The recent Bodies Bodies Bodies and the upcoming Don’t Worry Darling are movies committed to establishing a constant atmosphere of suspicion where every character has something to hide.
The impostor trope has been used in a range of different films, from horror stories to conventional murder mysteries. Many of these movies share similarities when it comes to crafting their narrative, in a way every character, being them likable or not, simply cannot be trusted. The final result often brings about a few memorable surprises.
Clue (1985)
Adapting a board game to the cinema definitely isn’t an easy task, but Clue manages to masterfully capture the thrilling feeling of a traditional murder mystery. Characters are typecast exactly like the stock characters of the game Clue, in which players must find out where the murder took place, who was responsible for it, and what weapon was used.
All these traits are faithfully adapted to the movie’s ’80s style. Initially gathered for a fancy dinner at a mansion, six guests find themselves caught up in a murder mystery after their host turns up dead, and every detail counts as a vital clue for the resolution of the crime.
Brick (2005)
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Brick is the kind of murder mystery that makes viewers feel like master detectives, especially because the story unfolds solely through the eyes of the troubled protagonist, thus every new bit of information that comes to shore is witnessed by the audience and the main character at the same time.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a teenage loner pushing his way down the underworld of high school crime as he tries to understand the events that led to the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. Brick portrays the world of teenagers in a gloomy, hopeless atmosphere; a reality ruled by drug dealers and thugs. Packed with puzzling characters, the movie gradually reveals each one’s wicked intentions, but some facts are left out for viewers to make their own conclusions.
Scream (2022)
Both new and old characters join forces when another Ghostface shows up to terrorize the not-so-quiet town of Woodsboro, but the shadow of the past only makes things harder to decipher.
Similar to the previous movies of the franchise, Scream follows the Wes Craven formula for a funny movie about murder with a typical self-aware narrative. With the project for the first time in the hands of a director other than Craven and a brand-new set of characters, Scream was free to once again develop a mystery where literally anyone could be the villain, just like the first movie did decades ago; a great example of a franchise reinventing itself.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Reservoir Dogs is the kind of movie where everything seems to go wrong, and even though each character knows there’s an impostor among them, their desperate attempts to find out who they can trust lead up to an unforgettable climax. Even though it’s one of his early movies, Reservoir Dogs is filled with typical Tarantino trademarks.
Featuring plenty of names who would continue to work with the director later on, the film follows a group of criminals in the aftermath of a heist gone wrong. As they seek shelter in an empty warehouse, they begin to suspect one of them might be a police informant.
Identity (2003)
Identity wants to put viewers in a spot of absolute disorientation, which turns the movie into a complex puzzle packed with details that only make total sense on a second watch. The film follows ten strangers stranded at a remote motel during a storm. When mysterious deaths start to happen, they must run against time to figure out each one’s intentions.
One of Identity‘s biggest twists occurs right in the middle of the movie; a mind-blowing moment that changes the tone of the film completely and makes it even harder to predict what the characters will do next. Maintaining the atmosphere of distrust from beginning to end, the final scene is guaranteed to haunt viewers for a long time.
The Thing (1982)
Not only a great sci-fi thriller, The Thing remains a body-horror masterpiece to this day. Set in the remote territories of Antarctica, a group of scientists finds themselves trapped with a mysterious alien creature capable of assuming the appearance of its victims. Such discovery envelops them in a dangerous atmosphere of suspicion and distrust as the alien gradually takes them down one by one.
The freezing inhospitality of Antarctica added to the threat of a maleficent force they don’t fully comprehend causes the group of scientists to resort to the most desperate plans in order to discover who can really be trusted. Each time an impostor is revealed viewers can expect the nastiest things onscreen, as the alien host executes the most ghastly violations to the human body possible.
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Now on cinemas worldwide, Bodies Bodies Bodies commits to different genres to conduct an unconventional murder mystery narrative. The film follows a group of rich 20-somethings carrying out a drug-fueled party in an isolated family mansion. When they decide to play a seemingly innocent game, a real body count starts, and they no longer can trust each other.
Bodies Bodies Bodies tries to be both a clever satire on Gen Z and a low-key slasher, all the while keeping viewers guessing who the killer really is. It’s a difficult feat to accomplish all of those things while keeping a good balance between horror and comedy, but the way the film introduces a range of unlikable characters is a clever way to turn everyone into a possible suspect.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Only Tarantino could turn such a simple premise into a 3-hour-long movie set almost entirely in the same location. The Hateful Eight places a group of completely different characters seeking shelter from a raging blizzard; bounty hunters, prisoners, veterans, and hangmen all share the same room, but everything quickly suggests some of them might not really be who they claim to be.
Tarantino’s clever screenplay keeps viewers hooked on the story mostly due to its sharp dialogues and the constant hints that something bad is about to happen. Unable to tell who’s telling the truth and who’s not, The Hateful Eight is the kind of movie that makes viewers feel betrayed more than once, but in a good way.
They Live (1988)
A much more down-to-Earth kind of sci-fi than The Thing, They Live is arguably one of the most clever satires about consumerism and media control. Directed by the legendary John Carpenter, the film follows a wanderer who accidentally finds out the Earth is infested with skull-faced aliens planning to control the human race, and the only way to distinguish them from ordinary people is with a special pair of sunglasses.
Regardless of how cool characters look with their sunglasses, the object is indispensable for the good guys because there’s no way to tell humans from aliens without it, which generates a constant atmosphere of paranoia and distrust towards literally anyone on Earth.
Knives Out (2019)
Clearly influenced by both the board game and the movie Clue, Knives Out would be a conventional murder mystery if it wasn’t for its unbelievably peculiar characters and its unusual way to conduct a mystery: the case starts off as easily solved, but new perspectives come to shore and what everyone thought it was true is gradually taking shape into something surprisingly different.
Perpetrators and victims change roles, the good guys are revealed to be bad guys, and even the dead don’t seem so dead at times. Knives Out is a beautiful mess, and viewers need to keep their eyes glued on the screen in order not to miss any detail, carefully choosing who to trust.
