10 Movie Scenes That Should Have Happened Off-Screen
7. The Psychiatrist's Exposition Dump - Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock's masterful horror film Psycho ends with the mind-melting revelation that the murders have been committed by motel owner Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who has a split personality resembling his own dead mother.
It's an all-timer as far as plot twists go, yet one undeniably undermined by the follow-up scene in which psychiatrist Dr. Richmond (Simon Oakland) prosaically explains the full extent of Norman's illness in the most listless, unimaginative, and yes, clinical fashion possible.
Though there's an argument to be made that audiences were less-savvy to the particulars of mental illness in 1960, even so, as a piece of writing the scene is flabbergastingly lazy.
Viewed today, it can't be seen as anything other than an otherwise expertly crafted film telling the audience something they already know.
In an ideal world, this scene would've been left on the cutting room floor as we transitioned directly into the terrific "She wouldn't harm a fly" ending.