History Main / FaceRevealingTurn

* Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix has a nightmare sequence featuring this. Good thing ItsAllJustADream!

Examples:

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<<|HorrorTropes|>>

* During a descent through the crypts of the {{RPG}} {{Arx Fatalis}}, the player encounters a locked room (one particular of many). Within is a woman, kneeling before a (presumably holy) symbol, either crying or praying (this Troper forgets which)... in a place in which no others of the living have yet been encountered. On entering and approaching [[spoiler:the camera cuts to reveal the face of a zombie, before she turns on the player character, the symbols bursting into flame.]]
* Subversion: This troper's favorite moment in ''HalfLife 2'' was when he approached a person sitting in a chair watching television in one of the later levels. Going around and looking at the front of the person, he turned out to be dead, but just the regular run-of-the-mill harmless kind of dead. This troper was in the middle of his sigh of relief when a legit zombie burst through the kitchen door.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Outside the lair of Koh the Face Stealer, Aang runs into a group of monkeys. One turns around, revealing that ''[[TheBlank it has no face]]''.

* ''ResidentEvil'' movies (at least, the first two have examples)

* The ''SilentHill'' movie has this with a Grey Child and a slightly different version of this with Lisa Garland, who has lid- and pupilless eyes.

* Kano in the MortalKombat [[TheMovie movie]] first appears in profile in a poorly-lit room, talking on a cell phone. After he's finished his call, he turns, revealing his metal face prosthesis, to address [[BigBad Shang Tsung]].

* ''ResidentEvil'': In the first game in the series, Jill's/Chris' first Zombie encounter also counts as this. They see a guy leaning over a corpse, he stands up, turns around, and surprise: he's a zombie.
** ''ResidentEvilZero'', although it was with a colony of leeches taking the shape of a man rather than a zombie.
** A particularly strong subversion is seen in the beginning of ''ResidentEvil 4''. Racoon City incident survivor Leon approaches a strange man from the back, the man doesn't answer his question and in general doesn't seem to be aware of Leon. Everyone who has a slightest notion of what the previous three games were about goes shrieking, "No, Leon, no, it's a zombie, and it will do its DeadlyLunge now!" The man turns around and - he's normal. He even answers Leon with a few insults in Spanish. [[spoiler:Of course, he is still a murderous maniac as well as the other villagers, but definitely not a zombie.]]
* ''SilentHill Origins'' also has an example. When Travis encounters the first nurse in the Alchemilla Hospital, he tries asking her for help. She turns around, revealing her deformed/melted face and inmediately attempts to stab Travis with a syringe.

** ''KingsQuest 7'' does something similar with Lady Tsepish.

* The first entry of ''MarbleHornets'' ends with this, though given [[SlenderMan the character in question]], it's more of a [[TheBlank Lack-of-face]] Revealing Turn.

* {{Futurama}} spoofed this in one episode, where at one point two versions of the Planet Express crew, (from two different parallel universes) are chasing both their Zoidbergs through other universes. In one Leela pops out and sees another version of the crew and asks if they saw the Zoidbergs. They all turn around, revealing that their faces [[EyelessFace have no eyes]] and the version of Hermes says "We didn't see anything... ever!"

* The televised version of ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' introduces PsychoForHire Jonathan Teatime with one of these, revealing his [[RedRightHand extremely creepy]] [[BoatLights mismatched eyes]].

* In the trailer of ''Left4Dead'', Zoey goes into a room where she hears someone crying. She finds a woman on the floor in a gown, crying, hunched in a fetal position, and turned away from them ([[spoiler:zombie rape victim?]]). But once someone shines a light on her, she [[BerserkButton comes at them like a spider monkey]].

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* Entry 1 of ''MarbleHornets''-but he's not a zombie. It's [[TheBlank worse]] than that.
[[/folder]]

* [[YuGiOh Bakura]] gets a moment of this while Yuugi and the Nakama are looking for the door to the Pharaoh's memories.

* In [[Film/Coraline Coraline]], Coraline grabs Other-Wybie's shoulder and he turns, revealing that the Other Mother [[NightmareFuel stitched his lips into a horrible grin.]]

* A particularly strong subversion is seen in the beginning of ''ResidentEvil 4''. Racoon City incident survivor Leon approaches a strange man from the back, the man doesn't answer his question and in general doesn't seem to be aware of Leon. Everyone who has a slightest notion of what the previous three games were about goes shrieking, "No, Leon, no, it's a zombie, and it will do its DeadlyLunge now!" The man turns around and - he's normal. He even answers Leon with a few insults in Spanish. [[spoiler:Of course, he is still a murderous maniac as well as the other villagers, but definitely not a zombie.]]

[[/folder]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* Entry 1 of ''MarbleHornets''-but he's not a zombie. It's [[TheBlank worse]] than that.

** And the games in which they are based. Most notably ResidentEvilZero, although it was with a colony of leeches taking the shape of a man rather than a zombie.
** In the first game in the series, Jill's/Chris' first Zombie encounter also counts as this. They see a guy leaning over a corpse, he stands up, turns around, and surprise: he's a zombie.

* Several examples in the ''DoctorWho'' two-parter "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead," when it's discovered that [[spoiler:the explorers have been devoured within their suits by the Vashta Nerada]]. (Also, would [[spoiler:Miss Evangelista's face]] in the same episode count?)
** ''DoctorWho'' then subverted it in the very next episode, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E10Midnight Midnight]]," where we get the whole build up in revealing Sky's face, only to find that she looks perfectly normal. [[NothingIsScarier Which is even worse]].

