For a long time, Hollywood’s scriptwriter and directors have preferred the murder mystery genre. And every time they succeed. It is always fashionably scintillating to seat on the edge of our seat. We love to be fooled, played and toyed with, keep guessing until the end. And a murder mystery has all the ingredients. Here is a List of 6 murder mystery movies which fooled us with their shocking endings.

Psycho

Psycho is an ultimate Hitchcock film and hence the ultimate murder mystery movie. What has become a common subject nowadays started as a bone-chilling murder mystery at Bates Motel? The story revolves around a series of murder in a Motel. The audience can only see a womanly figure stabbing and keeps guessing.

This movie is certainly the mother of all murder mysteries (with all the puns intended). At the end when the audience seems to believe that Norman’s mother is the murderer, just then the ultimate twist which is one of the most iconic ones happens. It is revealed that Norman’s mother died years ago and it was Norman who did the crime.

Vertigo

When Murder is the genre, then surely Hitchcock has to be the name. Vertigo was recently considered as the best movie of all time beating out Citizen Kane. Vertigo follows John Scottie Ferguson, a retired detective who is prone to acrophobia and has a growing obsession with Madeline, a woman he was hired to spy on her husband.

As the plot unravels we are served with one surprise after another. Even at the end when Scottie finally gets the courage to reach the top of the bell tower, to overcome his fears. Hitchcock does what he does the best.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

A mysterious disappearance forty years ago, a list of names no one can decipher, political intrigue, and a series of murder spanning nearly twenty years; has everything in it to enter the list.

The movie is filled with evil twists and turns, and just when it seems everything is under control, the story takes you for a spin. It’s gritty, raw, fast and very nicely narrated. The interest starts with Harriet who is considered to be murdered forty years back.

A journalist, Mikhael Blomkvist is given the responsibility to find the murderer. What we see at the end is Harriet to be alive and leaving with the name of Anita for the past forty years.

Memento

This Christopher Nolan cult revolves around the story of Leonard Shelby who is suffering from anterograde amnesia. Shelby is on a vengeful path to discover the second man responsible for his wife’s rape and murder.

Like pieces of a puzzle, the movie is shot in two sequences. One is in black and white color filter and shows the order of events chronologically. While the other shot in color and shows the events occurring in reverse. Nolan confuses us and keeps us guessing. With unusual plot points and turns, and especially the ending makes it one of the finest of all time.

Strangers On A Train

This adaptation of a novel, directed by Hitchcock is about “exchanging murders“. A stranger approaches another passenger in the train, offering an exchange of murders. The stranger knows everything about the passenger.

What fooled us was not only the plot’s set-up and conclusion but also in the realization that there is evil lurking beneath ordinary men. In a final climactic scene. We discover that even while dying some men lie.

Se7en

The story is about a killer who is targeting people who exhibit one of the seven deadly sins from the Bible, over the span of seven days.

This David Fincher movie starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman is the only film that fooled the audience twice. First, the writers never reveal who plays the killer in the film, as they leave him out of the credits.

The Second is the climax scene between Mills and Doe and having the audience wonder what is in the box. We are fooled. This unexpected ending left everyone’s jaws drop.