How to Write a Killer Twist In Your Book (Like The Lost Boys Movie)

A step-by-step guide to misdirection, tests, and last-minute villain reveals

Let’s talk about one of the most satisfying moves in storytelling: the twist that makes readers re-evaluate everything.

Remember The Lost Boys? (Spoiler alert!) Max, the friendly, harmless-seeming boyfriend, passes the garlic test and is seemingly ruled out as a vampire. Turns out, that was just a clever bit of misdirection. He was the big bad all along (Schumacher, 1987).

That kind of twist — where a character appears innocent because they "pass a test," only to be revealed as the villain — is a powerful, time-tested structure. If you’re looking to use this technique in your own stories, I’ve got you covered with a breakdown of how to do it effectively (with a few genre variations and writing tips along the way).

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Step-by-Step: The Misdirection + Reveal Structure

1. Build Suspicion Early

Start by sprinkling just enough clues that this character might not be who they seem. You’re not confirming anything, just nudging the audience into raising an eyebrow:

• They show up at suspiciously convenient moments.

• They know things they shouldn’t.

• Their energy is just a little off.

This builds what screenwriting expert John Yorke (2014) calls “narrative suspicion” — the subconscious sense that something isn’t quite right.

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2. Let Them Pass the Test

Now comes the fake-out: your character faces a genre-specific test that should confirm they’re not the threat.

In different genres, this could look like:

• Mystery/Thriller: They pass a polygraph, have a watertight alibi, or are cleared by forensics.

• 👽 Sci-fi: They pass an infection scan or biometric test.

The key? Make the test feel definitive. Let your readers breathe a sigh of relief (Field, 2005). This technique works because it leans on audience expectations, then weaponises their trust.

But as writers and storytellers, what can we do with this next?