* {{Futurama}} spoofed this in one episode, where at one point two versions of the Planet Express crew, (from two different parallel universes) are chasing both their Zoidbergs through other universes. In one Leela pops out and sees another version of the crew and asks if they saw the Zoidbergs. They all turn around, revealing that their faces [[EyelessFace have no eyes]] and the version of Hermes says "We didn't see anything... ever!"

* ''SilentHill Origins'' also has an example. When Travis encounters the first nurse in the Alchemilla Hospital, he tries asking her for help. She turns around, revealing her deformed/melted face and inmediately attempts to stab Travis with a syringe.

* In NeilGaiman's wonderfully creepy kids' novel ''{{Coraline}}'', the "Other Mother" turns and reveals that she has shiny black buttons instead of eyes.
** Also, in TheMovie version, Coraline grabs Other-Wybie's shoulder and he turns, revealing that the Other Mother [[NightmareFuel stitched his lips into a horrible grin.]]
* ''StarTrek'' "The Conscience of the King"-- at the beginning, we are introduced to the captain of a base. We only see the left side of his face for five minutes, until he says that he survived a massacre by Kodos the Executioner, at which point we see that the right side of his face is covered by a patch.
** In ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Picard does one of these in "The Best of Both Worlds" to reveal that he's been [[NightmareFuel assimilated]]. OhCrap.
* In various incarnations of ''{{Batman}}'', the villain Two-Face is sometimes revealed this way.

* The televised version of ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' introduces PsychoForHire Jonathan Teatime with one of these, revealing his [[RedRightHand extremely creepy]] [[BoatLights mismatched eyes]].
* Double subverted in the ''{{Ben 10}}'' live action movie. After they turn the chair around and find the dead body he turns out to be alive and explains the problem. Then his heart gives out. Probably the most disturbing part is that two children watch a man die and have ''no reaction''.

* In the trailer of ''Left4Dead'', Zoey goes into a room where she hears someone crying. She finds a woman on the floor in a gown, crying, hunched in a fetal position, and turned away from them ([[spoiler:zombie rape victim?]]). But once someone shines a light on her, she [[BerserkButton comes at them like a spider monkey]].
* ''Uninvited'' for the NES had the infamous "Mysterious Lady." She appears with her back to you, and the game even tries to lull you into a false sense of security by playing a very pleasant piece of music that was written specifically for the sequence. If you do anything other than douse her in "No Ghost," she turns around, revealing her face to be a bare skull, and kills you.
** ''KingsQuest 7'' does something similar with Lady Tsepish.

* ''SweetHome'' has several enemies that use this: they appear human from behind, but then turn their heads to reveal their horribly shredded faces. [[spoiler: One also appears in a certain ending...]]

* This was lampshaded in an episode of ''{{Monk}}'' in a sequence that was a hommage to ''{{Psycho}}''. Entering a suspected killer's creepy old house and finding it empty, Monk goes upstairs and finds the killer's mother sitting in a rocking chair with her back to him. Even Monk, who doesn't watch TV, is GenreSavvy enough to instantly know what happens next. ''"Oh my God, you're dead aren't you."''

* Happens in the very first scene of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', in a situation where you would have expected the ''other'' character to perform one. (It was followed by many years of near-constant trope subversion.)
* This trope is invoked in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y57SRQ8YuIU this video]] at approximately 2:59 when revealing the effects of Pikachu getting microwaved.
* Entry 1 of ''MarbleHornets''-but he's not a zombie. It's [[TheBlank worse]] than that.
* During a descent through the crypts of the {{RPG}} {{Arx Fatalis}}, the player encounters a locked room (one particular of many). Within is a woman, kneeling before a (presumably holy) symbol, either crying or praying (this Troper forgets which)... in a place in which no others of the living have yet been encountered. On entering and approaching [[spoiler:the camera cuts to reveal the face of a zombie, before she turns on the player character, the symbols bursting into flame.]]

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Counter-examples:
* A particularly strong counter-example is seen in the beginning of ''ResidentEvil 4''. Racoon City incident survivor Leon approaches a strange man from the back, the man doesn't answer his question and in general doesn't seem to be aware of Leon. Everyone who has a slightest notion of what the previous three games were about goes shrieking, "No, Leon, no, it's a zombie, and it will do its DeadlyLunge now!" The man turns around and - he's normal. He even answers Leon with a few insults in Spanish. [[spoiler:Of course, he is still a murderous maniac as well as the other villagers, but definitely not a zombie.]]
* This troper's favorite moment in ''HalfLife 2'' was when he approached a person sitting in a chair watching television in one of the later levels. Going around and looking at the front of the person, he turned out to be dead, but just the regular run-of-the-mill harmless kind of dead. This troper was in the middle of his sigh of relief when a legit zombie burst through the kitchen door.
* ''[[GhostInTheShell Ghost In The Shell: The 2nd Gig]]''. Boma suspects that the Individual Eleven essay contains a computer virus, but the only way to be sure is to download it into his cyberbrain. There's a tense moment when he doesn't appear to respond to the others, in which we only see the back of his head. He turns out to be alright though. [[spoiler:However the virus actually needs a specific trigger to activate, which happens a few minutes later.]]
* Parodied in the ''InspectorGadget'' title sequence. Gadget finally reaches Claw's hideout, whips the CoolChair around, and snaps his handcuffs onto Claw's arm. Unfortunately, it's revealed that a) it's a fake "Claw hand" attached to the chair, and b) there's a CartoonBomb sitting in the chair.

* {{Rugrats}}: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg7uZpgaemw That's not Tommy.]]
**[[NightmareFuel OH MY GOD WHY DID YOU REMIND ME?!]]