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?”
