When John Carpenter’s “The Thing” first played in 1982, I saw it in Boston and when the dog split open into The Thing" I saw grown men scream and run out of the theater. I thought it was a joke but they were genuinely scared as they did not return.
After the Sixth Sense I expected a great twist in every Shyamalan movie. Which meant the ones with a twist weren’t a surprise & those with no twist were disappointing.
Just because you know there’s a twist shouldn’t ruin a film, though. If that were the case, no one would’ve watched Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone after the first episode. Or read any more O. Henry stories after the first one.
Shyamalan’s problem is that, despite setting the scene and the characters up beautifully, he mars it with a premise that is irretreivably dumb.. Watch The Happening (f you can) and see if you can honestly say the reason the film doesn’t work is that “people are expecting the twist ending”.
Many were shocked by Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs sadistically cutting off Nash’s ear, but a later scene made me jump out of my seat. Mr. Orange kills Mr. Blonde to prevent him from further disfiguring Nash, and then Cabot shows up. Orange tells him he killed Blonde because of what he was doing to the cop, and Cabot replies, “Who? That cop?” and shoots Nash.
It was such a callous thing to do after the poor guy had been tortured and Orange’s actions provided a slim chance he could survive. That shocked me more than the torture scene.
Here’s the entertaining, behind-the-scenes story from the actor who played the doomed EMT:
Esp. considering that, in-universe, he indeed WAS acting, since he was in reality also a Thing.
You mean: “This is all the money we took from Niska.”?
The end of “No Way Out”. That, like the earlier mentioned “The Sting”, was a movie you could watch twice. Once not knowing the twists, and once knowing them.
“…and the last thing you see will be my blade!”
“Darn.”
One of the best moments on tv, always makes me laugh.
We watched the series again a few weeks ago, with our 15-year-old son - his first time. When we got to that scene, he grinned and said, “Dark. I like it!”
The kids are alright! 
Way long time ago (ca. 1967) I went to the premier of Wait Until Dark at Rockefeller Center in NYC. Near the end of the movie, Alan Arkin leaps out of the darkness to grab Audrey Hepburn, and the entire audience seemed to elevate several feet while screaming.
I saw it in college, c. 1986, and we all reacted similarly!