I really enjoy stories that start off as one thing, then midpoint twist you into a totally different genre. In this case, I’m thinking about films that start as a fairly compelling crime drama or crime thriller, then take a wild left turn into Horror and speed off into the gory distance.
You know the premise: criminals find somewhere to lie low after a heist/robbery/escape, or they find the ideal location for a home invasion/burglary/kidnapping … only to discover the true horror is where they’ve ended up, and what they are now locked inside with. It’s got that twist potential where it can go psychological, slasher, or supernatural – or perhaps all three!
To be on the list, the films need to follow these beats:
Criminals -> hide out somewhere or break into somewhere -> normal crime thriller -> MIDPOINT TWIST! -> we’re not in Kansas anymore.
I’m not going to count things like The Devil’s Rejects, or 악마를 보았다/ I Saw The Devil, where you as the viewer are fully aware the hunters are becoming the hunted, or ones that are like that in a cat-and-mouse sort of way. While in both, the serial killers do encounter a range of people ‘worse’ than they are throughout the films, the whole crux of the plot is the cat-and-mouse hunt, and not the hideout-gone-wrong midpoint twist that plunges the film from crime thriller into horror.
I’m also not counting Predators for similar reasons; the criminals/mercenaries are brought to the planet on purpose, they don’t end up there by accident, or by their own free will. I also can’t count Attack the Block, because it’s their block, and they live there – aliens invading their own terf is the reverse of what I’m looking for.
No One Lives is also not on here, because it’s not a home invasion/badly chosen hideout premise, and the couple that get the highway gang into trouble come to the gang rather than the other way around. Criminals do indeed tangle with the wrong people, but it’s more of a revenge-slasher.
If you’re into films like that, here’s a quick little list! There’s actually a lot more variation here than you might think… even thought they share a premise, and the plots have very similar beats.
Let’s go! My Top 10 Films
Saloum (2021) dir. Jean Luc Herbulot.
Once upon a time in Africa…
Three mercenaries extracting a druglord out of Guinea-Bissau are forced to hide in the mystical region of Saloum, Senegal.
This is one of my favourite films. A former child soldier turned infamous mercenary living with PTSD takes his crew on a little detour to hide out in Saloum, Senegal, during a mission to get a drug dealer out of Guinea Bissau. What he hasn’t told them is their stopover lodge is owned by the man who brutalised and sold him as a child, and he is there to take revenge… but the man’s death sets off a supernatural chain reaction nobody could have predicted.
An absolutely wild ride, one of my favourite action films in this genre. I really like the way it deals with disability and mental health, and normalises it, and takes things in stride.
Abigail (2024) dirs. Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin.
Children can be such monsters.
A group of criminals kidnap a teenage ballet dancer, the daughter of a notorious gang leader, in order to obtain a ransom of $50 million, but over time, they discover that she is not just an ordinary girl. After the kidnappers begin to diminish, one by one, they discover, to their increasing horror, that they are locked inside with no normal little girl.
Again, another of my favourites. I saw Abigail in the cinema and laughed and laughed and laughed. I loved it. The kills are great, the dynamics are very fun, and it’s basically just my perfect vampire film in almost every way. Another classic of “criminals commit a crime; they go hide out to lie low from said crime; OH NO FUCKED UP SHIT HAPPENS WHERE THEY ARE HIDING OUT”. In this case, like From Dusk Till Dawn, it’s vampires to the face. Who would have thought it.
I didn’t even feel like the film was spoiled in any meaningful way when you already knew the twist, as that was literally in the description of the film, and in trailer. Also, anyone who has ever seen FDTD would have seen it coming a mile away. Nevertheless, I really did appreciate the kidnap first act as a thriller, and I got very invested in the character dynamics of the group before shit hit the fan. Then it was just a lot of fun.
Villains (2019) dirs. Robert Olsen, Dan Berk.
Two bad people are about to meet two worse people.
When their car breaks down, a couple on the run headed southbound for a fresh start in the Sunshine State break into a nearby house looking for a new set of wheels. What they find instead is a dark secret, and a sweet-as-pie pair of homeowners who will do anything to keep it from getting out.
Heartbreaking. This one is really emotional (for me) and I really loved the dynamics between Mickey and Jules, played by Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe. It’s about the dark secrets behind outwardly-seeming ‘ideals’, and I just really liked it. There is a strange symmetry between the runaway couple and the picket-fence couple, which makes them play off each other in really interesting ways as they clash.
I also really liked the ‘is it supernatural, are they just saying that, is this psychological, what is happening here’ twist, instead of it being a straight supernatural devolvement. If you want some fun that gut-punches you in the feels, this is the one.
