10 Horror Movie Twists That Changed EVERYTHING
5. Norman Bates' "Real" Mother - Psycho 2
Despite Psycho being a perfect horror movie that ended with its villain, Norman Bates, being taken in by the authorities, the story actually continued for a couple more movies.
23 years after the original scared audiences silly, Psycho 2 caught up with an older, seemingly rehabilitated Bates who'd put the murderous personality of his mother behind him. All seems to be going well, but Bates worries he's going to slip back into his psychotic ways as a bunch of strange things start happening in his life.
He keeps it mostly together until his colleague, an older woman called Emma, reveals to Norman that she's actually his real mother. The woman who raised him - and the corpse he kept in the motel - was actually her sister.
With Bates already on edge, he doesn't take this revelation lightly. In fact, it causes him to lose control of his mind once more, and murder her.
Funnily enough Psycho 3 would retcon this parentage twist in its finale three years later, clarifying that Emma was lying about being Norman's real mother after kidnapping him as a kid and killing his real father.
Still, both twists reframe Norman's upbringing massively.