50 Greatest Movie Scenes Ever

4. Shower Scene - Psycho

Psycho Shower Scene 1960
Paramount Pictures

The Master of Suspense hit upon his most masterfully suspenseful scene with Psycho, which broke just about every established rule of cinema and invented a dozen new ones.

The star isn't supposed to die, and they're especially not supposed to do so in violent, bloody fashion only half-an-hour into the movie. And yet, here it is. Hitchcock builds tension like only he can, starting with the appearance of a shadow on the other side of the curtain, before Bernard Herrmann's score takes a hold of you and doesn't let go until the slaughter is over.

The score could make a video of a dozen golden retriever puppies playing in a ball pit seem creepy, and here, combined with Hitch's dizzying array of jump cuts and 180 shifts, it serves to root you to your seat, the hairs on the back of your neck stood up, as horror unfolds in front of you, your mouth agape, a scream never making it past your throat.

[JH]

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