Little Bone Lodge (2023) dir. Matthias Hoene.
A mother always protects her family.
During a stormy night in the Scottish Highlands, two criminal brothers on the run seek refuge in a desolate farmhouse. But after taking the resident family captive, they find the house holds even darker secrets of its own.
Little Bone Lodge went to some wild as all fuck places. It strongly reminded me of the thriller Tiger House, which is a single hostage overlooked by the kidnappers type film á la Hostage (2005) and Die Hard. This one (Little Bone Lodge) has criminal brothers, one of whom cannot control his temper and his urges, and the other who is trying to look out for him but is also a bit resentful and struggling with the mess they’re in. The problem is when he starts poking around in Ma’s business, and discovers what she’s got tucked away…
This went places I fully didn’t expect, it’s not supernatural but it is absolutely wild. Another one I found really emotional, and incredibly tense.
The Collector (2009) dir. Marcus Dunstan.
He always takes one
Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer’s country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.
I wasn’t sure about including this one, but after some debate (with myself), I have decided it does fit the premise. A guy turns up to his employer’s house to rob it (the criminal-specific element), and finds that the serial killer known as The Collector is already there.
The first act is the set up for the crime and getting him into place, so I reckon that counts. He is then stuck in the house (the other stipulation of this subgenre list being that the events unfold in that location), navigating a fuck load of lethal traps that kill you in horrendous ways (and also get the family cat). It then turns into a ‘renegade hostage’ movie, which was why I debated on whether it counts, as he tries to help the family escape only for them to panic and inevitably trigger a shitload of ridiculous weaponry.
I decided it counts, as it does hit the ‘is this going to be a crime thriller where we follow a thief’s moral dilemmas and domestic life’ beat to ‘HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK’ twist. It’s essentially the torture-porn version of Home Alone, with my boy Josh Stewart as the hapless protagonist, who, by the way, plays a cracking villain in Southern Gothic film, Cold Moon.
Anyway, this is among the worst things I’ve watched in terms of torture stuff, and it’s about my limit, as I’m honestly not that into it. I do, however, absolutely love the sequel, The Collection. make of that what you will. I will say, though, that The Collector does have some absolutely brilliantly funny moments, and some of the kills are inspired. It’s just… a lot for me.
Becky (2020) dirs. Jonathan Milott, Cary Murnion.
There once was a little girl…
A teenager’s weekend at a lake house with her father takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts wreaks havoc on their lives.
Becky is another one I wasn’t sure about, but ultimately, I think it’s more than a renegade hostage situation, as they light the blue touchpaper on her limitless reservoir of rage and turn her into an absolute killing machine. While other renegade hostage films are more about saving the day or getting out alive, this one is about absolute carnage. The ‘activation’ of Becky is an element that flips the film from being a crime thriller to being a sassy subversion of a teen slasher, and that, for me, means it’s on the list. I think it shares enough plot beat similarities with Little Bone Lodge that it’s in the same ballpark as that.
HOWEVER: I’m not counting The Wrath of Becky (the sequel), as that is more explicitly a revenge movie; she goes after the criminals repsonsible for the death of her chosen family on purpose, after the event, and the film is set up for encounter > revenge beats. It doesn’t take place in the same location as the initial encounter. Plus, it gets weirdly copaganda at the end.
The Sacrifice Game (2023) dir. Jenn Wexler.
This Christmas, raise a little hell.
Christmas break, 1971. Samantha and Clara, two students who are staying behind for the holidays at their boarding school, must survive the night after the arrival of uninvited visitors.
A group of serial killers with an occult agenda kill their way across the country to a boarding school, which was built on the site of demonic activity that once threatened the local township. One of the killers, Maisie (Olivia Scott Welch), used to be a pupil at the school where she discovered a secret book in the basement and tore a page out, and she and her gang have been following its instructions with every kill.
Once in the school, having secured the few staff and students remaining over the holidays, they search for the book itself, which will tell them more about how to raise the demon they’re after, and if they raise it, it will allegedly grant them their hearts’ desires. The only issue is that once they are inside and ready to perform the final ritual, they find that things are not the way the book led them to believe.
One of my favourite Christmas films.
Blood Red Sky (2021) dir. Peter Thorwarth.
A woman with a mysterious illness is forced into action when a group of terrorists attempt to hijack a transatlantic overnight flight. In order to protect her son she will have to reveal a dark secret, and unleash the inner monster she has fought to hide.
