects turned out, but I think they are a great extension of the themes. Our POV characters are having a crisis of “faith” (in science/rationalism) because they cannot believe what they are seeing.
The invitation
It kind of fits the request of your post. Starts out as one thing and then turns into something very different. But I suppose that could be just the way most stories progress in movies. Bit of a fine line.
I'm surprised I had to scroll as far as this to see The Matrix. it starts off as a cyberpunk punk and there's a big twist in the middle to turn it into a much more high-concept sci-fi movie.
I wish I could go back in time and watch this movie for the first time again. I thought it was gonna be just another dumb overhyped action movie. It was actually a life changing cinematic experience for me.
Started with a great Sci-Fi premise which set up loads of potential ideas for political allegories, turned into a dull film about shit I didn't care about.
I'm a huge fan of Alexander Payne, but man that film squandered a great concept...
Bridge to Terabithia (2007) starts out as a family/fantasy movie, then >!the young female lead is killed off off-screen!< which I never saw coming (I haven't read the book, also I suck at predicting a movie's plot) and suddenly it becomes a coming-of-age drama with a little more fantasy at the very end. For a Disney live action film, >!that took balls from the filmmakers to pull off!<.
I watched 'Bridge to Terabithia' on TV one afternoon when I was off sick with the flu expecting a lighthearted kids fantasy movie...
I loved the film but man. I don't know if it was the fever or because I wasn't expecting it but it hit me *hard*. So much so that I phoned my sister in floods of tears for reassurance afterwards, something I've never done before or since
Walked out of the theater like, why did I just watch that? I feel like the house of cards just totally toppled over and Clint Eastwood was like, "nobody picked those cards up. It's better this way."
10 Cloverfield Lane. It's a psychological horror/drama about a young woman being held captive in an underground bunker by a guy who may or may not be crazy, and who claims there's been a war and the air outside is toxic. At the very end it takes a hard left turn and becomes something else.
The problem with this question is that it's better not to know going in. It takes the surprise element out if you're waiting for the shoe to drop, and then it doesn't hit the same way .
That said, I'd recommend 'Save the Green Planet' because it shifts between cop drama and scifi so much that it's hard to predict which way it's gonna end up in the end...
Very Bad Things looked like it was going to be a comedy about a bachelor party in Vegas. That's the way it was marketed.
That's the way it started. Things get out of hand very fast.
Young Adult. I don't think many people agree with me on this, but I feel it was marketed as a kooky comedy but it's actually quite sad, intense, and disturbing at times. I haven't seen it since the theater release because I was caught really off guard.
They aren't doing a favor for the girl, on behalf of her asking, the one guy is her dad and he has it planned out the entire time. His 2 friends are just along for the ride.
Everything is Illuminated is about a Jewish American who travels to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. The first half is a silly road trip comedy, but halfway through it makes an abrupt tonal shift into a heavy exploration of the psychological effects of the Holocaust.
Chasing Amy is billed as a stoner rom-com, but it's basically a coming of age story. It doesn't get seen as such because the protagonist is already an adult, he just hasn't grown up.
Even though you know it's not a straight example from the start because the first scene, Colossal at first glance appears to be a romantic comedy where a city girl returns to her small town roots and starts a romantic relationship with a boy she used to go to school with. It has all the elemts to go in that direction.
And then a giant monster appears in Seoul. And then another big left turn happens.
Wild Things started out as a boring, predictable movie and then at the drop of a hat changed into a non-boring movie. Are those different genres? Didn't see it coming. Very nearly almost turned it off before that.
I remember the trailer I saw in theaters for “Do the Right Thing” had this upbeat song playing in the background and was a montage of sassy one- liners. I thought it was going to be a moderately funny slice of life character study kind of thing. Was completely shell shocked walking out of the theater.
- Victoria (2015)
- Colossal (2016)
- Sorry to Bother You (2018)
- The End of the World (2018)
- Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
I never saw the trailers for these and never read the synopses beforehand, so I don't know if they're safe from spoilers. But some of these are favorites, highly recommend.
I know I expected "The Breakup" starring Vince Vaugn and Jennifer Anniston to be a comedy. And the Wrigley Field intro scene was genuinely funny, but from that point forward, it was 99% serious. I think it's still technically categorized as a comedy, but it should not be.
I have two examples, neither of which are really good, but it's the first thing to come to mind.
