I was raised on golden age sci-fi and the Twilight Zone. I always expect a twist. Or rather, I’m always open to it. Between that and Checkhov, endings are never so much a surprise as a satisfying tying up of loose ends.
Picking on various movies, not necessarily just Shyamalan
Signs: [spoiler]So the kid leaves 100 glasses of water around the house. That 30 seconds of info cost $0.34 million dollars. It’s relevant somewhere or they’d cut it. Aliens weak to water.[/Spoiler]
The Others: So the housekeepers know about some secret death, she can’t get through the fog to leave the manor, and when the piano keeps slamming shut on her, her response is to… vengefully play it like a madman? Yeah, she’s a ghost. They’re all ghosts.
Everything that has ever taken place in an asylum or sanatorium: the protagonist is actually a deranged patient, sometimes former-patient.
Eventually you just learn to appreciate twists that seem organic.
