10. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Quentin Tarantino rose to fame as an auteur director of crime, proven early by his filmsReservoir DogsandPulp Fiction. In the case ofFrom Dusk Till Dawn, he didn’t direct but he did write the screenplay—and he tricked us into thinking it was just another Tarantino crime flick.
From Dusk Till Dawnstarts as a buddy road movie between two criminal brother protagonists (played by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino), then morphs into a vampire horror partway through.
Just when you get comfortable with the premise, director Robert Rodriguez switches things up and throws us into a slasher apocalypse where a strip club is populated by blood-sucking monsters.
Related:The Best Vampire Movies
9. Sunshine (2007)
Sci-fi slashers aren’t common, but they do exist. That said, rather than simply merging the two genres together from the offset, director Danny Boyle decided to play them one-by-one inSunshine.
Eight astronauts are headed towards a dying sun in 2057, hoping to jump-start it like a broken car in the usual save-the-world sci-fi fashion. But before they can get it done, a murderous captain with third-degree burns suddenly starts unleashing his wrath on the crew.
Space odyssey meets bloody horror inSunshine, which was clearly inspired by Ridley Scott’sAlien. The third act shift might be jarring and unusual, but no one can deny that it’s surprising!
8. The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
From the momentThe Place Beyond the Pinesstarts, it’s pretty clear to us who the protagonist is. Derek Cianfrance uses a long take to introduce our main man Luke, tracking him through a carnival scene.
Luke (played by Ryan Gosling) robs banks to provide for his family, but when he gets caught by the police, he passes the protagonist baton to officer Avery Cross (played by Bradley Cooper).
Is one character change-up not enough for you? No worries!The Place Beyond the Pinesshifts again in the third act from Avery to Avery’s son Jason (played by Dane DeHaan).
Essentially, the message of all this is that every life—no matter how seemingly unrelated or unconnected—touches another, as Luke’s initial actions ricochet into Avery’s home life.
Related:The Best Movies About Fathers and Sons
7. Waves (2019)
There are multiple ways to signal a narrative shift. You can twist the color palette, the camera angles, the mood, or even kill off a character. InWaves, Trey Edward Shults uses the aspect ratio to guide us from one story to another, which are separate but still related.
The first half ofWavescenters on Tyler (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.), whose domineering father pressures him into a downward spiral.
As Tyler’s stress builds up, the aspect ratio gradually tightens down to 1.85:1 until it blows up at a cataclysmic party scene. In the aftermath, the narrative POV switches over to Tyler’s sister (played by Taylor Russell).
Related:Movies That Change Aspect Ratio Partway Through Runtime
6. Hot Fuzz (2007)
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright love to mix up genres to amplify the comedy, as seen in the zombie apocalypse ofShaun of the Deadand the robot invasion ofWorld’s End. They’re the comedy DJs of film, mashing up whatever they can find in the most unusual ways.
The genre divide is a bit more potent inHot Fuzz, as we spend the first half of the movie thinking it’s little more than your typical buddy cop comedy. Of course, there’s a surprise waiting for us!
As we should’ve guessed from the creators of the Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy, something homicidal lurks in the mix. This time around, it’s in the form of a genocidal village cult.
Related:The Funniest Horror Comedy Movies That Will Make You Laugh
5. Mulholland Drive (2001)
Did you knowMulholland Drivewas originally intended as a TV series? No surprise given the success of David Lynch’s previous showTwin Peaks.
If it were a TV show,Mulholland Drive’s tonal shift—from standard indie drama to surrealist neo-noir thriller—would’ve been more gradual. But as a movie? The switch feels quite abrupt… in a good way!
When a stranger turns up to Betty’s house with amnesia, the two attempt to figure out the woman’s identity. Played by Naomi Watts and Laura Harring, the pair are not what they first seem.
As it turns out, David Lynch’s tagline “A love story in the city of dreams” isn’t actually about romance but the literal, dreamlike subconscious.
Related:The Best Dreamlike Movies With Strange Dream Logic
4. Titanic (1997)
Everyday moviegoers might be tempted to skip the romantic first half ofTitanicand jump right to the iconic disaster half. After all, isn’t the tragedy more exciting than the protagonists' character developments?
But Jack and Rose (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) are actually the bridge between the setup and payoff ofTitanic—two halves that are so pronounced, people often bypass the beginning altogether.
James Cameron broke records with his advanced production ofTitanic, which ends in a technical feat of ship-sinking thrills. The three-hour runtime is portioned out between a flashback romance and post-iceberg fight for survival, keeping us entertained from start to finish.
Related:The Best Movies About High Society and Rich People
3. Psycho (1960)
Considered one of the first-ever cinematic auteurs, Alfred Hitchcock had a lot of trademarks that differentiated him from other directors of his time, including his mastery of suspense, his fixation on blonde women, and his use of the narrative split.
Hitchcock’s narrative split was almost always rooted in a character death, unexpectedly cropping up halfway through one of his movies.
The technique is a little more commonplace these days, but back in the 1950s and 1960s, viewers were completely shaken when it happened. In his most iconic film,Psycho, it’s Janet Leigh who meets her famous end halfway through the film during her fatal motel shower.
Related:The Best Classic Old Movies Everyone Should See
2. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, a string of fantastic Vietnam War movies came out, includingPlatoon,The Deer Hunter, andApocalypse Now.
It’s hard to say which Vietnam War movie is truly the best of the best, butFull Metal Jacketis definitely up there! Not surprising, given that it was directed by cinematic legend Stanley Kubrick.
Besides being a Kubrick film,Full Metal Jacketstands out for its unconventional approach to plot structure. There’s a definitive before and after—marked by one of the privates committing suicide—that depict the grueling training process and even more grueling field service.
Related:The Best Vietnam War Movies of All Time
1. Vertigo (1958)
Psychomight be Alfred Hitchcock’s most well-known film, but if you ask most critics and scholars,Vertigois his greatest work. And, like inPsycho, the blonde protagonist (played by Kim Novak) ofVertigomeets her unfortunate demise long before the end of the movie.
Interestingly enough,Vertigowas hated by audiences when it released in 1958, mainly for the fact that this film turned their American sweetheart Jimmy Stewart into a slowly maddening anti-hero midway through.
After his love interest suddenly dies, Scottie grows obsessed with turning another woman into her image, morphing the romance detective movie into something much darker and more sinister…
Related:The Best Movies With Beautiful Color Palettes (And What They Mean)
