%%%
%%
%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings!
%%
%%%

->''"So it wasn't Dwight after all. Looks like I'm the killer. You never expect that you're the killer. It's a great twist. Great twist."''
-->-- '''Michael Scott''', ''Series/TheOfficeUS''

A character (usually the main character, but sometimes sharing equal billing) is chasing or being chased by a killer or monster. A lot of people end up dead, but not this character, and in [[TwistEnding the end]] we find out why: the "hero" was the villain all along.

This can go one of two ways:

* '''Secretive Killer:''' The "hero" [[VillainProtagonist is a willing killer or monster who has been trying to shift blame or tie up loose ends]].
* '''Amnesiac Killer:''' The "hero" [[AmnesiacDissonance somehow blacked out the murder(s) and is as surprised and horrified as the audience to discover the truth]].

The Amnesiac Killer is the more common variation, primarily because it's easier to write, as the audience is taken through the same reveal as the character himself. The Secretive Killer is particularly hard to pull off with the main protagonist (a minor protagonist is more commonly used for this reason) since the audience is always told the story from their perspective. If the events are shown directly, maintaining the twist right until the end therefore runs the risk of either {{Out Of Character Moment}}s or losing focus on the character to conceal their real identity. A reliable method is to have the events (re)told through an UnreliableNarrator.

In many cases, the Amnesiac Killer is essentially a MemoryGambit told InMediasRes. A SplitPersonality is common; see AlternateIdentityAmnesia. This trope could be the result of a HeelFaceBrainwashing. In SpeculativeFiction, this may be due to a SuperpoweredEvilSide or EnemyWithin.

When handled with care, it can be a powerful TwistEnding. When [[AssPull tacked on just for the sake of surprising the audience]], however, it is likely that key events in the story will become illogical, or in the worst case, [[OffscreenTeleportation physically]] [[PlotHole impossible]].

Compare TomatoInTheMirror, in which the character finds out some other truth about who or what they are.

Not to be confused with ''Film/TheKillerInsideMe''.

!!''[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Warning: ]]
'' This is a SpoileredRotten trope, that means that '''EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE''' on this list is a spoiler by default and will be unmarked. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned This is your last warning]], only proceed if you really believe you can handle this list.
-----
[[foldercontrol]]
!!Examples of Secretive Killer:
[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/AlongCameASpider'': Monica Potter's character is the mastermind behind the kidnapping, who orchestrates the murders she is supposed to be investigating.
* The protagonist of ''Film/BeyondAReasonableDoubt'' murdered a woman, covered it up, framed himself for murdering her ([[ItMakesSenseInContext it made sense in context]]), got a mistrial declared, and finally was caught in the end.
* The ending of ''Circus Kane'' reveals that Tracy had planned out the entire death house experience alongside her father Balthazar Kane -- with her taking over the business upon his death.
* Teased in ''Film/FinalJudgement'': At one point, the homicide detective drops the bombshell on the protagonist suspect that the artist who we saw commit the crimes has been dead for six months, leading the viewer (and the hero) to briefly question their own sanity. However, it immediately turns out that the detective was lying strategically, and the artist has in fact just gone off-grid.
* One of the earliest movie examples: ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', via "Monsters from the Id." Though in this case the murderer is established as ''not'' being willing except on the level of the Id. He just fails to inform the other characters that his subconscious is creating monsters running around killing people.
* In ''Film/HellraiserInferno'', Detective Joseph Thorne turns out to be the Engineer, the very serial killer he's been hunting throughout the film and also the child victim. Both are physical aspects of Joseph himself created by Pinhead: the killer is Joseph's savage hedonistic side and the boy is Joseph's childhood innocence. It's capped off with the evil one slitting the kid's throat, signifying how Joseph destroyed himself through his own mistakes.
* In low-budget slasher ''Horror.com'' (aka ''Voyeur.com''), main character and [[UnreliableNarrator narrator]] Mary is a very shy introverted and sexually inexperienced young woman who wants to be a film star. She, along with other young (and sex-crazed) women, moves into a house that is part of a pornographic internet page. Before the sex scenes can start, [[AnyoneCanDie all main characters of the film are killed off]], and it turns out that she killed them all for ruining her dream by the end.
* Creator/KevinCostner's investigator protagonist in ''Film/NoWayOut1987'', with the twist that, while he's not guilty of the murder he's investigating ([[HiredToHuntYourself and being framed for]]), he is guilty of being the [[RedHerringMole Soviet mole]] that it's blamed on.
* ''Film/OneNightInOctober'': Michelle has a murderous split personality inside her that she's aware of. When she finds herself tied up in her house by people who intend to rob her, the personality asks to take over, which she has no other choice but to comply with.
* The protagonists of ''Film/APerfectGetaway'' are eventually revealed not to be in fear of the killers, but to actually be the killers. The other couples who are presented as potentially the killers are either their next targets or stooges to pin the murders on.
* ''Film/PerfectStranger'': Halle Berry's character murdered her 'friend' (who was blackmailing her) and successfully pins the blame on the innocent if slimy Bruce Willis. Oh, and she murders again when another friend tries to blackmail her about setting up Willis. This one is pretty much the result of last-minute ExecutiveMeddling to decide the identity of the killer.
* Aaron Stampler in ''Film/PrimalFear'', who reveals at the very end of the movie that his innocent persona was all a lie.
-->'''Martin Vail:''' So there never...there never was a Roy.\\
'''Aaron Stampler:''' Jesus Christ Marty, if that's what you think, I am disappointed in you, I don't mind telling you. [[WhamLine There never was...an Aaron, Counselor]].
* The (fake) FBI agents played by Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond in ''Film/{{Surveillance}}''.
* The protagonist of Dario Argento's ''Film/{{Tenebre}}'' is revealed to have killed the murderer — [[LoonyFan an obsessed fan of his]] — halfway through the movie and then used it as a cover for a murder spree of his own.
* ''Film/TheUninvited2009'': It turns out that Anna murdered every person that died. She doesn't remember anything she's done until a massive flashback scene. It also comes with TheReveal that her sister Alex has been DeadAllAlong.
