100 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time

4. Psycho

You can’t talk about masterclasses in horror without 1960’s Psycho. Responsible for many of the base staples of slasher fiction or the cinematography around building suspense and executing on effective jump-scares, Alfred Hitchcock straddles the line between character work, an arresting tone and the occasional visual knockout.

Everyone knows of the silhouetted “knife scene”, but Psycho is much more than just one kill. It’s the creepy stare and all-too-nice candour of Norman Bates; the unsettling juxtaposition of American hospitality with the towering, immediately iconic look of the Bates’ family house.

The latter houses the much discussed “Mother” too, an element of the story that leads to possibly the finest reveal in horror cinema history.

At this stage if you somehow don’t know everything about Psycho, let its historic and storied history take you in. It’s one for the ages for a reason.

[ST]