10 Most Shocking Horror Movie Endings

10. Psycho: Mother Takes Over

It's been imitated, parodied and analysed to the point where it's lost all meaning, but try and appreciate just how shocking the ending to Psycho was to unsuspecting cinemagoers back in 1960.

Who would possibly have suspected the unassuming mother's boy Norman Bates of dressing up as his late parent, murdering people and hanging out with her decomposing corpse? Even by today's standards, that came straight out of left field.

It's that final shot of Norman that lives long in the memory, the scene where his mother's voice plays in his head while he sits statue still in a police cell, famously insisting that she "wouldn't even hurt a fly". The Norma personality is now in control.

Moments before the scene fades to make way for a shot of Marion's car being pulled out of the swamp, a barely perceptible image of a human skull flashes across Norman's face as the evil buried deep within rises to the surface. It's nuanced Hitchcock at his very finest.