Basically, don’t hijack a plane unless you’re really sure you haven’t hijacked the plane with a vampire on board. This is another one that crosses over into renegade hostage territory, but they are locked in there with her, she is not locked in with them.
A terrorist group bite off more than they can chew when they discover one hostage bites back. I think this does count, as it’s a mix of heartfelt domestic drama (mother and son plotline) and crime thriller (terrorist group plotline) colliding, only for it to go sideways into Snakes on a Plane meets From Dusk Till Dawn. So, again, while this one is a bit different and takes place on a plane, I think it does count for this list.
Lurking Fear (1994) dir. C. Courtney Joyner.
Infinite Evil
The storm-swept and depopulated town of Leffert’s Corners has been terrorized for decades by grotesque creatures that breed in the depths beneath the local cemetery. A group of townspeople have hatched a last-ditch plan to destroy the ghoul-infested graveyard, but their mission is interrupted by the arrival of a band of violent thieves intent on retrieving money hidden in one of the graves.
Lurking Fear is one of those films I keep rewatching but actually rate fairly low. I don’t know why I keep watching it, but I guess it always pulls me back in, so it gets a highlighted mention.
A band of violent thugs pick the wrong town to rob, and of course, shenanigans ensue. It’s not wholly focused on the thieves though; we get a lot of the townsfolk first, with their plans and lives, and we’re aware of what the monster is (sort of). So when the thieves show up, we know it’s going to be carnage. Still, I think this does count on a technicality, and technically counting is the best kind of counting. So here it is.
Sinners (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler.
Dance with the devil.
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Ending on a banger, and circling back to the vibes of Saloum – just because they are the wrong side of the law doesn’t mean they’re bad people. This one fits because it’s a lying low situation, the brothers have stolen money from Chicago gangsters, and they need to have a fresh start. They head back to their hometown, try to set up something new, and bang! Vampires to the face. This seems to be a known/common problem in the US and Mexico.
Before/without the Vampires To The Face, this is a solid drama. I would happily just watch it unfold without supernatural goings-on. Take the vampire plot out and you would still have a really compelling story: add it in, and it’s a lot of fun, has more layers, and it definitely fits the plot beats! The action then centres on their barn, where they get holed up and beseiged by the vampires, so it all takes place within a single, focused location that was supposed to be a safe haven for them.
I really loved this film. I know it’s a very different vibe in some ways to a few of the others, but it’s a very similar vibe to Saloum, and you definitely want the twins to make it out.
On my Watchlist:
(I’m not sure how closely the following films fit the premise, nor if they’re any good, but here’s my list so far. You can find my ratings and additions on the Letterboxd list here.)
The Last House on the Left (both versions) should count too, but I don’t enjoy rape/revenge films so I haven’t put them on the watchlist. But they could be on yours! I have added them to the Letterboxd list for completeness. There are other films on the list that aren’t ones I want to watch so aren’t listed below.
- Scarecrows (1988) dir. William Wesley
- The People Under the Stairs (1991) dir. Wes Craven
- Killers (1996) dir. Mike Mendez
- Deep Rising (1998) dir. Stephen Sommers
- Malevolence (2004) dir. Stevan Mena
- Whisper (2007) dir. Stewart Hendler
- The Cottage (2008) dir. Paul Andrew Williams
- The Perfect Host (2010) dir. Nicholas Tomnay
- Livide/Livid (2011) dirs. Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
- Rites of Spring (2011) dir. Padraig Reynolds
- Kill List (2011) dir. Ben Wheatley
- You’re Next (2011) dir. Adam Wingard
- V/H/S (2012) dirs. David Bruckner, Chad Villella, Adam Wingard, Tyler Gillett, Glenn McQuaid, Justin Martinez, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
- Intruders (2015) dir. Adam Schindler
- Crush the Skull (2015) dir. Viet Nguyen
- Body (2015) dirs. Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
- From a House on Willow Street (2016) dir. Alastair Orr
- Don’t Breathe (2016) dir. Fede Álvarez
- Realms (2017) dir. Daric Gates
- Bad Samaritan (2018) dir. Dean Devlin
- Monster Party (2018) dir. Chris von Hoffmann
- The Pale Door (2020) dir. Aaron B. Koontz
- Bloody Hell (2020) dir. Alister Grierson
- The Owners (2020) dir. Julius Berg
- Hideout (2021) dir. Kris Roselli
- The Price We Pay (2022) dir. Ryûhei Kitamura
- 늑대사냥/ Project Wolf Hunting (2022) dir. Kim Hong-sun
- A Hard Place (2025) dir. J. Horton
What have you watched? What would you recommend?
Tell me in the comments!
Leave a Reply