Psycho stabbing 'best film death'

Other films featured include Bonnie and Clyde, Gladiator and The Godfather.

'Some of the deaths in the poll, like the Wicked Witch melting in The Wizard of Oz, are iconic but laughable,' said Simon Crook, deputy editor of Total Film. 'But nearly 45 years on Psycho's shower scene is still distressing.' Crook attributed the effectiveness of the sequence to 'the sheer violence of the edit', describing it 'a masterclass of montage and audience manipulation'.

The scene, which lasts 45 seconds but took seven days to shoot, is notable for never showing the killer's blade touching Janet Leigh's body.

Some of the gorier deaths in the poll include John Hurt's exploding stomach in Alien, Tim Roth's fatal haemorrhage in Reservoir Dogs and David Warner's decapitation in The Omen.