* In the French film ''Film/{{Vidocq}}'', the title character is a detective who disappears chasing the mysterious murderer known as the Alchemist. Vidocq's biographer Etienne takes up his investigation. Eventually, it turns out Etienne is the Alchemist himself, who tries to find and eliminate all clues leading to him that Vidocq left.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/AgathaChristie:
** Arguably one of the more masterfully executed examples of this trope in literature is ''Literature/{{The Murder of Roger Ackroyd}}'', in which it turns out that the killer is none other than the book's [[UnreliableNarrator own narrator]], James Sheppard. His recollections are completely truthful- they just leave out a few key details.
** Christie did this again in ''Literature/{{Endless Night}}'', with another UnreliableNarrator. In ''Endless Night'' Michael, the first-person narrator, relates how he fell in love with Ellie, a sweet young woman, and they got married. Soon after their marriage, she's killed in a riding accident. Then at the end of the novel, Michael reveals that he and Ellie's governess/companion, Greta, conspired to kill her and take possession of her enormous fortune. Much like in ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'', Michael doesn't lie, he just leaves a lot of stuff out.
* ''Literature/IfTheDeadRiseNot'': Much of Part II has Literature/BernieGunther investigating the murder of Max Reles, a notorious gangster. The ending reveals that Bernie himself did it it, party because Reles the AssholeVictim was dating Bernie's daughter, but also in part as long-delayed revenge for a murder Reles committed 20 years ago. Bernie, who narrates the story first-person, describes the before and after of Reles's murder but doesn't reveal that he himself did it until the end.
* Creator/JamesPatterson:
** ''Beach Road''. This trope was so skillfully done that if you aren't paying close attention, the end will throw you for a massive loop.
** ''Cat and Mouse'' combines parts 1 and a bit of part 2 as well.
** ''The Lake House'' does this; the beginning of the book says that the events are being told by the characters and may be inaccurate, but you're likely to ignore it until TheReveal.
* The detective-narrator of William Weld's ''Mackerel by Moonlight''. Well, sort of. He's actually innocent of the murder he's accused of, but the twist ending reveals that he's secretly the Russian mole that the villain blamed the murders on.
* "Man with a Hobby" by Creator/RobertBloch: The narrator sits at a bar and is approached by another man (who's carrying a bowling bag like the narrator himself and a lot of others because there's some bowling event going on). The stranger starts talking about a SerialKiller known as the Cleveland Torso Slayer, who was in the habit of taking the victim's head with him. Then the police arrive and the stranger leaves in a hurry. He almost forgets his bowling bag, but the narrator hands it to him. Soon we hear that the stranger was apparently the Torso Slayer himself, because his bowling bag contained the most recent victim's head, and he had also stolen some money from the same place. The narrator's last line reveals that he was glad that the thief hadn't noticed he handed him his (the narrator's) own bag.
* Anthony Horowitz's ''Literature/{{Moriarty}}'' is narrated by Fredrick Chase, a Pinkerton detective who traveled to London after Moriarty from ''Literature/{{Sherlock Holmes}}'' died from falling down a waterfall. While looking at Moriarty's body, Fredrick meets Athelney Jones, a Scotland Yard detective who was sent to see the body. He tells Athelney that the reason he came to London is that he suspects that an American criminal named Clarence Devereux was trying to partner up with Moriarty, and now that Moriarty is dead, he may try to take his place. Together, the detectives work to find Clarence and his criminal partners, and they succeed, though someone keeps killing the partners they find. After Fredrick and Athelney catch Clarence, Fredrick shoots Athelney in the head. The narrator then reveals that he was Moriarty all along and that he pretended to be a detective to get help from the law to find Clarence and his associates, and that it was Moriarty and his muscle (one of them being Sebastian Moran) who killed the criminals. After explaining to the reader how and why he carried out this plan, Moriarty takes Clarence as his prisoner, now planning to take over HIS crime web instead of restoring his own. Though Moriarty faked being on the side of the angels, he admits that he was genuinely fond of the Athelney.
* ''Literature/TheShootingParty'' by Creator/AntonChekhov. The framing device is that a newspaper editor reads a manuscript by a retired local magistrate Kamyshev, describing a murder investigation. It's autobiographical, and in the manuscript Kamyshev's stand-in Zinovyev catches the culprit. However, the editor notices some inconsistencies and deduces the identity of the real murderer: Kamyshev himself. Confronted with the editor's deductions, Kamyshev reveals that that was his intention: to make a hidden confession and thus alleviate the pangs of his conscience. However, he has no intention of surrendering to the law, even though an innocent man went to prison because of intentionally botched investigation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Used in season four of ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Cordelia was the BigBad masterminding the events of the first two-thirds of the season. In actuality, she was possessed by a powerful and manipulative deity, Jasmine.
* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E17Superstar Superstar]]", there is a monster running around attacking people. It turns out that it is a side effect of the spell Jonathan cast to become the Uber Cool Guy. Slightly subverted in that it was a separate entity.
* Marlena on ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' was brainwashed into becoming "The Salem Stalker" by the Demera family. Outwardly, her personality was unchanged, and the killer's identity was not seen by the audience until during the seventh murder. She wound up killing nine people before being shot dead herself — not one of them stayed dead, of course, but this is ''Days Of Our Lives'' we're talking about.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Porridge}}'', an elderly man in prison for murdering his wife years ago repeatedly protests his innocence. After eventually being granted a full pardon, he reveals he knows exactly what happened to the actual murderer: [[{{Revenge}} He killed him]] before being arrested for the wrong murder.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The song "Buenas Tardes Amigo" by Music/{{Ween}} appears to be about a man seeking revenge against his brother's killer, but in the end, it is revealed that he did the deed out of jealousy, [[FrameUp pinned the blame on someone else]] [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere who promptly fled]], and is about to seal the deal by killing the man he framed.
