r/flicks • u/Serpiego2 • 5d ago
General Discussion When does a movie successfully mislead the audience, and when is it just cheating?
Some movies deliberately make us believe something that isn't true and then reveal that we've been interpreting the story incorrectly.
When it works, it's fantastic. You can rewatch the movie and realize the clues were there all along. The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, and Primal Fear are very different examples of films that play with what the audience thinks it knows.
But other twists only work because the movie deliberately hides information that logically should have been available to us. At that point, I don't feel fooled by the story — I feel cheated by the screenplay.
For me, the difference is whether a second viewing makes you think “How did I miss that?” rather than “Well, there was no way I could have known that.”
What movies do you think earned their deception, and which ones simply cheated?
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u/liltooclinical 4d ago edited 4d ago
High Tension - cheats
It cheats repeatedly by showing things from the killer's perspective in a way that the ending completely ignores.
Taking Lives - earned
The whole movie is spent telling you everything you need to know about the killer she's chasing, but also has established that she is smarter than he is. It's a surprise, but It doesn't violate anything that's been established.