Norman Bates ((Psycho (1960))

The man behind the woman behind the knife in cinema’s greatest shower scene (so great, it’s simply known as The Shower Scene) is no mere ‘villain’. He is the first of his cinematic kind: a movie monster who is one-hundred percent human. Not some fanged phantom or hairy bloke-beast, but a guy who could be standing next to you right now.

Someone you’d never suspect of wanting to harm even a fly. Now, of course, our big screens are chock-a with serial killers, so it’s hard to imagine just how shocking and terrifying mother-possessed motelier Norman Bates was to 1960 audiences (or how much a kick Alfred Hitchcock got out of being behind the shocking), but it’s fair to say he truly redefined horror.