3. Psycho (1960)
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is a very naughty secretary who has stolen money from her employers. She shacks up at a secluded motel to figure out what to do next. Unfortunately, this is the Bates Motel and Norman is ready with a big knife to slash her to ribbons in the shower. Some people come sniffing by the motel to try and find the missing Marion, but this just leads to more murder with Norman parading around in his mother's clothes. Some psychoanalysing follows ending with Norman sitting in a cell, his mind dominated by his Mother. Psycho would doubtless have been very shocking to audiences in 1960 and it still packs a punch today. The murder of the assumed heroine half an hour into the film would have been unprecedented as would the savagery of the shower kill scene. Hitchcock's contribution to the horror movie through Psycho was considerable - it can be seen as the grand daddy of stalk and slash films and horror films with psychotic human killers. Initial reviews of the film were excoriating - "a blot on an honourable career" and "a gimmick". It broke all box office records in Japan (surprise surprise) and it made Hitchcock a multimillionaire. Modern reviewers have revised their opinion of the film, calling it "superlative" and "masterly". Probably the most suspenseful horror film ever made.