8 EXACT Moments Classic Horror Franchises Should Have Come To An End

5. Psycho Ends With The First Film's Big Reveal

Halloween 2
Paramount Pictures

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is undoubtedly one of the greatest horror movies ever made, yet the Psycho franchise should have ended with about five minutes of the original 1960 movie remaining.

Not only did horror hounds not need 1983’s Psycho II, 1986’s Psycho III, and 1990’s Psycho IV: The Beginning, but they also didn’t need the whole courthouse scene that plays out at the end of the first flick.

The Psycho series shouldn’t have been a series at all – it should have just been the one movie – and that first picture should have ended when Sam and Lila discovered the rotten corpse of Norma Bates in the cellar of the Bates Motel.

By that point, there’s the shocking reveal that Norman has been dressing up as his long-deceased mother, taking on a dual personality in the process, and then allowing this ‘mother’ personality to kill anybody Norman finds attractive.

All that was needed was that basement reveal, and then maybe you skip ahead to the iconic grinning shot of a locked-up Norman. But regardless, there was no need for the courtroom antics where a psychiatrist lays out the entire plot in a way that slaps the audience across the face.

In this post: 
Halloween
 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.