10 Films That Should Have Ended Ten Minutes Earlier

2. Psycho

For most of its run time there's not a scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho that feels unnecessary. Even though the first half an hour has no bearing on the rest of the movie (that whole money subplot is deliriously dropped), it all adds to the growing tension and question over who the titular psycho really is. Sadly it's all undone by the psychiatrist scene at the end.

Coming after the massive twist that motelier Norman Bates has been killing women under the mental guise of his dead Mother, the scene essentially explains in plain English what's been going on and downplays any potential sexual intent to the events. It's like a detox for the audience, although you can imagine Hitchcock didn't actually want to give the traumatised viewers a chance to rest; it was very much some censor pleasing.

The source novel did it a bit better, with Sam explaining it to Lila. There it's a lot more in the moment and doesn't require introducing a whole new set of characters. The simplification of the scene is just about offset by the final moments, which sees Mother, having fully taken over Norman, plotting her escape to a chilling extent; that final shot transition with the superimposed corpse will give you nightmares.