Any horror movies where the villain is not revealed NOR featured until the end?

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

@aruvqan

Isn’t that also the film The Usual Suspects?

That is pretty much the exact opposite of what the OP is asking for.

@msmith537

What about Se7en? Kevin Spacey is just some guy who shows up at the end before the final scene.

This is what first came to mind when I read the OP, although I guess it depends on how you would define “the end” of the film since there’s still around 30 minutes of the film after he shows up. (And technically he does appear in an earlier scene as well.)

@Martini_Enfield

I believe The Bone Collector fits the OP’s category for the most part - the villain is revealed at the end to be someone you saw briefly at the start of the film, who has a preposterous motive and is frankly just a step to the left from “the butler did it”.

I actually pegged him as the killer from the very beginning, because I was familiar with the actor (from Se7en actually!) and saw his name in the opening credits, and knew he wouldn’t have gotten an opening credit for just like a minute of screen time. (Precisely the reason Spacey insisted he not be given an opening credit for Se7en!)

[purplehearingaid]

John Lithgow in ‘Raising Cain’ , I think it wasn’t till the end of the movie you found out who the villain was , but I knew halfway though the movie.

[RealityChuck]

In the movie Experiment in Terror, I don’t think you actually see the villain until the end (he terrorizes the heroine over the phone). There is one confrontation earlier, but IIRC, the villain is wearing makeup to disguise his face.

[Push_You_Down]

@Nobody

Would Cabin in the Woods count? The ancient gods come out at the very end to destroy the world.

They aren’t the villains really- is a tornado a villain?

The villains are really the behind the scenes folks (who aren’t really villains since they do what they do in order to keep the entire world alive. )

[Typo_Negative]

Not horror, but IIRC, the killer is never shown in The Pledge.

[Nobody]

@Push_You_Down

They aren’t the villains really- is a tornado a villain?

The villains are really the behind the scenes folks (who aren’t really villains since they do what they do in order to keep the entire world alive. )

OK then; You never see the head honcho Sigourney Weaver until the end.

Edit: Come to think of it the underground gods aren’t like a force of nature because they’re purposely destroying the earth. Unlike a tornado which has no capacity for thought.

[xizor]

The original Saw kind of fits the pattern since

Jigsaw is the guy laying on the floor who they thought was just a dead body for the whole movie

[Senegoid]

V’ger.

Vague, unseen villain, and only somewhat abstractly seen even at the end.

Sauron similar. Vague, shadowy villain. The whole LOTR story revolves around defeating this unseen abstract evil, who is never actually seen.

[Miller]

@Nobody

OK then; You never see the head honcho Sigourney Weaver until the end.

Edit: Come to think of it the underground gods aren’t like a force of nature because they’re purposely destroying the earth. Unlike a tornado which has no capacity for thought.

But they’re still not the villains of the movie, because the action of the film isn’t motivated by their actions, but by the actions of the shadowy corporation that’s dedicated to keeping them docile.

It’s like Platoon. The villain in Platoon is Tom Berenger, the psychotic American soldier, not the North Vietnamese with whom they’re actually at war. The VC, while being intelligent beings with a clear agenda, are not the antagonists of the film: at most, they’re a periodic danger against which the action unfolds, but their motives do not drive the plot, and the story is not resolved by their eventual victory or defeat.

[TBG]

I guess the Lost Boys doesn’t count because the real big bad is there the whole time, just everyone assumes it’s Kiefer (especially after the Coreys already “ruled out” the actual baddy) until the end reveal.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

I barely remember the particulars, but: Hellraiser. Pinhead, the monster on all the posters, shows up kind of late and isn’t even all that terrifying. (I guess Frank was the real “villain.”)

Blair Witch Project, maybe?