# Stories with a REALLY major mid-story shift in tone, format, or genre?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 19, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225 "2012-03-19T13:44:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/1 "2012-03-19T13:44:52Z")
The closest examples I can think of are movies like Full Metal Jacket, Million Dollar Baby, Skeleton Crew, Behind the Mask; the Rise of Leslie Vernon, the recent French film Martyrs… things like that, except I’m hoping someone can recommend something that \*really \*flips a switch midway through, something where maybe the first 40 minutes or so plays like a romantic comedy, then BOOM it turns into full-on horror movie. Not like a “mixed genre” thing where it’s a horror-comedy, but where the audience is set up for a particular kind of experience then gets suckerpunched just as they’re getting comfortable.
Book recommendations certainly welcome, too!
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/2 "2012-03-19T13:47:47Z")
Tarantino’s _From Dusk Till Dawn_ - starts as a crime caper with a serial killer and turns into a vampire horror movie.
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### Author:  [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/3 "2012-03-19T13:48:49Z")
Psycho. By now, it’s not shocking, but when the woman who was ostensibly the star of the movie is killed about a half-hour in, the movie drastically shifts course.
Joe
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### Author:  [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/4 "2012-03-19T13:49:10Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#):
>
> something where maybe the first 40 minutes or so plays like a romantic comedy, then BOOM it turns into full-on horror movie.
The poster boy for this is [From Dusk Till Dawn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Dusk_till_Dawn). Starts as a standard 90s Tarantino wise-cracking bad guy flick and then turns into a vampire movie after about 40 minutes.
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### Author:  [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/5 "2012-03-19T13:50:24Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Tarantino’s _From Dusk Till Dawn_ - starts as a crime caper with a serial killer and turns into a vampire horror movie.
Damn you!
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/6 "2012-03-19T13:54:45Z")
**Bridge to Terebithia.** It starts out as a discovery of a fantasy world, but turns into a kitchen sink tragedy.
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### Author:  [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/7 "2012-03-19T13:59:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Tarantino’s _From Dusk Till Dawn_ - starts as a crime caper with a serial killer and turns into a vampire horror movie.
Ah, yes, yes, of course you and the others are right - I don’t know how I forgot to list that one as another example!
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/8 "2012-03-19T14:01:57Z")
_Something Wild_ started out as an R-rated, hip screwball comedy. Then Ray Liotta showed up & things got really dark…
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### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/9 "2012-03-19T14:08:32Z")
_Very Bad Things_ - Started off like a typical ‘bachelor party in Vegas’ type movie. But one dead hooker later, everything changes.
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### Author:  [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/10 "2012-03-19T14:10:20Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#):
>
> The closest examples I can think of are movies like Full Metal Jacket, Million Dollar Baby, Skeleton Crew, Behind the Mask; the Rise of Leslie Vernon, the recent French film Martyrs… things like that, except I’m hoping someone can recommend something that \*really \*flips a switch midway through, something where maybe the first 40 minutes or so plays like a romantic comedy, then BOOM it turns into full-on horror movie. Not like a “mixed genre” thing where it’s a horror-comedy, but where the audience is set up for a particular kind of experience then gets suckerpunched just as they’re getting comfortable.
>
> Book recommendations certainly welcome, too!
The Japanese movie **Audition** is exactly romantic comedy switching to horror genre like you describe.
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/11 "2012-03-19T14:25:24Z")
The Crying Game fits this, I think. The first half being all about the IRA and the relationship between Stephen Rea and Forest Whitaker’s characters, and then midway through the movie it turns into a thriller involving Whitaker’s “girlfriend.”
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/12 "2012-03-19T14:31:41Z")
This topic has come up before, and \*\*\*Life Is Beautiful \*\*\*seems to be the best example.
The first half is a zany romantic comedy, while the second half is a grim tragedy.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/13 "2012-03-19T14:36:28Z")
“Blue Velvet” switches gears from a fairly normal mystery to…something that’s not a fairly normal mystery.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/14 "2012-03-19T17:16:13Z")
The best movie example I can think of is _Heathers_, which starts as a deep black comedy, then 180s into a kind of chase caper that tries to make you feel apologetic for finding the first two thirds so uproariously funny.
As to books, _Huckleberry Finn_ moves smoothly along, right up to the point where Huck tries to pray and resolves to just consign himself to Hell–then veers off into all that screwball nonsense with Tom Sawyer.
In both cases, I’d say there was a great idea that the authors couldn’t figure out how to end.
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### Author:  [@charmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charmstr)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/15 "2012-03-19T17:37:09Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#):
>
> _Something Wild_ started out as an R-rated, hip screwball comedy. Then Ray Liotta showed up & things got really dark…
Exactly! It’s the reason I loved this film when it came out and I suspect it’s the reason it got such mixed reviews. (Also 1980’s Melanie Griffin in a black wig was really hot.)
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/16 "2012-03-19T17:44:01Z")
I think the movie _Barton Fink_ is maybe a better example than _Dusk Till Dawn_. But I pretty much prefer the Coen Brothers to Tarantino, so maybe I’d be expected to say that.
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### Author:  [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/17 "2012-03-19T17:50:43Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#):
>
> The closest examples I can think of are movies like Full Metal Jacket, Million Dollar Baby, Skeleton Crew, Behind the Mask; the Rise of Leslie Vernon, the recent French film Martyrs… things like that, except I’m hoping someone can recommend something that \*really \*flips a switch midway through, something where maybe the first 40 minutes or so plays like a romantic comedy, then BOOM it turns into full-on horror movie. Not like a “mixed genre” thing where it’s a horror-comedy, but where the audience is set up for a particular kind of experience then gets suckerpunched just as they’re getting comfortable.
Doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose to ask for recommendations of movies that are supposed to surprise you half-way through?
Oh well, they didn’t turn into full-out horror movies, but a couple that come to mind as taking a very surprising turn are “Straw Dogs” (the Dustin Hoffman version; I haven’t seen the new one), and “Pretty Poison,” an old Tony Perkins-Tuesday Weld movie.
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/18 "2012-03-19T18:39:47Z")
_Moby Dick_ starts off as a chatty, often humorous, first-hand narrative of a whaling voyage. By mid-book the narrator, the chit-chat, and the humor are gone as the story converges on the Captain and the title whale. Ishmael I believe never speaks or interacts with the other characters for the last 200 pages. A single-page postscript explains his survival, by which time you’ve forgotten who he is.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/19 "2012-03-19T19:38:48Z")
_Hugo_ starts out following an orphaned boy living in a train station befriending a young girl who set out on and adventure/mystery.
The mystery is solved rather quicky and switches focus to Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley) and his life making movies.
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### Author:  [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-with-a-really-major-mid-story-shift-in-tone-format-or-genre/616225/20 "2012-03-19T19:46:04Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Tarantino’s _From Dusk Till Dawn_ - starts as a crime caper with a serial killer and turns into a vampire horror movie.
What I came here to say. Boy, I would love to see the second half of the first half of that movie.
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