1. Psycho (1960)
Thriller to Horror It's a trope that we take for granted today, but just try to imagine how disconcerting it must have been for an audience to have their lead character suddenly disappear barely thirty minutes into a film? When secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) sneaked off with $40,000 in cash, only the most cold-hearted among us would say that karma finally caught up with her in that hotel bathroom. The makings of a crime thriller were all there; we knew Marion had something of a conscience and so the film would most likely see just how long it would take her to crack and confess to the lot. But Hitchcock (and, of course, Peter Bloch, upon whose source novel the film is based) had other ideas. Marion was a good woman who made one mistake, like we all do. But that mistake wasn't in taking the money. It was in taking a shower. And the cruellest cut of all is the fact that Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) didn't even know she had the money. In fact, he unknowingly destroys what's left of it when he bundles Marion's body into her car and sinks it into a swamp. What made
Psycho all the more shocking is that it left an audience frantically searching for someone to root for. Unfortunately, the only person standing onscreen is a killer. By default, the antagonist has become our protagonist. It's an unsettling feeling; having our expectations so rudely uprooted. Are we to hope that, if and when the cops come calling, he eludes them? Maybe the film is just one long social experiment; testing if, like Marion, we can be led into temptation? Either way, it's a scene (and a film) that has sparked discussion from all corners of society. Certainly, this genre jump was a ground-breaking move; setting a template that is still followed today. And while its visual impact may have been blunted somewhat over fifty years, that Bernard Herrmann score still cements its place as one of- if not
the- most iconic horror scenes ever made.