Seven Silver Screen Psychopaths

Cathal Prendergast
Posted December 18, 2012 in Film Features

Seven Psychopaths, the new exercise in bad taste from the enfant terrible of black comedy Martin McDonagh hit screens last week. To celebrate Hollywood’s interest in the psychotically-inclined, we’ve compiled a list of cinematic crazies. While the appearance of a good villain can make for a memorable experience at the flicks, it’s the truly psychotic ones that leave a lasting impression; whether the calculated callousness of Se7en’s John Doe, or the histrionic menace of The Dark Knight’s Joker. Let’s revel in the madness for a moment.

Norman Bates- Psycho

The original, the most famous, and perhaps the only one that will remain an immortal symbol of insanity, Hitchcock’s boy-next-door schizoid Norman Bates represented the madness hiding in ordinary prosaic and humdrum small towns. Inspired by notorious serial-killer and grave robber, Ed Gein (who also provided the basis for nasties like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs), Bates also had a bit of a mommy complex.

Psycho-babble: “It’s not like my mother is a maniac or a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?”

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