9 Horror Movie Plot Points Secretly Introduced Earlier Than You Realised

One of the most well-known films in the whole horror genre, Psycho’s plot is no longer a mystery to most movie fans. Even those that have never seen the flick can generally tell you one thing about it and that is that Norman Bates is the baddie all along, and he has his mum’s corpse in the basement.

It’s a pretty unforgettable plot, and one that has gone on to influence countless horror movies since. A million little and large things through the film make it the masterpiece it is, and one of them is the excellent scripting and dialogue.

One little throwaway statement actually serves to point us in the direction of Mrs Bates’ truth. Though we aren’t explicitly told early on that she is dead, we are told that she is harmless - and we’re told this in a rather odd but fitting manner.

At one point long before the big reveal, Norman remarks that his beloved mother is “as harmless as one of those stuffed birds!" This hints at the truth that Mrs Bates definitely is harmless because she’s dead as a doornail, but also guides the mind toward things like ornaments and taxidermies of once living things.

Mrs Bates isn’t exactly taxidermied (that would’ve been a very different movie), but she is mummified, rotten and displayed on a chair like an ornamental bird. Who’d have guessed it?!