10 Most Memorable Death Scenes In Horror Films

Long before Drew Barrymore's deliberately misleading introduction in Scream, Alfred Hitchcock shocked his audience with Janet Leigh's sudden and unexpected murder at the hands of 'Mrs Bates'' obscured silhouette in Psycho. What is left to say about this classic scene that hasn't been said a thousand times already? It's been honoured in countless parodies, and is still the first example of an iconic movie murder that springs to everyone's minds. Famously featuring 77 different camera angles and including 50 cuts, every single frame is carefully thought out, and the result is perfection.

Bernard Herrmann's screeching, stringed score, simply titled 'The Murder', is almost solely responsible for how incredible this scene is. It was originally conceived without any sound at all, though Hitchcock later confessed that Marion's murder wouldn't have had nearly as much of an impact on the audience had it not been for Herrmann's score which, coupled with the frantic close-ups, greatly intensified the scene. The Psycho theme was later 'borrowed' by Stuart Gordon for Re-Animator, and was heavily incorporated into the score of Carrie.