In the latest episode of Script Apart posted on ScreenCraft, Al Horner interviews Strange Darling writer-director J.T. Mollner. In that film, Mollner sets up a major plot twist early in the story. “Why wait till the end of the movie to pull the rug out from underneath your audience, the writer-director reasons, when you could stun them before or around the midpoint when viewers least expect it?” Horner says.
Revealing a plot twist early surprises the audience and gives them less time to figure out what the next twist might be. “Even if viewers guess what the twist is, if that shock comes around the midpoint, then the twist is not the destination of your movie—it’s a journey point,” Horner writes. “The rest of the film can be about what the twist means for the characters instead of solely what it means for us in the audience.”
