The narrative takes place inside the structure of an interrogation of the protagonist “Verbal” Kint (so-called because he talks a lot), one of five men suspected of a crime. The film The Usual Suspects is a prime example of this tactic. Twist endingīut some expectation subversions need no warming up for the audience, no groundwork laid-their power lies in the fact that they have truly come out of the blue and overturned everything audiences thought they knew about the fictional world they have been spending time in. After all, you can’t expect to subvert your expectations if you’ve got no expectations to begin with. This method of incremental storytelling also demonstrates that you trust your viewers to recall details and “keep the score” between characters. Our expectations are subverted along with hers, making it all the more satisfying when she sees the truth and exacts her revenge. The novel and film The Girl on the Train also follow this format, leading us to view the protagonist, Rachel, as unreliable only to discover that her ex has been gaslighting her into believing she cannot trust her own instincts. When we find out in the end that they are not to be trusted and have been playing an elaborate trick on Marta in order to induce her to submit to them, we are both surprised and vindicated. However, we are also led over the course of the film to treat certain family members with suspicion, then to trust them again. While your story and characters might not belong to the mystery genre, you can establish an air of uncertainty, guide viewers to question certain characters’ reliability, and so on by dropping hints throughout the story.įor example, writers in the movie Knives Out, the action occurs among an insular family in an isolated old house and as the protagonist, Marta, is an outsider to the family - although trusted - we are set up to find her suspicious. Frequently, they come to realize that someone they had presumed innocent was behind the event (it was the butler all along!). There is at least one death, oftentimes in a specific and confined set of circumstances (the characters are traveling on a train, for example), and the other characters are put on a tight deadline to uncover the cause or the culprit. Whether in literary (think Agatha Christie) or cinematic form (think Alfred Hitchcock), the overarching genre has retained its power because of its classic setup. The murder mystery, or whodunit, has long been a staple of popular consumption. But if you’re on the creative side, how can you sort about subverting your audience’s expectations and winning a loyal fan base? Here are some examples from EssayHub.
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