* In the Music/{{mothy}} song [[Music/EvilliousChronicles "The Tailor Shop on Enbizaka"]], Sudou Kayo avoids mentioning that she was killing anyone by saying simply that someone was killed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'', the start of the Haunting reveals that one of the players is a traitor (with some exceptions — some scenarios have multiple traitors, or none, and in some the player character is killed off by the real villain, who is then played by their player) who have either brought the others to the house for a sinister purpose or betrays them for other reasons. As the role of the traitor is decided by which Haunting scenario is played, which is decided the moment the Haunting starts, this will come as a surprise to everyone. You thought you were just snooping through an abandoned house? No, you're secretly part of a cannibal club and the people you brought are tonight's dinner, which you planned all along!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' plays with this. Multiple hints suggest that Ethan Mars may or may not be one of the amnesiac variety, but that's a RedHerring. The real Origami Killer is Scott Shelby, a different player character who clearly knows he's the killer, but we don't find out until late in the game.
* ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'': Manny Pardo, one of the player characters, is revealed to be the Miami Mutilator he's been investigating. [[MindScrew Possibly.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/ChaosChild'', plays with this trope, as the killer is actually the {{Deuteragonist}} who's a human subconsciously created by child Takuru, in order to fulfill his wish to feel special and be entertained. They are a representation of his child-like desires and represent a mindset he has to overcome.
* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', initial PC Kaede Akamatsu is the first culprit, killing Rantaro Amani with a death trap. Observant players might notice that her internal monologue gets suspiciously sparse and vague, and she does a few things that are later revealed to be setting up the trap. The sixth chapter reveals that it actually ''wasn't'' her and she was framed, but she's still an attempted murderer because she was trying to kill someone and her trap failed by chance (had Rantaro been in a slightly different position, she would have really killed him), which the mastermind used to convince everyone, including Kaede herself, that she did it.
* ''VisualNovel/War13thDay'' has ''you'' as the killer. The game leads you to believe that you are playing yourself, a relatively passive observer. All this time, you've actually been one of the characters from their world — specifically, the one who killed the main star. Now, the question is...who are you?
[[/folder]]

!!Examples of Amnesiac Killer:

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', Light Yagami, who repeatedly insists that he is not the supernatural killer Kira, and does not remember being Kira, is Kira. Note, however, that this only applies during his MemoryGambit during the Yotsuba arc.
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'':
** In the manga-only chapter ''Onisarashi-hen'', viewpoint character Natsumi Kimiyoshi is responsible for the deaths of her family members, though she doesn't realize until the end due to TraumaInducedAmnesia.
** In the first arc ''Onikakushi-hen'', the main character Keiichi realizes that people around him are acting crazy and people are dying...He gets increasingly afraid and kills his two best friends in self-defense. It wasn't. He was just being paranoid and delusional.
* ''Anime/{{K}}'' inverts it by ''starting'' with this setup — Yashiro is caught on video committing the murder, but he swears he doesn't remember it. Is it this, or is he lying? Then it turns out his memories are fake. And the answer is neither — he was body-snatched. And Yashiro Isana never existed.
* In ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', [[InspectorJavert Inspector Lunge]] assumes this to be Tenma's problem for pretty much the entire story because all the evidence he can find says Tenma is the killer.
* The yaoi manga ''Rub In Love'' begins with Ruma's wife being shot in front of him, followed by his best friend Taiki seducing him. It gets hinted that Taiki hated Ruma's wife and had tried to seduce him since school time. Ruma meeting the assassin (a woman) in his apartment makes it seem as if Taiki wasn't it. Taiki was actually the woman in his apartment, but ''not'' the murderer. Ruma had loved Taiki the whole time as well, [[ItMakesSenseInContext married his wife so he can still see Taiki]], and then hired an assassin to kill her as a ''birthday present'' for Taiki. Naturally, the offender doesn't remember until the very end.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Board Games]]
* Most well-known in ''[[TabletopGame/{{Clue}} Cluedo/Clue]]'', since the murderer could be any of the six PlayerCharacters. Including yours, and you don't know if you did it or not (unless you've got your own card in your hand, or seen it in someone else's). And, as amusingly pointed out in ''Murphy's Rules'', if you deduce that you are the killer, you win the game by denouncing yourself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''Franchise/{{Batman}} Two Faces Elseworlds'', Bruce Wayne used a potion to transform into Batman, who is the embodiment of all his good qualities. A mysterious killer who laughs started appearing and killing prostitutes and Batman chased after him. Only after investigation, it was discovered that he was the Laughing Killer who was the embodiment of all his bad characteristics.
* In ''ComicBook/BlazeOfGlory'', Lance Temple is hunting down the ComicBook/OutlawKid, unaware until the final issue that he ''is'' the Outlaw Kid. He is driven to tears when he finds out. {{Downplayed|Trope}} because he's the only one who thinks the Outlaw Kid is a killer, and it's an InternalReveal to boot.
* In ''Comicbook/TheBoys'', the Homelander believes he's suffering from this after receiving photos of himself performing heinous acts like baby-eating. It's really his clone Black Noir trying to drive him insane so Noir can receive the order to kill him.
* An issue of ''ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool'' featured our favorite merc investigating a murder in Providence, his buddy ComicBook/{{Cable}}'s brand-new {{Utopia}}, only to have the investigation end with a two-page spread of ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} saying, "Now the only question is...''why'' did I kill this man?!" It eventually turns out that Deadpool's healing factor is interpreting traumatic memories as damage and healing them over, leading to periodic blackouts.
* In the ''[[Creator/ECComics Crime SuspenStories]]'' tale, "Mr. Biddy....Killer!", an assistant D.A. relates how he recommended that the death penalty given to Archie Chester be rescinded, and that Chester instead be committed to a mental institution. During his trial, Chester claimed that a mysterious man named Mr. Biddy befriended him and induced him to murder his wife, promising to take the blame for the killing — only to vanish after the crime. Just hours before Chester's sentence is to be carried out, the D.A. visits the man out of pity and is stunned when Chester screams, "Tell him, Mr. Biddy! Tell him how you killed Emily!" to an empty chair in his cell.
