Greatest Horror Icon..

[King Darkness]

Well I wanted to wait and see waht others had to say before I spoke my mind. There simply to many great horror characters to choose from. If you go to the silver age "monsters", Boris's Frank and Bela's Dracula are obvious choices. Once you move into the Slasher days of horror, you have to put Leatherface front and center. The first masked killing machine. No heart, no soul, just 6 feet 280 lbs of killing machine,changed the face of horror IMO. You have the more campy horrror of the 80's with Freddy Jason and Myers....The cold face no emotion horror of the Tall Man and Pinhead....The list goes on and on, but for my money my true horror icon has to be none other than.......drum roll please.....






Norman Bates....WHAT!?!?!?!?


Yeah yeah yeah, say what you will. He's "not scary". You cant kill him ten times and have him keep coming back for more. He doesn't wear a scary mask and he'll die if you shoot him in the face. That alwasy creeped me out more than the "monsters" and "slashers". He was the first true "psycho". The weird guy who lives in a big creepy house with his mommy(dead mommy) and dressed in her old clothes. Scared the hell out of me as a kid. I think this character was a building block for many of our great crazy killers. Not very visually stunning, but great none the less.

Ok, go ahead and hang me.

 

[NSFolsom]

Well I wanted to wait and see waht others had to say before I spoke my mind. There simply to many great horror characters to choose from. If you go to the silver age "monsters", Boris's Frank and Bela's Dracula are obvious choices. Once you move into the Slasher days of horror, you have to put Leatherface front and center. The first masked killing machine. No heart, no soul, just 6 feet 280 lbs of killing machine,changed the face of horror IMO. You have the more campy horrror of the 80's with Freddy Jason and Myers....The cold face no emotion horror of the Tall Man and Pinhead....The list goes on and on, but for my money my true horror icon has to be none other than.......drum roll please.....






Norman Bates....WHAT!?!?!?!?


Yeah yeah yeah, say what you will. He's "not scary". You cant kill him ten times and have him keep coming back for more. He doesn't wear a scary mask and he'll die if you shoot him in the face. That alwasy creeped me out more than the "monsters" and "slashers". He was the first true "psycho". The weird guy who lives in a big creepy house with his mommy(dead mommy) and dressed in her old clothes. Scared the hell out of me as a kid. I think this character was a building block for many of our great crazy killers. Not very visually stunning, but great none the less.

Ok, go ahead and hang me.

How 'bout a pat on the back? Good choice, I say. Norman Bates himself, as Anthony Perkins played him, is realistic and very scary. Sure, he may not have anything physically iconic or... "aesthetically pleasing" but Hitch's film Psycho is, IMHO, very visually stunning. I love the german expressionism in the film and I really like my german expressionism!

 

[King Darkness]

How 'bout a pat on the back? Good choice, I say. Norman Bates himself, as Anthony Perkins played him, is realistic and very scary. Sure, he may not have anything physically iconic or... "aesthetically pleasing" but Hitch's filmPsycho is, IMHO, very visually stunning. I love the german expressionism in the film and I really like my german expressionism!

Thanks NS...I dont think many will agree with me, and most may stone me for it, but thats really how I feel...The movie is so good and the character is sooooo great....Not to say Dracula, Frankenstein,Jason,Pinhead and Leatherface aren't bad mother*******,which they are, but Norman is a benchmark in great horror characters,IMHO!

 

[DarkArtist81]

I agree as well King... Norman Bates was a terrifying "human" character.. he wasn't invincible or anything, just a man who lost his mind and could not deal with his mother's death. He never really scared me all that much, but that film is a masterpiece and he deserves to be the icon that he is.

Wonderful choice!

 

[Cosmo_Kramer]

what about leatherface? and it was a true story hes my favorite

 

[Fubeca]

By Far the Greatest Horror Icon is..................

DREW BARRYMORE​

 

[Darth Rage]

Scariest had to be possessed Regan in the Exorcist(forgive me if I spelled her name wrong). I saw that when I was 12 or so and it scared the living poo out of me. Still freaks me out.
The guy in Candyman is pretty scary as well.
Classic horror, Legosi's Dracula. That stare....

