Summer of film: From Psycho to Shutter Island, some movies have stunning twists

Twist movies can be almost any genre. We'll avoid major spoilers here but proceed at your own risk.

When Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) impulsively steals $40,000 so she and her impoverished lover can marry, it seems like we're in for a crime thriller. But then the story abruptly changes direction. Leigh and Anthony Perkins are superb, Bernard Herrmann's all-strings score is legendary, and Alfred Hitchcock's sometimes darkly funny film repays multiple viewings. Forget the remake.

Quote: "Well, a boy's best friend is his mother."

Trivia: Hitchcock makes his customary cameo in a cowboy hat, seen through an office window.

If you like this, try: Diabolique (aka Les Diaboliques, 1955), Dressed to Kill, Vertigo.

Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas made millions recycling what was essentially the same plot structure, including in this erotic thriller. San Francisco police detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is investigating the murder of a musician who was stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex. Suspicion falls on mystery writer Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), the musician's girlfriend, whose last novel had something quite similar happen.

Quote: "Killing isn't like smoking. You can quit."

Trivia: The recollections of Stone and director Paul Verhoeven differed markedly on how revealing the "leg-crossing" scene was intended to be.

If you like this, try: Jagged Edge, Music Box, Jade.

Christopher McQuarrie won several awards including an Oscar for his original screenplay. Another Oscar, for best supporting actor, went to Kevin Spacey as Roger "Verbal" Kint. He's interrogated by agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) and much of the film is told in flashbacks as Kint tells of criminals and crimes and a mysterious mastermind named Keyser Soze.

Quote: "Well, I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze."

Trivia: The title is part of a quote from Casablanca (a must-see).

If you like this, try: Primal Fear, Memento, Reservoir Dogs.

Directed by David Fincher, this adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel became a cult hit. The film's narrator (Edward Norton) is a bored, depressed insomniac. When he meets charismatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) his life is changed: they start underground Fight Clubs and move on to Project Mayhem, random acts of anti-capitalist terrorism. It's been called everything from fascistic to homoerotic.

Quote: "The things you own end up owning you."

Trivia: There are a few flash frames throughout the movie to provide foreshadowing.

If you like this, try: The Game, Gone Girl, Being John Malkovich.

M. Night Shyamalan's second is probably the best of his "twist" movies, even if its central idea was old. Bruce Willis plays child psychologist Malcolm Crowe who meets Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a kid who says he can see the deceased. Crow decides to try to help the boy, hoping to atone for one of his failed cases.

Quote: "I see dead people."

Trivia: Shyamalan has a cameo as a doctor.

If you like this, try: Carnival of Souls, The Others, Jacob's Ladder.

Martin Scorsese directed this adaptation of Dennis Lehane's dark novel. Two US marshals (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) arrive at a hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a prisoner, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer).

Quote: "Wounds can create monsters."

Trivia: The book's author and the film's psychiatric adviser had different interpretations of the ending.

If you like this, try: Se7en, Memento, Don't Look Now.

Re sci-fi: one reader wrote that among his favourites were two Ray Bradbury adaptations, Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man and the original Planet of the Apes. He saw 2001 the night Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.