* Inverted in Creator/AlanMoore's ''[[ComicBook/TomorrowStories Greyshirt]]'' comic, when a man finds himself with a bloody hammer and a dead woman, and no memory of either. He reads in the newspaper that the Hammer Killer has murdered eight people and flees the police as it must be him. But when Greyshirt and the police find him, they tell him he was the next victim: the Hammer Killer slipped while attacking him and broke her skull. Unfortunately, he has killed someone who tried to stop him, thinking he was a multiple murderer anyway.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/DoomRepercussionsOfEvil'': The TropeNamer line for AndThenJohnWasAZombie.
* Several fan fiction pieces on ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' take this perspective, telling the story from Ginny's perspective as she is progressively possessed by the piece of [[BigBad Tom Riddle]] within [[SoulJar the diary Horcrux]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Spoofed in ''Film/{{Adaptation}}'': Donald's hackneyed script "The Three" has the twist that the killer, the detective, and the victim are all the same person. Charlie complains that it makes no sense, but it's a smash hit anyway.
* In ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'', the protagonist David Kessler is bitten while his friend Jack is killed. When Jack warns him that he will change on the next full moon, David scoffs that he'd never do it. Later, after his first night out, David finds himself in the wolves' cage at the London Zoo, no idea how or why. Jack explains that he kill people the night before while a werewolf. During the next night, despite his trying to get arrested, David changes again and fails to recognize his girlfriend, the nurse who took care of him earlier.
* ''Film/AngelHeart'': Detective Harry Angel is hired by [[MeaningfulName Louis Cyphre]] to track down someone who skipped out on a deal with him, and is serious enough about it to kill to cover his tracks. After traveling to New Orleans to investigate and being framed for several murders, Harry comes to the horrid revelation that ''he'' is the missing person, had [[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul to the devil]], who has set the whole thing up so that he will be executed by electric chair and then go to Hell, thus fulfilling his debt.
* In ''Film/BeforeIHang'', Dr. Garth develops a serum to reverse the effects of aging and [[ProfessorGuineaPig tests it on himself]]. However, he uses the blood of an executed murderer to develop the serum, which becomes a PsychoSerum as a result. He becomes a JekyllAndHyde, driven by sudden overwhelming urges to kill, but then not remembering committing the murders afterwards.
* In the '80s TV movie ''Blackout'', Creator/KeithCarradine's character is in a car accident with another man, who dies. Keith loses his memory and is hideously disfigured. One of the two men is/was a serial killer, but no one, including Keith, knows which one. Until Keith starts having blackouts, dressing up in bondage gear, and trying to axe-murder his wife.
* ''Film/BlindHorizon'': It turns out that "Frank" is one of the three men intending to kill the President whom he's been trying to stop. That's how he knows of the plot. Nonetheless, he ends up stopping it anyway.
* At the end of ''Film/BookOfShadowsBlairWitch2'', it is revealed that the three remaining main characters have been killing off their friends over the course of the movie, who they were hallucinating as evil people.
* The [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory VERY historically inaccurate]] film of "The Boston Strangler" says this is the case with the killer, Albert De Salvo, and much of his time in custody is spent trying to get him to realise that there's another personality inside the gentle family man. This proves difficult, because he doesn't actually remember blacking out during the killings, and has false memories of what he was doing at the time. It should be noted that the real Albert De Salvo was never even suspected, much less diagnosed, with having any sort of Multiple Personality Disorder. It's even debated whether he ''was'' the Strangler, along with whether these killings were all committed by the same man.
* Subtly implied in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'', where Francis finds out his best friend Allan has been murdered shortly after finding [[MurderTheHypotenuse a motive to kill him]]. The TwistEnding of the movie is mostly that the bulk of the film was Francis' [[UnreliableNarrator insane recollections]] of the events leading to his imprisonment at a mental asylum, and [[AndYouWereThere he's populated the story with the other patients around him]], but Allan is nowhere to be seen at the end because he's still dead. The funny thing is that Francis never figures out that he's the real killer, and unless you pay careful attention to the subtext, neither will you.
* This is a popular interpretation of ''Film/TheDescent'', with Sarah as the killer.
* In ''Film/DragonballEvolution'', Goku finds out that the evil Oozaru, which he's spent most of the movie on a mission to defeat, is actually him. Somehow. Even though the Oozaru is supposed to be thousands of years old and Goku himself is only a teenager. It's not really explained.
* The twist ending of ''Film/DressedToKill'' reveals that the shrink was the murderer — unknown to himself due to a SplitPersonality disorder.
* ''Film/FightClub'': Toward the end of both the novel and the movie, Tyler Durden and the unnamed protagonist are revealed as physically being the same person.
* The 2008 film ''Film/{{Hide}}'' combines this with TomatoInTheMirror: The VillainProtagonist is the same person as the {{serial killer}} who abducted and has been torturing the protagonist's sister; when TheReveal is made, the protagonist kills his sister, then proceeds to torture his girlfriend in a GoryDiscretionShot. ''Then'' we learn that he's been DeadAllAlong and the entire movie was [[GroundhogDayLoop just one more rotation in a long loop of Purgatory]] where he kills his loved ones over and over again, ad infinitum.
* ''[[Film/HighTension Haute Tension]]'' (also known as ''Switchblade Romance'' in the UK and ''High Tension'' in the U.S.): The insane truck driver who ties up Marie's friend Alex and murders Alex's family...turns out the be Marie herself; the insane truck driver is her alternate personality. Alex, the film's true heroine, is abducted by [[PsychoLesbian Marie]] because of a suppressed lesbian attraction.
* ''Film/HideAndSeek'': "Charlie" is an alternate personality of David himself.
* ''Film/{{Identity}}'': Our "hero" turns out to be one of a {{serial killer}}'s alternate personalities and all the deaths in the movie are of various personalities inside the killer's head.
* In the metafictional horror movie ''Film/Madhouse1974'', horror actor Paul Toombes (Creator/VincentPrice in a bit of MetaCasting) begins to suspect that he may be the ThemeSerialKiller who is terrorizing the movie studio with murders taken from Toombes' own ''Dr. Death'' series of films. Ultimately subverted when it turns out that Paul is not the killer, but a target of {{gaslighting}} by the real killer, who is envious of his success.
