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Why aren't all movies as easy to suss out as Journey To The Centre Of The Earth ? We don't want a full-on synopsis, but a truthful clue about what to expect would be nice. Young nitpicker and queen of pedanticness, Louisa Hall, reveals top 10 misleading sci-fi, fantasy and horror movie titles...
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#1 Title: Honey, I Blew Up The Kid
What we thought it'd be about: We expected gore. We expected violence. We expected the piercing screams of children. And if you saw this film because you thought this would be the case, then you are a sadistic being who needs monitoring.
What it's actually about: A scientist who accidentally turns his toddler into a giant, consequently causing chaos when he escapes and unintentionally terrorises the town.
What it should be called: Honey I Made The Kid Bigger, But They Are Still Intact
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#2 Title: Babe
What we thought it'd be about : Caught you out, didn't we? You were expecting a sexy woman strutting around the screen...
What it's actually about: A talking piglet called Babe who lives on a farm and aspires to become a sheepdog.
What it should be called: Perhaps sticking to author Dick King-Smith's original title, The Sheep-Pig , might have caused less confusion.
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#3 Title: The Human Centipede: First Sequence
What we thought it'd be about : Fifty human beings somehow surgically attached together, creating a beast with one hundred legs.
What it's actually about: A scientist captures three tourists with the intention of pioneering the first ever "human centipede". The film is advertised as "100% medically accurate" but, while this might be the case, it isn't anatomically correct. A centipede is called a "centipede" because it has one hundred legs. So when the creation was let loose with only three victims attached, we felt a bit underwhelmed.
What it should be called: The Human Six-opede
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#4 Title: Final Destination
What we thought it'd be about : Time travel maybe... Perhaps space travel? Anything related to travel would probably be appropriate.
What it's actually about: A character foresees an incident where various people are killed. When they escape this premonition, "fate" seems to catch up with them, because each one then suffers a gruesome death.
What it should be called: Final Destin-y. .?
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#5 Title: The Hills Have Eyes
What we thought it'd be about : A range of natural geographical areas which have somehow acquired animalistic features.
What it's actually about: Years after a nuclear testing scheme in the New Mexican desert, a family travel through the now-barren region and become stranded. Eventually they realise they are being watched by people who have been severely mutated by the testing.
What it should be called: Eyes In The Hills? Watched From The Hills?
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#6 Title: Frankenstein
What we thought it'd be about : Everybody makes the same mistake in referring to the titular character as the monster.
What it's actually about: Frankenstein is not the monster, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature out of old body parts as part of an experiment. When the monster proceeds to come to life, it is rejected by Frankenstein and thus turns "monstrous"...
What it should be called: Because Frankenstein rejects the creature, he does not give it a name; therefore to avoid confusion, the title should have been Frankenstein's Monster .
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#7 Title: Pan's Labyrinth
What we thought it'd be about : We'd expect to meet a protagonist named Pan within the film, and obviously a labyrinth or maze.
What it's actually about: The original film is Spanish, El Laberinto Del Fauno , which anyone could realise translates to The Labyrinth Of The Faun . So where did the name Pan come from? The film surrounds a young girl who meets a mythical creature which sets her three fairytale-like tasks to complete.
What it should be called: The Faun's Labyrinth ..? Arguably, the faun/mythical creature could be named Pan, but we do not hear this name in the movie, and in which case, why is the Spanish title not El Laberinto Del Pan ?
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#8 Title: Jurassic Park
What we thought it'd be about : The Jurassic Era.
What it's actually about: The majority of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are ironically from the Cretaceous Era, but don't worry – they're only a few million years apart!
What it should be called: Cretaceous Park (doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?)
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#9 Title: The Silence Of The Lambs
What we think it's about: Quiet little sheep - perhaps a very calm movie, suitable for getting children to go to sleep.
What it's actually about: An FBI agent, Clarice, embarks on a mission to capture a notorious murderer who skins his victims to fashion a suit for himself.
What it should be called: The title actually refers to a memory that Clarice talks about with Hannibal Lecter, where she saw some lambs being killed as a child. Perhaps the title would be more appropriate as The Slaughtering Of The Lambs...
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#10 Title: Serenity
What we thought it'd be about : A calm or tranquil movie, perhaps much like we thought Silence Of The Lambs would be...
What it's actually about: Based on the TV series Firefly , it's set 500 years in the future following an intergalactic civil war.
What it should be called: Well, based on the amount of hot water that the protagonists find themselves in, perhaps their ship, Serenity, should have an entirely different name anyway.
