¨I think I must have one of those faces you
can't help believing.¨
Psycho is the master of all suspense thrillers
and I will include it in my list of masterpieces. It was way ahead of its time
and continues to impress today. This is where the term Hitchcockian came from
to describe these psychological horror films that have been inspired by the
great Hitchcock. It`s been over 50 years since Hitchcock directed this film,
and horror directors are still trying to imitate what he did. One of the things
I enjoyed the most about this film is the way that Hitch fooled us all into
thinking that it was going to be about Janet Leigh`s character and ended up
killing her off in the first half of the movie. I hadn`t seen this film before,
but had seen the famous shower scene thousands of times before. It`s amongst
the greatest scenes in film history considering the way Hitch filmed every shot
taking the audience by surprise. I always thought that scene was the final one,
so I was surprised to see it only 40 minutes into the movie. From that moment
on I was sold and on board with what other unexpected turn the movie was going
to make. Anthony Perkins` performance as Norman Bates was the highlight of the
movie for me. He was excellent in his role and I was surprised he didn’t get
much credit for it. I think he was much better than the rest of the cast. I
also imagine what a surprise the ending must have been for most people during
the time since it was something totally unprecedented. I did see it coming now
of course since so many films have copied the format, but I can only imagine
the initial reaction. Psycho was also the perfect title for the film.
As for the story goes it deals with an office
worker from a small town in Arizona named Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) who is in
her early 30`s and single. She has to meet with her love interest, Sam Loomis
(John Gavin), in secret during lunch hours in a motel because he is from out of
town and buried in debts due to alimony payments. When she arrives at work from
her break she stumbles upon 40,000 dollars that her boss hands over to her to
deposit in the bank. During a moment of irrationality she decides to keep the
money and begin a new life in some other town. She takes off as soon as she can
and begins driving away from the city as fast as possible. Tired after the long
drive, Marion ends up staying at a motel off the highway for the night. The
motel is run by a friendly young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who
tells Marion that they don’t get many visitors nowadays. He offers her
something to eat before she goes to bed, and she accepts. She later hears
Norman discussing with his mother about his invitation and discovers that he is
dominated by her. Her strong influence over him worries Marion, but she is
tired and just once to rest before continuing her trip. Norman may not be the
friendly young man who he seems to be after we see him watch her from a peeping
hole. What follows is the famous shower scene and then the story continues with
several twists and surprises.
I`ve heard many complaints about the final
scene of this great film which was adapted by Joseph Stefano, from Robert Bloch`s
novel of the same name. I can understand how this scene may seem out of place,
especially now because the audience is expected to piece everything on their
own, but I consider it necessary for the time because audiences weren’t familiar
with the psychotic term or connotation. Of course the explanation seems out of
place today because we all understand what has happened, but in the 60`s this
film was way ahead of its time and had no precedents so it was necessary to
spell everything out to the audience. I may be wrong, but I still don`t have a
problem with that scene although I do admit it is one of the only scenes in the
film that hasn’t aged well. Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors and I
wish more directors would make psychological thrillers as well as he did. Psycho
is probably one of his most recognized works, but I still think his best movie
all time is Rear Window. If you haven’t seen these movies by all means go watch
them because they are timeless.
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