 

[galactiboy]

I'd go with Karloff in Frankenstien as the most iconic, and I think Leatherface is the most disturbing. The scene where he just crushes a kids head with a hammer is just so brutal and animalistic!

 

[BDboystoys]

Norman Bates not scary?


Inconcievable! He's the original modern horror icon when you think about it really. It completely slipped my mind.

That scene alone when he runs into the basement and the end is enough to give anyone chills,

 

[abstractharmony]

He's not really an icon though is he?

If you walked up to someone in the street and said :-

'What's the first thing that pops into your head when I say Horror Movies?'

I don't think they'd come up with Norman Bates.

IMO of course...

 

[NSFolsom]

what about leatherface? and it was a true story hes my favorite

Yep, Norman Bates and Leatherface and 1/4th of Buffalo Bill (from Silence of the Lambs) are all, more or less, based on Ed Gein. This is likely common knowledge among horror aficionados but.. Well, there ya go.

Gein never used a chainsaw. That was Tobe Hooper's idea after being in a Sears department store around Christmas, Christmas crowds and all, seeing the chainsaws on the wall and thinking, "a chainsaw would really clear out this place" or something to that effect.

 

[King Darkness]

He's not really an icon though is he?
If you walked up to someone in the street and said :-
'What's the first thing that pops into your head when I say Horror Movies?'
I don't think they'd come up with Norman Bates.
IMO of course...

I think you are very right, if you asked 100 peolpe what they think of when you say horror none would probably say Norman Bates....However I dont think that takes anything away from what he did for the modern age of horror....Before Bates you either had monsters, sea creatures or aliens....He was the first character to bring a human aspect to the genre....I think the ONLY reason no one would say Norman Bates is because he does not leave a visual impression in your mind...Most people associate horror with visualy scary things i.e. scary masks, monsters, and ghosts...Yet if you really watch the movie and play it back in the real world he is very very scary...He IS a real life "monster"....

Now if you were to ask people who was scarier, Freddy Kruger or Charles Manson, most would say Manson...He's a real man who did some horrible things...And to me the idea a Norman Bates living down the street from me is far scarier than say, Dracula...

I think he has,IMO, earned a place in the annals of horror movies. And for me personally he is a horror icon.Perhaps he does not live up to the deffanition of "icon", but thats beside the point

And yeah NS, thats what Tobe Hopper said motivated him to use the chainsaw...Funny how a Christmas shopping trip led to one of the craziest horror madmen....

 

[NSFolsom]

And yeah NS, thats what Tobe Hopper said motivated him to use the chainsaw...Funny how a Christmas shopping trip led to one of the craziest horror madmen....

Oh yeah!

You can call me Nick. Yep that's mah name.

 

[King Darkness]

Norman Bates was a terrifying "human"character

Thats what always freaked me out the most about him...Anybody who dress's in his dead mothers clothes is one freaky SOB!


And NS...I will refer to as Nick in the future...

 

[NSFolsom]

Thats what always freaked me out the most about him...Anybody who dress's in his dead mothers clothes is one freaky SOB!


And NS...I will refer to as Nick in the future...

Cool, thanks.

 

[King Darkness]

Me too, Nick, I just have 3 more hours, UGH! And they're 3 long hours.

 

[EVILFACE]

I think you are very right, if you asked 100 peolpe what they think of when you say horror none would probably say Norman Bates....However I dont think that takes anything away from what he did for the modern age of horror....Before Bates you either had monsters, sea creatures or aliens....He was the first character to bring a human aspect to the genre....I think the ONLY reason no one would say Norman Bates is because he does not leave a visual impression in your mind...Most people associate horror with visualy scary things i.e. scary masks, monsters, and ghosts...Yet if you really watch the movie and play it back in the real world he is very very scary...He IS a real life "monster"........

Which is why Norman Bates is not a icon, he is not rememberable to the average person. Superman is iconic, Clark Kent is not. It's what comes to mind first. Frankenstein is horror. And Lugosi's depiction of the blind Monster with the outstretched arms is how most people imitate him.

 

[sanpedromanrique]

Simply............... NOSFERATU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[EVILFACE]

Still is Frankenstein Monster.

 

[King Darkness]

Ten year old thread bump, now thats how you necropost!