7 Strangest Promotional Images in Film History

2. Psycho (1960)

What makes this promo image for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho so strange isn't the image itself, it's that it contains a tableau that never appears within the actual film. The image suggests that Sam Loomis (John Gavin) will be protecting both his girlfriend Marion Crane (Janet Leigh, right) and her sister Lila (Vera Miles) from something or someone dangerous. But Marion is murdered by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) before Lila even enters the film. Though the image isn't so much strange but perhaps Hitchcock's greatest ever marketing trick. The Master of Suspense positioned Janet Leigh as one of the main stars of the film to make her death at the mid-way point even more shocking.
 
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Contributor

I'm Canadian! I'm a recent graduate of the Journalism Program at the University of King's College in Halifax. I'm an aspiring actor and film critic, and lover of all things film and Shakespeare. My favourite movie is "Casablanca" and my favourite play of Shakespeare is "Othello."