10 Horror Movie Characters Who Didn't Know They Were The Monster

Coming from arguably the most legendary director of all time, Psycho is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, able to boast the iconic shower scene among others, and, of course, one of the greatest and most chilling villains ever.

Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates was in part made so damn compelling by the stark contrast between his typical, mild-mannered self and what happened to him at the mere mention of his mother. Even in normal conversation with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a switch was flicked at the innocent suggestion of his mother's institutionalisation.

Before she was killed, Marion heard the unseen mother lambasting Norman for speaking to her, which, along with her murder, revealed the truth of just how troubled Norman was. He killed his mother years before Marion came to the Bates Motel, something that led him to try and keep her alive, initially by storing and treating her corpse in the house, before his mind was ultimately taken over.

Norman's personality split, and he became his mother, never fully being Norman again. It was as her that he killed Marion out of jealousy he assumed his mother would harbour, and once her son returned to the wheel, it was as if he had awoken from a deep sleep, fully believing his mother the murderer and himself an innocent.