Unleashed: 1960

What evil lurks: What is quite possibly the first slasher film (unless you want to get all semantic with The Lodger, another Hitchcock classic). Psycho‘s unusual story structure caught audiences off guard when the star of the movie resolved to be not the top-billed actress but the legendary scene in which she appeared. The nefarious proprietor of the infamous Bates Motel isn’t even introduced until 20 minutes into the story, but once he is, things get unnerving very quickly. Behind his boyish good looks, shy smile and nervous stammering, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) clearly holds back an unsettling rage. By the time the famous shower scene hits the audience like a splash of ice cold water, they’re barely ready for the shock. Influencing films like From Dusk Till Dawn and even Alien, Psycho begins as one film before snapping the audience into another, giving whiplash to their sense of security.

Perkins is phenomenal as the doting son to a poisonously disapproving mother, able to convey genuine horror in one moment and subtle menace the next. Bernard Herrmann’s score is as legendary as the film itself, so much so that Hitchcock doubled the composer’s salary, stating, “33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.”

Highlight from hell: Private detective Arbogast’s tense first encounter with the shy innkeeper.

Terrifying trivia: Alfred Hitchcock originally envisioned the shower sequence as completely silent, but Bernard Herrmann went ahead and scored it anyway, and upon hearing it, Hitchcock immediately changed his mind.

Diabolical dialogue: “A boy’s best friend is his mother.”

Son of: Peeping Tom (1960). Beating Psycho to the punch only three months beforehand, this far less terrifying trip into the mind of a killer was also far more controversial, resulting in the utter derailment of director Michael Powell’s career.

Shoddy sequel syndrome: The unnecessarily over-explanatory coda.