1. Norman Bates - Psycho
The most real, the most believable, the most chilling because a sweet boy turns into a raving madman to kill women. He's your next door neighbor, the guy who, when the cops catch him, you would always attest to be sweet, normal, and innocent. Wrong, wrong, wrong. For me, there hasn't been a movie killer before or since that shows so much conflict and terror underneath his eyes than Norman Bates. Anthony Perkins is a master and his performance as Norman Bates is beyond incredible. It was tough to put him above both Hannibal and John Doe, but ultimately it came down to who would be the bigger success. Norman is so sweet and unassuming while the other two are fairly straight forward mad men. They may be brilliant, but there's no doubt about it. Norman Bates, much like Leatherface, also takes inspiration from real life killer Ed Gein. Gein reportedly dug up fairly fresh corpses that resembled his mother. Associating part of this crazy psychosis to Norman makes him frightening. Everything about him creeps me out because to most women, he would appear as kind, understanding, and cute. And then there's the scene where he tries to feed Janet Leigh's Marion Crane a sandwich and make THE most uncomfortable conversation ever, and then proceeds to watch her take a shower through a peep hole in his parlor filled with stuffed dead animals. Also, the fact that Norman practices taxidermy makes one wonder whether or not he's had the inclination to practice it on humans, specifically attractive women he feels "mother" may disapprove of. Simply put, Norman Bates has been the killer who's haunted me most since my childhood. When I first saw Psycho as a kid, I thought old black and white Horror films were camp, old, and crap. Psycho changed that forever. I couldn't sleep for days after I saw it and remember specifically asking my mom whether or not we were safe from him, whoever he was. That ending shot on his face, as Mother's narration chimes in, while he flashes that sinister smile and a slight few frames fade in on the image of a skeleton over his face...that's what I imagine the Devil looking like. Who's the killer that got your blood boiling most? Comments below!