***Itâs impossible to talk about this topic without specifics, so⊠spoilers ahead for The Lottery, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Others, The Sixth Sense, The Village, Old, and Signs.***
I recently finished Shirley Jacksonâs We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Itâs one Iâve been meaning to read for a long time. A lot of other people have, too, judging by the months-long wait list on Libby. Thatâs impressive for a text written over sixty years ago.Â
And it was worth the hype. Jacksonâs final novel holds up. The story is subtle, unnerving, and beautifully written. She is truly a master of the genre.Â
But I had an unsettling experience reading this one, and not just because of the macabre subject matter. I kept waiting for something more - I kept waiting for the twist. And I waited for that twist until the last words of the book.Â
The twist was there was no twist!1
I must admit that I expected a twist a la The Others and The Sixth Sense, where some or all of the protagonists turn out to be dead.2
This expectation was due to two things. First, every person I discussed the book with and every review I read online said something along the lines of, âGo in blind! Jackson is the queen of unreliable narrators! Youâll be shocked!â
The other reason is the prevalence of twist endings in the horror genre itself, which can be linked directly back to, even caused by, Jacksonâs most famous work, The Lottery.Â
Ah, The Lottery. I can still remember reading it as a high school Freshman. I wasnât versed in the genre then, and my jaw dropped open at the ending, where we learn that the winner of the yearly lottery, rather than receiving a prize, is stoned to death by their community.
Oh, to experience that for the first time again.Â
The Lottery had an insane amount of influence on literature in general, but especially in horror, where subversion and twists are part and parcel to the genre. Of course, twist endings were a thing before Jackson. The Monkeyâs Paw was first published in 1902 and The Most Dangerous Game in 1926, for example.Â
But I donât think itâs a stretch to say that the prevalence of twists and revealsâthe downright expectation of themâin the horror genre was caused by The Lottery, at least in part.
It brings to mind the creator who might be consideredâthough I am going to posit unfairlyâthe modern master of the twist ending, M. Night Shyamalan.Â
Ah, who didnât gasp audibly at the end of The Sixth Sense when they realized that Bruce Willis was, in fact, one of the dead people seen by Haley Joel Osment?
Oh, to experience that for the first time again!
Several of Shyamalanâs subsequent films included twists, some twistier than others, but none as gasp-worthy as that of the Sixth Sense. Still, less than half of his works include a true twistâwhich we are defining as an unexpected reveal that makes you reconsider the entire film you just watched.
The Village? A twist, because knowing that the movie is set in modern times rather than the 1800s makes you rethink everything youâve seen.Â
Old? Sure, we learn that an evil pharmaceutical company uses the beach to conduct unethical drug trials⊠But it doesn't really change the experience of the movie. Not a twist.
Signs? I think this one is kind of on the fence. Everything in the familyâs life, including the death of Mel Gibsonâs wife, has led up to that particular moment, arranged just perfectly to save his son. Like puzzle pieces falling into place. Iâll give it to ya.
So, sure, Shyamalan likes a good twist. But I argue that expecting them as a given in any project with his name attached taints the experience of the movie. Over half the time you end up dissatisfied, or trying to call any old third-act-reveal a twist, such as the aforementioned ending of Old.
Iâm struggling to come up with a point to all this, and I think itâs this: did Jackson âShyamalanâ herself? That is to say, did she affect the experience of her later works through the sheer magnitude of The Lottery?Â
In a roundabout way, I think she did. The Lottery had a massive effect on the horror genre, making twist endings more commonplace. Without The Lottery, we might not have The Sixth Sense, and without The Sixth Sense, who knows if I would be waiting for Merricat, the narrator of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, to admit sheâs dead?
Of course, thatâs also just a side effect of writing and reading fiction. Any new innovation eventually becomes old hat. The new thing is always destined to turn into a trope.Â
Ah, to experience the days of not being a jaded consumer of horror fiction again!
Of course, there is a little bit of a reveal in the plot in that Merricat turns out to be the one who has poisoned her family. This didnât come across as that big of a twist to me. Itâs practically telegraphed from the first page that Merricat is the one who put rat poison in the sugar. She is obsessed with poisonous plants and mushrooms, and constantly has thoughts of killing anyone who inconveniences her. Couple that with the fact that Constance has no motivation whatsoever, and I found it pretty obvious.
Of course, Iâm super jaded. If youâre not used to twists, this might not have been obvious to you.Â
I admit that this expectation was individual to me, and maybe no one else had this experience⊠but it made me think about the nature twists, and how having viewed certain media colors and effects our perception of the media we see after it. So Imma let it stand.