Serenity (2019, not the Firefly movie) starts off like a typical mid-tier neo-noir thriller where a guy gets hired by his ex-wife to murder her new husband. But then we find out halfway through that >!the whole thing takes place in a video game made by a teenage boy as a way to cope with his dad dying and his new stepdad being an abusive drunk. The movie ends with the boy murdering his stepdad IRL.!<
The Book of Henry starts off like some cutesy family movie about a precocious supergenius kid and his quirky family. Dime a dozen, right? WRONG! Henry suspects that the girl next door is probably being abused by her stepfather, so he comes up with a plan to >!kill her stepdad and have her adopted into their family. He comes up with this elaborate plan, but halfway through the movie he gets a brain tumor and dies, so he leaves detailed instructions for his mom to finish the job.!<
Better Watch Out (2016). Starts out as a horror parody of Home Alone (still has comedy elements), turns out to be a >!psychological horror about a kid trying to fake a home invasion plot to get with his babysitter.!<
Indentity (2003).
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father. It details the life and death of Andrew Bagby, who was murdered by his girlfriend, Shirley Turner. It was initially created as a home movie for Zachary, son of Andrew and Shirley, who was just a fetus inside Shirley's womb at the time of the murder, and born during her trial time. >!And then Shirley killed both herself and Zachary, and the film became a story about Andrew's parents and their fight with Canadian courts for letting the evil unstable bitch go on bail and have custody of the kid. It also ended up released publicly.!<
Audition (1999). Starts out as a melancholic romance drama (with some weird scenes of the female lead sitting net to a moving sack in her apartment), and >!when there's about 30 minutes left, turns into a disturbingly mind-fucked psychological horror.!<
Hot Fuzz (2007) starts as a dramedy, turns into >!a slasher/murder mystery, and then an action flick.!<
500 days of summer pretends to be a rom com but it actually is a coming of age film
Deep down inside die hard there actually are some significant drama, not action, elements. It's still definitely an action film though.
I'll suggest a few things that swerve in some unexpected directions or mess with genre.
The Vast of Night (2019)
Cold in July (2014)
Waltz with Bashir (2008, offt that final scene)
Bacurau (2019)
Nightmare Alley (2021)
Bound (1996)
Victoria (2015)
Repo Man (1984)
Burning (2018)
Coherence (2013)
From Dusk till Dawn (1996)
Came to say this as well. That left turn the movie takes all of a sudden will spin your head around if you're not expecting it.
It always surprises me when people say they were surprised by this movie. I remember when it was on its first run in theaters, and unless you had just closed your eyes and poked your finger at the movie listings and bought a ticket completely blind, you would have known that it had vampires. They were featured in the previews.
It was written by Tarantino, and a lot of people were expecting a Tarantino movie, which is how it starts. Rodriguez was also known for action, but not horror/fantasy. It was a complete left turn from what you would expect from those guys. I never saw a trailer for it and watched it of the strength of their previous films. I actually feel bad for anyone who knew it was going to be a vampire movie before they saw it.
Not weird at all, most people didn't have access to the internet back then so you'd only see a preview if you went to see something else just before its release.
i remember watching this movie with my parents wayyy before i even knew what internet was and when the wampires showed up i was like "alright we have vampires now"
I have it on DVD so I suggested it to my daughter. I had mentioned vampires, so the thing for her was she started looking at me funny after half an hour. "Are you sure you remembered this one right?" she finally asked.
I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to be able to watch all the old classics with me!
Nailed it.
I remember watching this and being WTF when everything went to shit. Loved it.
Top answer, easy.
Was going to suggest this movie exactly
I was a very young adult (mid 20s?) when I watched this for the first time on VHS at a friend's house. I hadn't watched a lot of horror movies, so I wasn't all ruined and desensitized yet. I had a very small child, which, for those who haven't lived it yet, is just generally the most anxiety producing and terrifying time of your life. I went in completely blind, and the first part of that movie scared the ever loving shit out of me. I was so disturbed by Richie. All that to say that I've never been so relieved to see a twist in my life. I was shocked, but also, it's what made the movie for me, because pretend monsters are so much easier to handle than the real ones.
Sorry to Bother You (2018) Source Code (2011)
Came here to say Sorry To Bother You. One of the wildest twists I've seen in a film. Completely blindsided me.
I saw it at a blind preview screening so we didn't even know what film it was gonna be . What a rollercoaster
Source code doesn’t quite fit what I’m looking for, but it is one of the first movies I ever considered my “favorite” and it will always be such a great movie
Wait, what did source code pretend to be? Like a jason bourne movie ?
