8 Best Misdirections In Horror Movies
1. Mother Is Dead - Psycho
Few filmmakers - if any - have ever done misdirection as well as Alfred Hitchock. And standing loud and proud as the absolute perfect example of Hitch's wry sense of red herrings and plot twists is 1960's Psycho.
It's hard to distinguish which was really the biggest piece of misdirection in Psycho, for the film had two major switch-ups that first-time viewers had no idea was coming.
First up, A-list star and the headlining act of the movie, Janet Leigh, was shockingly killed off barely 20 minutes into the film. By all accounts and purposes, Leigh was billed as the main attraction of the film, and unknowing audiences and critics presumed that the actress would be around for the majority of the picture, if not right through until its closing credits.
Next up, of course, is the huge reveal that the real Norma Bates has been dead throughout the whole movie. Up until that reveal, the narrative of the story is that it's Norma who has carried out the atrocities seen in the film - only for it to be explained how Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates had been dressing up as Mother all along.
So dedicated to keeping the story's twists as secret as possible, Hitchcock himself went out and bought as many copies of Robert Bloch's 1959 Psycho novel as he could find. This coming after Hitch had anonymously purchased the rights to the tale for just $9,000.