20 Horror Movies WAY More Successful Than Anyone Expected

During the 1950s, Alfred Hitchcock released a slew of defining thrillers, including Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. With Hitchcock at the top of his game, moviegoers were eager to sprint to any feature with his name slapped on it.

But when the master of suspense announced he was adapting Robert Bloch's gruesome page-turner, Psycho, the whole world turned against him. Although much of Hitchcock's repertoire is horror adjacent, he'd never fully plunged into the genre before. At the time, a film based on Bloch's novel was considered trashy and thus, beneath a man of Hitchcock's calibre.

For this reason, studios weren't willing to back Psycho, forcing the London-born auteur to remortgage his house to fund the project. The censor board were nipping at Hitchcock's heels every step of the way, dismissing any idea deemed inappropriate. 

Due to its lack of universal marketability, it felt like Psycho was set up to fail. And yet, this 1960 classic became Hitchcock's most lucrative movie by far. Even though Hitchcock had proven himself countless times, it was satisfying to see his biggest gamble blossom into his greatest triumph.