* ''Film/{{Memento}}''. The protagonist has frequent short-term memory loss and is trying to find the man who killed his wife. In the end, we find out his wife survived the murder attempt. She's still dead by the time the movie starts, but only because the protagonist killed her accidentally with an insulin overdose, and chose to preserve his sanity by rehearsing a story that it all happened to someone else, called Sammy Jankis. So now he chases criminals in revenge for an act he himself committed. [[MindScrew Maybe.]]
* ''Film/MyBloodyValentine3D''. The SplitPersonality of Creator/JensenAckles' character is the killer.
* Played with on a less grand scale in ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreetPart2FreddysRevenge''. Freddy kills Coach Schneider. The camera then pans back to Jesse looking at the dead body, covered in blood and wearing Freddy's killing glove. When Jesse sees the evidence and realizes that he is the killer, he freaks out. In a later scene, Freddy bursts out of Jesse's body and kills Jesse's friend Grady. Pan back to Jesse again covered in blood and wearing the glove. He curses at Freddy, who is still standing in the room, but when he throws the glove at Freddy, it breaks the mirror that Jesse saw Freddy in, revealing that Jesse was [[TomatoInTheMirror only looking at a reflection of himself]].
* ''Film/TheNumber23'': Jim Carrey's character murdered his cheating girlfriend and suffered a guilt-induced nervous breakdown, causing him to forget the whole affair. The titular book was written by Jim's character (who wrote the rough draft), and his doctor (who fictionalized the story).
* ''Film/Paradox2016'': It turns out Jim, who's the closest thing to a single protagonist, is the mystery killer. He's not exactly amnesiac, but the version of him onscreen doesn't know about for most of the film it because there's time travel involved -- that is, not until the future version of him tells him that he's about to do it all. Mind you, in another example, it turns out that it will be not him but Gale who becomes the mystery character that sets up the StableTimeLoop leading to the invention of the time machine.
* In ''Film/{{Salvage}}'', teenager Claire Parker is seemingly trapped in a time loop reliving her murder at the hands of killer Duke Desmond. At the end of the film, it's revealed she ''is'' Duke Desmond, who has been killed by the police and is now trapped in Hell reliving his last murder from her perspective for all eternity.
* The film version of ''Film/SecretWindow'' — Shooter does not exist; he is a schizophrenic hallucination undergone by Mort to commit acts (murder, arson) Mort himself could never consciously bring himself to do.
* The protagonist Gordon from ''Film/{{Session 9}}'', who we follow most of the time, turns out to have gone through a SanitySlippage and killed his family and co-workers off-screen.
* ''Film/{{Shrooms}}'': There are no ghosts or wild killers and Lindsey Haun (probably) cannot see the future; the mushrooms have driven her violently insane and she is the one who kills everyone.
* Happens in ''Film/TheThirteenthFloor'' where the hero has blackouts during which somebody else is taking over to go about his bad deeds.
* In ''Film/{{Triangle}}'', Jess, who winds up killing all other characters (including herself) in doppelganger form, and is eventually revealed to be continually reliving the same sequence of events because she's a) [[AxCrazy insane]], b) [[MindScrew dead]], or c) both.
* Homaged in the ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' film ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'': The duo spend the first half of it trying to find a monstrous rabbit-creature that's destroying everyone's prized gardens. Turns out it's Wallace after a science mishap has caused him to transform into said creature at nightfall.
* In ''Film/YouMightBeTheKiller'', Sam calls his friend Chuck for help with a killer who has been murdering the counselors at his camp. After hearing Sam's account of the events, Chuck raises the possibility that Sam himself has been conducting the killings without realizing it. Sam has indeed been committing the killings, while possessed by the evil woodcutter's mask.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/TheABCMurders'', Alexander Bonaparte Cust realises with horror that he has apparently been committing the serial murders during his memory blackouts. Averted, as it then turns out that he's actually being manipulated into thinking so by the real killer and is completely innocent.
* Margaret Millar's Edgar-award winning thriller ''Beast In View'', in which a woman who is apparently the victim of a malevolent stalker turns out to be being persecuted by her own malevolent alternate personality, is the UrExample in the crime genre of the "the villain is actually the hero's or [=PoV=] character's evil alternate" idea. Unfortunately, it later became a groanworthy cliche due to simplistic and/or logistically impossible examples.
* Interestingly, the Jim Thompson novel ''Film/TheKillerInsideMe'' isn't an example of this trope, as it's told from the first-person perspective of a character who knowingly and admittedly is committing the murders in the story, and isn't hallucinating or hiding anything. Or is he?
* At the end of ''Monster'' by Diana Hoh, the protagonist discovers that she is in fact the monster who has been attacking her fellow students, due to a science experiment that went wrong, causing her to transform into a monster and have no recollection of the attacks. A very surprising twist, as she never even suspected herself.
** Also a theme in another of Diane Hoh's books, 'The Night Walker,' in which Quinn suspects that she is attacking people while sleepwalking. It turns out she isn't; the real culprit is trying to frame her for it.
* ''Literature/MurderOnTheLeviathan'' features an English aristocrat who accidentally killed his wife through dangerous driving, went insane as a result, and has internalised the story: he recounts it as though it happened to someone else and turns violent when confronted with the truth. This isn't a major part of the story and is not a revelation to the other characters, but is to the reader.
* ''The Nothing Man'' by Jim Thompson: Inverted. It turns out the protagonist, who had thought he was killing people the entire time, invented all of it; every one of his "victims" either died of an accident, committed suicide, or survived. [[ExecutiveMeddling This probably wasn't the original ending he had in mind]].
* Mariastella Cosentino in ''The Scent of the Night'' — throughout the book, everyone is looking for Gargano, who stole a lot of money from some very angry people. Mariastella was in love with him and when he came to her for refuge, she shot him and blacked it out completely, so to her, Gargano was still alive and missing, not dead and [[NightmareFuel wrapped in plastic on her spare room bed]].
* Stephen King's novella "Secret Window, Secret Garden". Later the Johnny Depp film adaptation.
