The 10 Most Shocking Movie Moments Of 2016 (So Far)

In 2016, it takes a lot to still shock and/or awe an audience. This is a medium over a century old - gone are the days of cinema-goers screaming in fright at the sight of a steam train hurtling towards them on the big screen. By now we feel we've seen it all. Now it takes real originality and craftsmanship to surprise the average film fan or instill in them any sense of real wonder. All the same, so far in 2016 we've had plenty of good shock moments in horror, sci-fi, comedy, drama - all across the genre spectrum. The biggest surprises of 2016 have ranged from comical to chilling and from astonishing to outright terrifying. So, without further ado, here are the ten most shocking moments of 2016 at the movies (so far). Of course, spoilers will follow for each film. 10) Midnight Special - World Upon A World Midnight Special doesn't exactly attempt to conceal its fantastical nature before its big reveal finale. It's just that Jeff Nichols, always an understated filmmaker that deals in character details and situates his movies in what appears to be our real world, keeps things typically low-key. We see Jaeden Lieberher's Alton Meyer shuddering rooms and apparently summoning meteor showers using what appears to be a telekinetic ability, but it's small stuff. Then, just as the movie is about to end, Alton opens some portal and reveals to Kirsten Dunst's mother character, and to us, that there's another world secretly resting on the top of our own. A parallel universe right alongside the one we know. It's where the film suddenly veers into all-out sci-fi, and it doesn't even entirely work - think the jarring 'alien' sequence at the end of A.I. - but for sheer "WTF?!" value it deserves recognition here. 9) Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising - Teddy's Dance Neighbors 2, despite its admirable attempt to about-face from the bro-heavy inclinations of the original and make a real feminist comedy, simply lacks the hilarity of Nicholas Stoller's first. It's fitfully amusing, sure, but where Neighbors gave us one memorable set-piece after another, Sorority Rising is sorely lacking. Although, there is still one scene that sticks in the mind. This time it's literally a balls-out performance from Zac Efron, as Neighbors 2 goes gross-out, putting Efron on-stage in front of dozens of screaming college girls in nothing but his underwear - before he goes too far and pulls out his scrotum for all to see. If there's but one memorable image from Sorority Rising, it's that of Efron dangling his testicles in front of a crowd of horrified young women. 8) Deadpool - Ajax's Execution For the most part, Deadpool sticks a big middle finger up to comic book movie conventions. The film is hard R, flaunting its sex, violence and cursing with complete disregard for what is normally expected. Even as it takes a turn for the generic in the last act, pitting Wade Wilson against his arch-nemesis for a big explosive showdown, there's still surprise in store. At the end of the movie, Deadpool has finally confronted and defeated Ajax. The Merc with the Mouth's sidekick, Colossus, appeals to Wilson's humanity, pleading with him not to kill his foe. Normally, this is where the hero recognizes the kind of decent role model he's supposed to be, and spares the villain. This being Deadpool, however, our 'hero' just raises his gun and shoots Ajax in the head, prompting a repulsed Colossus to vomit everywhere. 7) Demolition – Car Crash Going into Jean-Marc Vallee's existential drama Demolition, you'll already know it's about an investment banker - Jake Gyllenhaal's standoffish Davis Mitchell - attempting to see life in a new way as he gets over the death of his wife Julia. What may still surprise you is how suddenly, how callously Julia is dispatched. The beginning of Demolition doesn't offer a vision of domestic bliss, exactly, but at least a look at a day in the life of a young, good-looking, vaguely bored married couple. Davis and Julia are driving through NYC, chit-chatting about family squabbles and leaking fridges... then WHAM, a car comes out of nowhere, pulverizing the Mitchells' car and killing Julia seemingly instantly. Not two minutes into the film, Vallee jolts you out of your seat. 6) 10 Cloverfield Lane – The Invasion Is Real Even if it is a Cloverfield movie, we’re never quite sure whether to trust 10 Cloverfield Lane's creepy Howard (John Goodman), regarding whether or not aliens have invaded outside his underground bunker. After all, he's clearly a deeply unwell man, a conspiracy theorist and doomsday nut who also happens to have kidnapped Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and stranded her in his lair. Surely he can't be telling the truth? Well, as Michelle discovers towards the end of the movie, crazy old Howard was right all along. Michelle's reaction - exasperated, wryly disbelieving, as though she simply can't believe the past few days she's been having - as she escapes the shelter and is greeted by the sight of murderous extraterrestrials, sums up our own. Coming at the end of a taut kidnap thriller, the lurch into science fiction horror is a sudden shock to the system. 