Psycho (1960)

Psycho (1960)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock
Actors:

Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles

Marion Crane is annoyed with the way life has treated her. She cannot get married to her lover Sam, as he gave most of his money away in alimony. Marion is then trusted with $40,000 by her employer, which she should bank. Although she see's this as an opportunity to run and start a new life. After leaving town, she heads off to Sam's store in California but ends up being tired. So she stops at a near by motel.  At the beginning of the film the motel owner seems like a quiet kind man, who is dominated by his mother. 

In Psycho, the audience automatically think the film is about an $40,000 murder. Although they become shocked as anything and anyone could be killed. Now the audience know there is a murderer in the house, but they don't know when they'll strike. Hitchcock made it clear that as apprehension  increases  there is less violence shown on screen. 

Psycho is an archetypal thriller, which has a mixture of unstable characters and a bit of mystery and thriller. Although there are elements of horror. The threat in Psycho is a man who has a very disturbed mind who also happens to be the motel owner.

Thrillers are inspired by fast pacing and continuous action. For example in the shower scene. In the shower scene, continuous action occurs as the killer enters the bathroom while Marion is in the shower then repeatedly stabs her. This creates fast pacing as the audience didn't expect this to happen. Marion the starts to slip down the bath slowly, which adds to the continuous actions

Also the staircase scene is another, fast pacing action scene as the audience see the point of view of the killer. Which adds to the action as we the audience know what is coming next.


There is a hero in Psycho, Marion's lover Sam. As he is the one who finds Norman and stops him from killing Marion's sister.

Hitchcock said that it was really important to get rid of cliche and repetition things. For example the murderers could be charming while the heroes could have a lot of flaws.

Psycho is a shocking film, as a lot of tension and suspense is built up. From the shower scene to the reviling scene of the mother. Hitchcock consistently breaks expectations and shocks the audience completely, as they didn't expect the mother to actually be Norman himself. The biggest shock for the audience was the early exit of Janet Leigh. This was a undoubtedly unexpected shock, as at this point the screenplay had tricked the audience into accepting Marion as the main character which is a really good example of a red herring.

None of Hitchcock's films as had the impact upon the American psyche as Psycho did. When it was released in 1960, it was a huge box office hit and its popularity has not waned over the last four decades.Whenever anyone speaks about Psycho, the first images that come to mind are those of Janet Leigh being hacked to death in the shower. The scene is so famous that even people who have not seen the movie are aware of it. Bernard Herrmann's strident, discordant music has been used in countless other movies to denote the appearance of a Psycho. The brilliance of the scene lies in the editing. Those who go frame-by-frame through it will note how much is left to the imagination. We don't actually see Marion get Stabbed, although our imagination made it seem that way.