** The novella may have been a case of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane. The Mississippi writer is a real person who died prior to the events in the book. His ghost may have done all the things the main writer did, or may have driven him to them, ''or'' may not have been a ghost at all.
* Creator/MichaelCrichton's novel ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'' used a similar twist.
* Creator/StephenKing's short story "Strawberry Spring", which appeared in the collection ''Literature/NightShift''.
* Ted Dekker's ''Literature/{{Thr3e}}'', where the protagonist, villain, and love interest are all split personalities of the same person.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* The ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "[[Recap/AngelS01E11Somnambulist Somnambulist]]" at first appears to be an example of this trope, but it turns out that Angel is having dreams as a result of his connection to one of his vampire progeny, who is the actual murderer. This does make Angel indirectly responsible.
* ''Series/BanjunDrama'': In "Since That Day", a man goes on a search after a mysterious woman starts appearing in his vision after a car crash. By virtue of confronting the man he had assumed to be her murderer, he finds out he himself killed her in a car crash.
* In the ''Series/BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction'' segment "Malibu Cop," the titular detective discovers that he himself is the murderer he is searching for. He committed the crime while sleepwalking. Supposedly this story was "Fact."
* Ironically, the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E13TheKillerInMe The Killer in Me]]" is not an example of this trope. The earlier episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E8Sleeper Sleeper]]", however, has Spike as a ManchurianAgent under the control of The First, killing and then having no memory of having done so.
* One murderer in ''Series/CriminalMinds'' didn't seem to realize he was a killer until the BAU themselves showed him proof. In this case, though, it's made abundantly clear to the viewers that he's the killer from very early on, so it's only a shock to him. This leads to a rather bizarre and intense interrogation scene where the BAU keep showing him more and more evidence that he did it and he keeps refusing to believe it...until it all comes back to him.
* In season 6 of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', Professor Gellar is a split personality of Travis Marshal after he killed the real one. This is one of the less effective uses of the trope, as the stretched-out one-season story arcs of ''Dexter'' meant that much of the audience already [[TheUntwist saw this coming a mile off]] when the signs were becoming too obvious.
* A completely non-supernatural but incredibly tragic example drives the A-plot of an episode of ''Series/HillStreetBlues'': A fight between two men at a homeless hostel ends with one of them stabbed to death. The only person who claims to have seen what happened turns out to be suffering from what was then known as Multiple Personality Disorder, but eventually it becomes clear that one of his personalities was the true killer. When the man realises this, [[TakingYouWithMe he throws himself out of a fifth-floor window to make sure his murderous alter can never hurt anyone again.]] While the responding officers desperately try to save his life before an ambulance arrives, he experiences a few moments of clarity and is finally able to give his real name before DyingAsYourself.
* The TV movie ''In The Shadow Of Evil'' is about a cop who develops amnesia while on the case of a serial killer whose pattern indicates that he will kill again in a month. Towards the end of the month, he has regained enough of his memory to realise he's investigating himself and switches from Amnesiac Killer to Secretive Killer.
* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Sento]] [[AllLovingHero Kiryu]] is appalled to find out he might have murdered someone right before losing his entire identity a year prior to the story's beginning. It's absolutely out of [[ThouShallNotKill question]] as he is now, but there is nothing that would prove his previous identity's innocence. The actual murderer faked his death to repurpose him as an UnwittingPawn.
* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', "Consumed", where a sleepwalking cop (who has a rather mean personality while doing so) is the suspect, but it's quickly established that he wouldn't have been able to commit the murders since his sleepwalking self couldn't use a gun. It turns out that his neighbour had been manipulating him (and preventing him from getting treatment) so she could use him as a fall guy.
* ''Series/Mouse2021'': Ba-reum was a serial killer before he got hit with LaserGuidedAmnesia. He's horrified when he regains his memories and spends the rest of his life trying to atone for his crimes.
* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Little Red Riding Hood was told to stay inside whenever the full moon was out because a gigantic wolf was stalking around the village. It turns out she ''is'' the werewolf, and her Granny was trying to protect the other villagers by keeping her inside. Red Riding Hood, of course, had no idea it was her, and often snuck out anyways, causing gruesome murders every so often.
* Davis of ''Series/{{Smallville}},'' who turns out to be the human form of General Zod's pet project, a.k.a. Doomsday.
* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E4Repression Repression]]" follows Tuvok as he tries to find out who has been secretly assaulting crewmembers and rendering them comatose. It turns out to be Tuvok himself, having recently been brainwashed by a transmission hidden within a message from his son. None of the victims die, fortunately, but instead end up brainwashed themselves as part of a conspiracy by a disgruntled former Maquis to take over Voyager.
* In ''Series/TwinPeaks'', the revelation that Leland Palmer is actually the supernatural serial killer BOB and responsible for many of the deaths in the series, including Laura Palmer's, happens twice. First, BOB's identity is revealed through a mirror to the audience. In a later episode, Leland realizes what he did/what BOB made him do as BOB leaves his body, and has a moment of remorse.
* ''Series/TheWheelOfTime2021'': Mat has serious doubts whether the farmers were killed by him or a Fade. Rand assures him it was the Fade, but Mat isn't convinced and asks Rand to MercyKill him if he goes insane. He promises to do the same to Rand.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'':
** The copycat killer in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E14Grotesque Grotesque]]" is a leading investigator of the original case. As a part of the team, he's chasing himself. Did he know? Maybe, as he specifically requested Mulder, who he believed is the only one who could crack the case. However, he seems genuinely appalled and distrustful when Mulder reveals to him that it is him who they are chasing. In addition, as the original SerialKiller, he claims that he was possessed by a demonic force. A classic MaybeMagicMaybeMundane of ''The X-Files''.
** In the episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS07E16Chimera Chimera]]", Ellen Adderly is as horrified as anybody by the murders of her friend and later her rival in their community. At one point, she believes that she is about to be attacked by the stringy-haired creature [[TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf she saw in the mirror]]. Then it's found out that she suffers from a SplitPersonality, and her aggression was how she dealt with her husband's cheating on her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* [[Music/BoneThugsNHarmony Krayzie Bone's]] song ''Don't Know Why''. Krayzie essentially blanks out after killing his ex-employer, but doesn't remember doing it. He wakes up in a graveyard covered in blood. Of course, things get worse for him when cops show up at his front door, more or less confirming his fear.