5) High-Rise – Laing Eats The Dog As contemporary leading men go, few have an image as wholesome as Tom Hiddleston. Rarely has an actor managed to appear so charming and utterly, pleasantly English even while playing the villain. It's why he's a favorite to be the next Bond. You suspect it's also probably why Ben Wheatley hired him to play Robert Laing in his black comic satire High-Rise, and in the process perversely upend our very idea of one of cinema's nice guy actors. High-Rise is full of shock value - there's murder, torture and rape. There are orgies, and there's ABBA played repeatedly on the soundtrack - but nothing braces you quite like the film's opening scene. Wheatley's first images are of Hiddleston, amiable Hiddleston, roasting someone's pet dog on a spit. That's his dinner. You'll never look at the guy the same way again. 4) Green Room - The First (Attempted) Escape One-upping his gory revenge tale Blue Ruin, writer-director Jeremy Saulnier packs his third feature Green Room with shock value. You can take your pick of grisly jump scares in this queasy horror-thriller: Anton Yelchin's Pat, bassist with punk band The Ain't Rights, getting his arm hacked to the bone by skinheads; Mark Webber's foe-turned-ally Daniel getting blasted in the face by an unseen shotgun. Most gruesome of all though is the first attempted escape, from the titular green room inside a club owned by neo-Nazi Patrick Stewart, by The Ain't Rights. At first, it seems the young musicians are safe. Then all hell is let loose, as Callum Turner's Tiger has his throat ripped out by a rottweiler, Joe Cole's Reece is viciously stabbed and Alia Shawkat's Sam resorts to fighting off a thug with a fire extinguisher. Brutal stuff. 3) A Bigger Splash – Paul Kills Harry For close to two hours, Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash is a psychodrama, perhaps a mild erotic thriller, as a young woman (Dakota Johnson), her father (Ralph Fiennes), his ex (Tilda Swinton) and her new lover (Matthias Schoenaerts) navigate choppy sexual waters in a remote Italian village. Fiennes' Harry has designs on Swinton's Marianne, and Schoenaerts' Paul has his eye on Johnson's Penelope, but the film's never any riskier than that. Then, as it ambles towards its climax, old friends Harry and Paul drunkenly clash in the pool at Marianne's villa one night, and Harry - up to this point ostensibly our leading man - is carelessly drowned by Paul. Our main character is dead, and thus the film turns into a killer thriller just as Guadagnino is about to wrap things up. 2) Captain America: Civil War – Ant-Man Goes Big Civil War can lay claim to a number of Best of 2016 honors: Best Villain (excluding The Witch's Black Phillip - Civil War has the best human villain, at least), in Daniel Bruhl's Machiavellian Helmut Zemo; Best Set-Piece, in the exhilarating Bucharest chase sequence; and, quite possibly, Best Ensemble (from the leads to the minor supporting parts). Civil War is also home to the big comedy shock of the year. It comes in the midst of the Leipzig airport battle: Paul Rudd's Ant-Man uses his shape-altering technology in a way we've never seen before, and - rather than shrink - he unexpectedly turns himself into a giant, before proceeding to rampage around the airport like King Kong. It's a total surprise, and completely hilarious. 1) The Witch – Black Phillip Reveals His True Colors Robert Eggers' The Witch has its clear forebears. The earthy horror recalls films like The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, the witch in the woods scenario brings to mind The Blair Witch Project, while the virginal 17th century New England setting conjures up memories of Terrence Malick's The New World. It's a masterpiece of a movie, but perhaps not wholly original. Until you get to its bad guy. For most of the film's running time, Black Phillip is just a background character. Of course he is - he's a goat for goodness' sake. Then, in a shocking third act, ol' Phillip is revealed to be Satan himself, in a moment going from innocuous farm animal to murderous ram, slaughtering Ralph Ineson's God-fearing patriarch. So, while The Witch can be derivative, at the least you can say it's probably the first major horror movie to feature a goat as chief villain.