10 Horror Movie Opening Fakeouts We All Fell For
3. Psycho
While the death of Drew Barrymore's Casey Becker at the start of Scream was a monumental shock back in 1996, Barrymore wasn't the first headline act to be shockingly killed off way sooner than anyone expected.
Much like Barrymore was front 'n' centre for all of the marketing for Scream and was billed as the film's main star, that formula was something seen way back in 1960 for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Of course, the star attraction of that iconic picture was Janet Leigh as Marion Crane. Well, at least that's what audiences were led to believe prior to watching what would become one of the most influential movies in cinema history.
Unlike some of the other films on this list, the fakeout element of Psycho doesn't take place within the first ten or 15 minutes, but it's certainly worthy of a mention here for just how monumental it was and is. That fakeout would remove Leigh's Marion barely half-way through Psycho, with her slain by Norman Bates' "mother" persona during that shower scene.
From there, the attention of Psycho switches to the search for Marion Crane and for the $40,000 she'd stolen from her job. So adamant that this major revelation was kept as secret as possible, Hitchcock didn't put on any preview screenings for critics, and likewise people were not allowed to enter a theater once Psycho had already started.