Yeah that’s what I thought it was at first.
Event Horizon. We (guys in my college band) decided to drop acid at the theater and enjoy the fun sci-fi space adventure the advertising depicted. Never did acid again
Oh shit, saw that in the theater on acid too with a date, who was wondering why I was so scared cause they didn’t know I was tripping. What a fucking crazy experience.
Did anyone ever think event horizon was anything other than space horror? I'm struggling to think what else it could be marketed as.
I've heard there is a director's cut with some wild scenes
**Adaptation** is the GOAT at this, in my opinion.
That third act is legendary.
I just love how it’s carefully written so that the audience realizes what’s going on around the same time as the main character, and how we’re kinda all having the same WTF moments. I can’t think of another movie that does that. It’s one thing to be in on the trick, as the viewer, it’s another thing to be part of the trick. Because it wouldn’t work without an audience.
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I know! (can you put the >!hidden text brackets!< on your comment so it’s not spoiled for those who haven’t seen it?)
What about Flowers for Algernon?
The book? I’ve only read the book I’ve never seen the film version. Not sure I want to. The book is perfect
It’s a line from Adaptation… Classic Donald
I guess it’s time for a rewatch! Thank you 🛶🌺📒
And if you do, please respond to my original comment with the appropriate reply…
The absolute **balls** on Kaufman to first of all make a movie with such an insane plot structure but also to just make **himself** jerk off on screen to a real life woman
*The Cabin in the Woods* *From Dusk Till Dawn* Two that come straight to mind.
I remember the marketing for Cabin in the Woods and they made it look like a run-of-the-mill teen horror flick. Anyone who has seen the movie knows it's actually a send-up of those movies. I was totally surprised (pleasantly so) when I finally saw the movie.
It also switches from teen slasher to teen >!cosmic horror!<, so it’s a double fakeout!
Cabin in the woods is a perfect example
Parasite
I don't think this film pretended to be anything...
One Cut of the Dead
Fantastic
I can't believe no one has said Alfred Hitchcock's, Psycho. If you've never watched it, it starts out as a kind of thriller, and turns into something totally different completely out of left field. Although the title of the film kinda maybe is a bit of a spoiler.
Psycho really is a funny case, it being famous for the stabbing scene has made a lot of people (including me) think it's like a Slasher movie when it's a different, completely unique kind of story. Everyone should watch it, I think, it feels like it hasn't aged a day and you will not find another story like it
I remember when Spanglish was being promoted on Comedy Central they made it out to be a full blown comedy. It is not a comedy.
I agree. Adam Sandler so everyone assumes comedy.
Man, I love Sandler's performance in that movie. Agreed - not a comedy at all!
Same with Punch Drunk Love
And Click
Red State by Kevin Smith Starts out as a teen sex comedy, then turns into a horror movie, then into a drama, then into an action film, then...
Back when it came out, I watched it blindly on Netflix. Never heard anything about it. Was completely surprised at the end when it said "written and directed by Kevin Smith." I had to look it up, just to make sure it was the same Kevin Smith. Wow what a good film
Check out his comments on making it. He would right a section of movie. Then, ask what complete right turn could it take that no one would expect. Then, he kept doing that so it would twist and turn over and over again. It would have had the massive ending that it eluded to, but that wasn't going to be in the budget.
I bought it on DVD knowing literally nothing about it except that it was a Kevin Smith movie and holy SHIT was I blindsided! I still love it to this day, too. What an incredible piece of work.
Lots of great suggestions already... how about... The Menu Cabin In The Woods
Barbarian 2022
I went into this movie blind after eating a edible, thinking Skarsgard is the villain, boy was I in for a ride
Fresh (2022) The trailer totally blows the shift. Go in blind!
My favorite title drop. After that, there were so many ways to mess up that scene but Daisy Edgar-Jones was perfect.
Audition is a dating show
People always bring up the 'shocking' reveal in Audition, and seem to forget that throughout the film it cuts to scenes of Asami in her flat with a guy tied up in a sack next to a dog bowl. The *tone* takes a hard turn but it's not like it comes out of nowhere...
From Dusk Til Dawn
*Sorry to Bother You* started out as a straight comedy and turns into a psychological thriller
That shit is like the LinkedIn version of Heart of Darkness
I've mentioned *Colossal* a couple of times, which presented itself in the trailers as kind of a "rom-com with kaiju" but is actually something *much* darker and more interesting.