* Music/TheLivingTombstone's "September" ends on a WhamLine this way, after the protagonist suddenly recalls a memory that tells him exactly why he woke up AfterTheEnd.
--> ''I just remembered\\
What happened in September-\\
I'm the one who killed them all,\\
I survived after the fall.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Arnold Schoenberg's song-cycle/single-role opera ''Erwartung'' (''Expectation'') — In a forest, an amnesic woman looks desperately for her lover. She finds his bloodied body and cries out for help. Her memory gradually falls into place — she has killed the man for his infidelity.
* Sort of: Part of one of the oldest-known {{Twist Ending}}s: In ''[[Theatre/OedipusTheKing Oedipus Rex]]'', the main character spends the play trying to find the murderer of the previous king. At the end, somebody makes Oedipus realize that he himself (unknowingly) was the murderer- the audience saw the murder, but no one knew who the victim was. [[FromBadToWorse It only goes downhill from there...]]
* In ''Theatre/TwistedTheUntoldStoryOfARoyalVizier'', [[AdaptationalVillainy Aladdin]] turns out to have been the one who [[SelfMadeOrphan killed his parents]] under the influence of a murderous split personality. However, considering he is nearly as bad himself (minus the intentional homicidal tendencies), he doesn't really mind once he figures it out.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'':
** Daniel tortured criminals to perform a ritual to protect himself from the shadow, and doesn't realize how many people Alexander gave him to torture were actually innocent until he murders an innocent girl.
** In the ''Justine'' DLC, the woman you play as, who seemingly has been captured by the titular Justine Florbelle and forced into horrifying trials along with many innocent people, is actually Justine herself who gave herself amnesia as another test.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamVR'', the culprit of Nightwing's murder is revealed to be Batman himself, whose body was hijacked by the Joker. He discovers this only in the end.
* In ''VideoGame/CaptiveRPGMaker'', the protagonist wakes up in a room with no memory of who she is, and tries to escape the building she is trapped in. She finds corpses all throughout the building and experiments done with them. The endings reveal that she was the killer, who was experimenting on the men to try to cure her father's unknown illness.
* In the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'', this is heavily implied in the second game with PlayerCharacter Malcolm. He's definitely a TomatoInTheMirror in that he killed his father to get on the spaceship initially, sure — but since we're playing from [[UnreliableNarrator his perspective]], who's to say ''he'' wasn't the one possessed by The Welder all along? This is [[LampshadeHanging referenced]] in the special edition commentary, though [[ShrugOfGod never clarified]].
* VideoGame/DontEscape: In the third game, it's eventually revealed that the protagonist, while asleep and under the control of [[PuppeteerParasite the crystal]], is the true culprit of the murders in the ship. The GoldenEnding is achieved by [[HeroicSacrifice destroying yourself and the ship with a bomb to permanently destroy the crystal]].
* In the indie adventure game ''VideoGame/Downfall2009'', the protagonist, Joe, realizes that the entire game has been subterfuge for his shotgun-toting rampage through his own apartment building. In true ''Franchise/SilentHill'' fashion, all of the monsters were innocent tenants, and Joe's damsel in distress, Ivy, is long dead. A police detective pops up in the game's finale to inform us that, no, we're not really in a hotel, and "Ivy" is just some lookalike whom Joe kidnapped and killed.
* One of ''VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyTheBreakout'''s main plot threads is Edna (the protagonist) attempting to find evidence that proves her father wasn't guilty of murdering her childhood acquaintance Alfred, for which he was sentenced to death. The climax reveals that Edna herself was the one who killed Alfred (she pushed him down the stairs in a particularly tense moment) and that revealing herself as the murderer would make her father's death for naught, as he sacrificed himself to save his daughter from being executed for murder.
* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' sets this up fairly early on with Ethan Mars, who has periods where he blacks out then wakes up with an origami figure in his hand. It's a blatant RedHerring. However, the ''real'' Origami Killer, Scott Shelby, still is an example of this trope but is a Secretive Killer UnreliableNarrator instead. This unfortunately leaves the piece of origami in Ethan's hand after a blackout that [[ContrivedCoincidence happened to occur]] when he son was kidnapped [[PlotHole completely inexplicable]]. The initial idea was that Scott witnessing the death of Ethan's son created a [[PsychicLink psychic connection]] between the two; it was cut for being inappropriately science fictional, but nothing was left in its place.
* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', it is revealed about halfway through the game that the main character is a mind-wiped Darth Revan being manipulated by the Jedi Council. Also counts as a TomatoInTheMirror.
* In ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'', the [[ShowWithinAShow show within a game]] ''Address Unknown'' ends like this: The protagonist, who spent the entire show looking for the murderer of his family, a man named John Mirra, realizes that he was the killer after he sees the killer's face staring back at him in a bathroom mirror. This, incidentally, may mean the whole purpose of the show was to set up a truly terrible pun which is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by some mooks you hear discussing the show: he solves the mystery in the bathroom (as in, the john) by looking into the mirror...Also a TomatoInTheMirror. John is schizophrenic, given that he flat out believes the killer is from an alternate Noir York and that he is hunting Mirra in the alternate dimension. John eventually embraces the Mirra personality. When he receives a phone call from himself, he realizes the Noir York doesn't exist and he really is a murderer and screams in horror.
* In ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedCarbon: Own The City'', the handheld version of ''NFS Carbon'', the player character has amnesia after a car crash that also killed their brother Mick Rogers, and makes his way through the city in an attempt to find the man responsible. It turns out ''they'' were the one who caused the crash, due to how much of an overbearing and toxic person Mick was both towards the player and Sara, Mick's former girlfriend; not only that, but their closest friends knew the whole time, and were only helping them to try and stop them from finding out.
