10 Best Horror Movie Misdirections Ever
3. Marion Isn't The REAL Protagonist - Psycho
An oldie but a goodie now, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which misdirected audiences in such an insane, unexpected, and brilliant way that it's basically the example of cinematic subterfuge.
Anyone lucky enough to watch the film without first being spoiled about it would expect Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) to be the protagonist from beginning to end.
But just less than half-way through, she's stabbed to death while showering in the Bates Motel by an unseen person, presumed to be Norman Bates' (Anthony Perkins) psychopathic mother.
Hitchcock's typical beautiful blonde heroine is dead to the surprise of just about everybody, at which point Norman Bates becomes the film's de facto protagonist, no matter that he's of course eventually revealed to be the mentally fractured killer himself.
It may be one of Hollywood's worst-kept secrets in this day and age, but within the context of its era, brutally killing the heroine half-way and having us unknowingly follow her killer for the rest of the movie was ballsy as all hell.