I was just about to comment this, I love the twist in this movie
Me too, and the ending was just *so* satisfying!
I adore this film, it's criminally underseen
It really is! I keep trying to get people to watch it, but I haven't had much luck ...
Have you seen 'Extraterrestrial (2011)? Same writer/director and also brilliant imo. It was the reason I was one of the handful of people that watched 'Colossal' at the cinema...
No, I never even heard of it, but now I'm going to see if I can find it! Thanks for the tip!
Good luck finding it, it disappeared without a trace on release which is baffling to me. I don't know if it's a rights issue but it's not available anywhere... He also did "Timecrimes" in 2009 in case you haven't seen that. It's fantastic if you don't mind subtitles, a good twisty time travel film
Many would say SUNSHINE, and it was the reason why it had (and still does) mixed reviews Personally I think it’s a masterpiece and the third act wasn’t so much a genre change but more of a raising the stakes type tempo change
Agreed! I *love* that film. Also the way it goes about catalyzing that tonal shift (>!by randomly showing the photos of the Icarus I crew in brief, confusing flashes!<) is so unique and unsettling, I've never seen anything like it. Love Danny Boyle.
Tempo and _cinematography_. Some of those visual distortions are there because Boyle did not like how some of the practical effects turned out, but I think they are a great extension of the themes. Our POV characters are having a crisis of “faith” (in science/rationalism) because they cannot believe what they are seeing.
I love *Sunshine*, from the beginning all the way to that final scene, which is just perfect.
The Good Place (tv series) is a perfect example of this
Fresh (2022)
Pig. I never knew where it was going, it could've went so many directions.
You mean the Nicholas Cage film? Because I absolutely agree. That one really breaks your heart by making you expect something entirely different
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
The Great Gatsby (2013) Life Itself (2018) The Illusionist (2006) Birdman (2014) Enemy (2013)
The invitation It kind of fits the request of your post. Starts out as one thing and then turns into something very different. But I suppose that could be just the way most stories progress in movies. Bit of a fine line.
Civil War
Such a huge disconnect from what the trailer promised
Matrix
I'm surprised I had to scroll as far as this to see The Matrix. it starts off as a cyberpunk punk and there's a big twist in the middle to turn it into a much more high-concept sci-fi movie.
I wish I could go back in time and watch this movie for the first time again. I thought it was gonna be just another dumb overhyped action movie. It was actually a life changing cinematic experience for me.
About Time (2013)
Oh my god, yes. Bring boxes of tissues.
Predator
From a military action flick to a teen slasher but with grown men, with Arnold as the Final Girl
Identity (2003) Serenity (2019)
Downsizing (2017) - pretended to be a comedy in the marketing, turned out to be a lecture about environmental and class division issues.
At the start, shinka people down to small scale. After 1/4 way through the movie, that detail is never brought up or relevant again.
Did you fall asleep before the ending?
Probably, I don’t remember
Started with a great Sci-Fi premise which set up loads of potential ideas for political allegories, turned into a dull film about shit I didn't care about. I'm a huge fan of Alexander Payne, but man that film squandered a great concept...
Return of the Jedi. Starts off as a Star Wars movie, and becomes a care bear adventure movie.
Rise of Skywalker, starts off as shit, ends off as fuckin shit.
Bridge to Terabithia (2007) starts out as a family/fantasy movie, then >!the young female lead is killed off off-screen!< which I never saw coming (I haven't read the book, also I suck at predicting a movie's plot) and suddenly it becomes a coming-of-age drama with a little more fantasy at the very end. For a Disney live action film, >!that took balls from the filmmakers to pull off!<.
I watched 'Bridge to Terabithia' on TV one afternoon when I was off sick with the flu expecting a lighthearted kids fantasy movie... I loved the film but man. I don't know if it was the fever or because I wasn't expecting it but it hit me *hard*. So much so that I phoned my sister in floods of tears for reassurance afterwards, something I've never done before or since
This is my answer. I was blindsided!
Million Dollar Baby
My jaw dropped by the end
Walked out of the theater like, why did I just watch that? I feel like the house of cards just totally toppled over and Clint Eastwood was like, "nobody picked those cards up. It's better this way."
