The Best Horror Movie Kills of All-Time: #6 – PSYCHO (1960)

We’re on the literal cusp of the top 5, ladies and gentlemen, and I have to say this has been pretty fun. Going into this project I basically knew which kills were going to be solidified in my top 5, but everything else was a crap-shoot. I made some additions I wasn’t expecting, and I made some subtractions I wasn’t expecting.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a rough outline in my head of which kills I was going to

highlight, but there’s just so many scenes to go through! I re-watched two movies just this week to make sure there wasn’t some gem I had forgotten about. And, yes, there are plenty of scenes not included on this list that had inventive kills, or particularly gory ones, but they didn’t register for me as “Top 25”.

This list is my subjective ranking, and hopefully I’ll get around to seeing some of you post

some favorites as well. I haven’t seen nearly as many horror movies as some people, so finding some new films to watch would be truly welcomed.

Basically, this whole preamble is my way of saying that from here on out, there’s no surprises. And there’s at least one major exclusion from this list that usually rests at or near the top of many other “top kills” lists, which I’ll point out as we work our way to #1.

Now with all that out of the way, coming in at #6 is Alfred Hitchcock’s horror masterpiece, Psycho.

You know the scene, so I probably won’t go into too much rhetoric about this one.

Scholars have written about the shower scene time and time again. It’s Hitchcock’s style and cinematography that does it for me. That shot of the shower head, the perspective and angle when the door opens and the killer walks slowly to the shower, the music, the blood circling the drain, the slow zoom out on Janet Leigh’s still, eerie face. It’s pure cinema and it never gets old.

I know it’s not a gory scene and doesn’t show the actual kill, so some might not want this

included on the list. But it’s such a classic scene and it’s so incredibly shot, I had to include it. It’s an amazing scene.

Ok, that’s it for me. I hope you enjoy the scene and don’t forget to check back on Monday for #5 on my list of The Best Horror Movie Kills of All-Time!