10 More Horror Movies That Cleverly START With Huge Twists
6. Psycho
Perhaps the single most legendary example of a horror movie that totally blindsides audiences early on is Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which was marketed as revolving around Janet Leigh's protagonist Marion Crane as she fends off a murderous maniac in the Bates Motel.
But Hitchcock skirted expectations entirely by having Marion herself not only die at the killer's hand, but die just a little way into Psycho's second act. Sure, it's not quite the very start of the movie, but it is just when viewers think that Marion's night of terror is going to begin, not end.
It's one of horror's all-time great "holy s**t!" moments, leaving audiences completely clueless as to how the rest of the story is going to unfold.
As it happens, Marion's sister Lila (Vera Miles) then arrives in town to investigate Marion's disappearance, and the rest of the unhinged murder-mystery plays out.