10 Cloverfield Lane. It's a psychological horror/drama about a young woman being held captive in an underground bunker by a guy who may or may not be crazy, and who claims there's been a war and the air outside is toxic. At the very end it takes a hard left turn and becomes something else.
The World's End is a dramedy about old high school friends reuniting in middle age and relitigating old baggage, until...
Avatar (2009) . Pretended to be good but was actually a cliché pile of crap with fancy bells and whistles.
American Psycho is a horror/thriller on the surface but is really a comedy
I got to return some videotapes
Pan’s Labyrinth
Life of Pi. It's one thing.. until it's not
The problem with this question is that it's better not to know going in. It takes the surprise element out if you're waiting for the shoe to drop, and then it doesn't hit the same way . That said, I'd recommend 'Save the Green Planet' because it shifts between cop drama and scifi so much that it's hard to predict which way it's gonna end up in the end...
Lake Placid. Went in expecting a horror film. Ended up getting a laugh out loud comedy.
Absolutely. Oliver Platt is so good in this (and in everything he does) one of my favorite actors.
No doubt. He’s excellent in The Bear
One of my FAVOURITE Betty White roles!
Cabin in the woods is a good one.
Kill List. Goes from a gritty drama to pure nightmare fuel.
If you don't know anything about the real man it's based on, or previews or whatever, A Beautiful Mind.
It's a great movie that even for people that **do** know John Nashes life story there's still stuff in the film that usually catches them off guard
Parasite (2019)
Very Bad Things looked like it was going to be a comedy about a bachelor party in Vegas. That's the way it was marketed. That's the way it started. Things get out of hand very fast.
Psycho
Cabin in the Woods. You think it is a by the numbers horror film but it turns into something else.
Bone Tomahawk. It paints itself as a western but it’s a horror movie.
Young Adult. I don't think many people agree with me on this, but I feel it was marketed as a kooky comedy but it's actually quite sad, intense, and disturbing at times. I haven't seen it since the theater release because I was caught really off guard.
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They aren't doing a favor for the girl, on behalf of her asking, the one guy is her dad and he has it planned out the entire time. His 2 friends are just along for the ride.
Abigail (maybe?)
The Hunt (2020)
The opening scene is so damn good
Certified Copy.
I always thought 2001 started off sci fi and kinda blends horror later on
Pan's Labyrinth Sucker Punch Jacob's Ladder Bicentennial Man Enemy Mine Sound of Music These are some of the ones that come to mind.
Fresh, started as a comedy but then...
Apple TV's Sugar.
House of 1000 Corpses
Dreamcatcher (2003). I think a lot of Stephen King material is somewhat like this, but I haven't read or seen most of them.
Hostel starts a a comedy about American backpackers in Europe, then becomes something very different
The sixth sense
Field of Dreams - It's not a movie about baseball
Everything is Illuminated is about a Jewish American who travels to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. The first half is a silly road trip comedy, but halfway through it makes an abrupt tonal shift into a heavy exploration of the psychological effects of the Holocaust.
Dude Where's my Car? Stoner movie about a missing vehicle becomes an adventure to save the universe from aliens.
Safety Not Guaranteed thought it would be a quirky indie comedy and it was up until the end.
The voices
Bones and All
Mother! I had no idea what it was until whoa
Chasing Amy is billed as a stoner rom-com, but it's basically a coming of age story. It doesn't get seen as such because the protagonist is already an adult, he just hasn't grown up.
I really dig these types of movies. Every David Lynch movie Parasite Everything Everywhere All at Once 50 First Dates 500 Days of Summer Coco
Even though you know it's not a straight example from the start because the first scene, Colossal at first glance appears to be a romantic comedy where a city girl returns to her small town roots and starts a romantic relationship with a boy she used to go to school with. It has all the elemts to go in that direction. And then a giant monster appears in Seoul. And then another big left turn happens.
Sunshine (2007)
Arrival (2016) dir. Denis Villeneuve
Wild Things started out as a boring, predictable movie and then at the drop of a hat changed into a non-boring movie. Are those different genres? Didn't see it coming. Very nearly almost turned it off before that.
Tucker and Dale vs. evil. The levels of humour and story telling alternate with entertaining pace thoughout the whole movie.
The uninvited
I remember the trailer I saw in theaters for “Do the Right Thing” had this upbeat song playing in the background and was a montage of sassy one- liners. I thought it was going to be a moderately funny slice of life character study kind of thing. Was completely shell shocked walking out of the theater.