* ''{{VideoGame/Prototype}}'': ''"Three weeks ago, someone released [[TheVirus a lethal virus]] in Penn Station. I woke up in a morgue..."'' This is part of the opening narration by VillainProtagonist Alex Mercer. Guess who released the virus? [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]; Throughout the game, the virus is established to be sentient. The protagonist is not Alex Mercer; it's the virus itself using his body and identifying as him. And yes, [[EvenEvilHasStandards the virus itself is deeply disgusted by Alex's actions]]. Administrivia/NotASubversion since Alex already knows the (massive, by the way) spoiler by the time he finds out what happened, so it never seems like it's going to be played straight.
* ''Franchise/SilentHill'':
** In ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', James goes to the town of Silent Hill in order to determine whether or not his wife — who died three years ago of an unnamed illness — is still alive after receiving a letter from her. In reality, he smothered her with a pillow days before, may have her in the trunk of his car, and repressed the memory of it ever happening. The town of Silent Hill forces him to realize this truth. Depending on the endings, it's either this or a MercyKill.
** In the Bad Ending of ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'', it is implied that Travis is actually a SerialKiller and The Butcher (the monster that looks like a Pyramid Head {{Expy}}) is a manifestation of Travis' "dark side". It was never officially stated if this ending is canon or not.
* Part of the backstory of Siegfried in the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries''. He swears to avenge his father's murder. Guess who did it...
* ''VideoGame/TheSuffering: Ties that Bind'': At the end of the game, it is revealed that Blackmore is really Torque's alter-ego.
* The plot twist of ''Trapped'', the first game in ''VideoGame/TheTrappedTrilogy'', reveals the amnesiac Dan [=McNeely=] is actually the BigBad of the series and a ruthless murderer and gang leader.
* In ''VideoGame/TwistedMetalBlack'', Preacher believes that he is the victim of DemonicPossession after an exorcism, with the "demon" driving him to kill. When he wins, he finds out that there was no demon and that he was EvilAllAlong. This leads him to [[DrivenToSuicide jump off a building]] in regret.
* This is the twist of ''VideoGame/TheWhiteChamber.''
* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', when we find out that Id, an AxCrazy fighter is really another personality of Fei, combining this trope with EnemyWithin.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'' is a subversion. While the main protagonist, Takumi Nishijou, is a mentally disturbed UnreliableNarrator who's quickly implicated in the New Gen killings that drive the plot, and even gets point-blank accused of being the culprit early on, he really is innocent of the murders. However, he ''is'' being manipulated by the BigGood who's fighting the larger conspiracy behind the killings, and the killer themselves is someone Takumi knows via an online chatroom.
* Throughout ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', while it's known that all the students lost two years' worth of memories, Hajime seems to suffer the most from it, being unable to remember even his talent. So naturally, he's horrified to learn that not only is he a Reserve Course student who erased his identity to gain every talent imaginable but is also a member of Ultimate Despair, and the true mastermind behind the killing game who put AI Junko in the virtual world.
** And later, in ''V3'', Gonta Gokuhara winds up as this when he makes a mistake wiring himself into the Virtual World and finds himself without memories of what happened there- which inclcuded himself and Kokichi conspiring to murder Miu.
* Inverted in ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'', where Shiki sees himself walking around the city at night and killing people when he should be sleeping, and fears that this trope is in effect. Actually, he's watching the experiences of the real killer, SHIKI, with whom he shares a spiritual link. Although he really ''does'' have a killing impulse and a [[SuperpoweredEvilSide killer in him]], but it only targets non-humans.
* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', player character Sigma turns out to be Zero, the mastermind behind the Nonary Game.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In-universe in ''Webcomic/UnwindersTallComics'' [[http://tallcomics.com/?id=91 strip 91]]: the twist ending of Sonty Mick's short story "The Murderer in the House". He didn't know he was the killer because he had a brain problem.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': Fresh Cut Grass has a hidden SanityMeter that decreases when they end up in stressful situations. When it runs out, [[RedEyesTakeWarning their eyes turn red and they go violently berserk]]. The first time this happened they attempted to gore Chetney with a buzzsaw, and started hurling the party's deepest insecurities right back into their faces after being restrained by Ashton. They had no memory of what had just happened afterwards, and seemed extremely shaken at the idea that they harmed their friends.
* ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'': Arthur's arc starts out as this in "Ghost". He's chased around the mansion by Lewis, but it's only near the end of the video that we see why: some time in the past, Arthur got possessed in a moment of weakness and pushed him off a cliff to his death. Episodes afterwards show that Arthur had no idea he did it, or even that Lewis is dead for that matter; he keeps an active log of locations he might be (merely thinking he went missing), and his lack of memory is implied to be trauma-induced.
* Played with in ''WebVideo/SMBCTheater'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMxds0dBILc&feature=relmfu "Homicide Detective"]] skit. Guess who the murderer is!
* The twist ending of the {{Creepypasta}} "Stop Scaring Everybody" has the protagonist realize he's been killing people during his blackouts, and that he's actually the brutal serial killer who's been terrorizing the city,
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Parodied repeatedly in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** In "The Smoking Peanut", [=SpongeBob=] throws a peanut at a sleeping clam so it will wake up and perform its circus act, only for it to start crying instead. [[FelonyMisdemeanor The peanut-throwing is treated as a heinous crime]], and Patrick takes it upon himself to track down the culprit, but the police mistakenly come to the conclusion that he ''is'' the culprit and arrest him, causing Patrick to think he actually did do it.
--->'''Patrick''': I'm the last person I would have suspected, but I was looking for ''me'' all the time! It's the perfect crime!
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E7HallMonitorJellyfishJam Hall Monitor]]", [=SpongeBob=] begins hunting down a maniac that has been terrorizing the town, [[TomatoInTheMirror unaware that the "maniac" is actually]] ''[[HeroWithAnFInGood him]]''. This leads to a bizarre scene where [[TheDitz Patrick]] is using a walkie-talkie to report on the maniac's location and somehow, [=SpongeBob=] just ''can't'' run away from him!
--->"The maniac's IN THE MAILBOX!"
[[/folder]]
----