10 Disturbing Movie Reveals You Only Notice Rewatching
3. Mother's Unmoving Body Reveals That Ending - Psycho
And while on the subject of mothers, one of the most famous and disturbing twists of all time is actually displayed for all to see earlier in the Psycho drama.
Not too long before discovering that Norman Bates killed his mother ten years ago and had been treating her corpse as if it were alive ever since, the disturbed man can be heard having an argument with her inside her bedroom.
And after squabbling a while, Norman eventually carries his frustrated mother, who can be heard telling him to let go of her, down to the fruit cellar. Though it's evident here that said mother had been replaced with a mannequin for the shot.
On a first watch, your mind simply assumes Alfred Hitchcock had Anthony Perkins carry a dummy down the stairs as it would have likely been easier than trying to have him lug an actual human for a few takes.
But when revisiting this particularly surreal beat, it soon becomes clear that this was anything but a botched attempt at disguising a life-size doll. It was actually a subtle way of telling the audience that this rather stiff looking mother was indeed very much not alive at this point.