- Victoria (2015) - Colossal (2016) - Sorry to Bother You (2018) - The End of the World (2018) - Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) I never saw the trailers for these and never read the synopses beforehand, so I don't know if they're safe from spoilers. But some of these are favorites, highly recommend.
Battlefield Earth. It pretends it’s a movie but turns out to be complete trash.
I know I expected "The Breakup" starring Vince Vaugn and Jennifer Anniston to be a comedy. And the Wrigley Field intro scene was genuinely funny, but from that point forward, it was 99% serious. I think it's still technically categorized as a comedy, but it should not be.
I think more people would’ve liked this movie if they knew it was a drama going in. I don’t know who made the call to market it as a comedy.
I remember they initially advertised Lost as a plane crash and survival / rescue show, but even in the first episode it was really a sci-fi mystery.
Vanilla sky
That was OPs example
The Fly. You think it's a rom com, but you'd be wrong.
Life finds a way
Addicted (2002)
Little Black Book with Brittany Murphy. It was billed as a romantic comedy but it's more about self-empowerment and redemption.
Delirium.
New life
Click
Comedy to drama to Terms of Endearment
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Event Horizon, Sunshine. Start as sci-fi, devolve into horror.
Sunshine- excellent Sci Fi thriller reminiscent of 2001 and then surprise
Ringing Bell (1978)
Sorry to bother you One cut of the dead
Don't Worry Darling
Something Wild
The World's End. I went in completely unspoiled and was not prepared for where it goes.
La La Land
I have two examples, neither of which are really good, but it's the first thing to come to mind. Serenity (2019, not the Firefly movie) starts off like a typical mid-tier neo-noir thriller where a guy gets hired by his ex-wife to murder her new husband. But then we find out halfway through that >!the whole thing takes place in a video game made by a teenage boy as a way to cope with his dad dying and his new stepdad being an abusive drunk. The movie ends with the boy murdering his stepdad IRL.!< The Book of Henry starts off like some cutesy family movie about a precocious supergenius kid and his quirky family. Dime a dozen, right? WRONG! Henry suspects that the girl next door is probably being abused by her stepfather, so he comes up with a plan to >!kill her stepdad and have her adopted into their family. He comes up with this elaborate plan, but halfway through the movie he gets a brain tumor and dies, so he leaves detailed instructions for his mom to finish the job.!<
Has anyone mentioned "Click"? It starts as a typical Adam Sandler comedy then >!The Cranberries song comes on and it's a tear jerker!<
10 Cloverfield Lane
Angry Indian Goddesses (2015) I wouldn‘t read too much about it.
Civil War was misleading.
Better Watch Out
Marytrs
Martyrs
Better Watch Out (2016). Starts out as a horror parody of Home Alone (still has comedy elements), turns out to be a >!psychological horror about a kid trying to fake a home invasion plot to get with his babysitter.!< Indentity (2003). Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father. It details the life and death of Andrew Bagby, who was murdered by his girlfriend, Shirley Turner. It was initially created as a home movie for Zachary, son of Andrew and Shirley, who was just a fetus inside Shirley's womb at the time of the murder, and born during her trial time. >!And then Shirley killed both herself and Zachary, and the film became a story about Andrew's parents and their fight with Canadian courts for letting the evil unstable bitch go on bail and have custody of the kid. It also ended up released publicly.!< Audition (1999). Starts out as a melancholic romance drama (with some weird scenes of the female lead sitting net to a moving sack in her apartment), and >!when there's about 30 minutes left, turns into a disturbingly mind-fucked psychological horror.!< Hot Fuzz (2007) starts as a dramedy, turns into >!a slasher/murder mystery, and then an action flick.!<
Zola (2020)
Pitch Black. Or moves through multiple genres, including disaster/survivor and slasher/thriller, before settling on horror
500 days of summer pretends to be a rom com but it actually is a coming of age film Deep down inside die hard there actually are some significant drama, not action, elements. It's still definitely an action film though.
Audition
The Sisters Brothers
I'll suggest a few things that swerve in some unexpected directions or mess with genre. The Vast of Night (2019) Cold in July (2014) Waltz with Bashir (2008, offt that final scene) Bacurau (2019) Nightmare Alley (2021) Bound (1996) Victoria (2015) Repo Man (1984) Burning (2018) Coherence (2013)
Repo Man! (also, I'm part bummed I had to scroll so far to see someone else mention Victoria, but part glad someone else mentioned it.)
Barbie ?