10 Best "What's Around The Corner" Horror Movie Moments
5. The Stairs Scene - Psycho (1960)
Trite though it may be to reiterate Psycho's status as a watershed moment in horror, it's kind of impossible not to. Alfred Hitchock's 1960 masterpiece is the grandfather of slashers and arguably his most suspenseful work, plucking inspiration from one of America's most bizarre crimes and delivering one of the most enduring films ever made.
The way Hitchcock layers mystery and suspense in Psycho is something to behold, but it is the moments where that tension explodes that have attained immortal status - the shower scene a chief example. There are two other moments in the film that play with the dread of what's lurking out of frame - the reveal of Norma Bates' corpse in the finale, and the stairs scene where Martin Balsam's Arbogast is murdered by "Mother", which to me is Psycho's greatest moment.
From the moment Arbogast steps foot inside the house overlooking the Bates Motel, Hitchcock makes it clear that he is not long for this world. Danger is hinted at behind every locked door and every obscured surface, and yet Arbogast is compelled upward, further into the web Mother has woven. A door slowly inches open, with a partial shadow leaking from behind.
Arbogast has no time to react as Mother (Anthony Perkins) springs forward and slashes him across the face, leading to the detective plummetting down the steps to his eventual doom. Shot with an inspired use of rear projection to sell the sense of disorientation and backwards momentum, this sequence is one of Hitchcock's most magical.