A Psycho Review (mini review #4)

Final review! Whoo!!

Since the 60s this movie has been terrifying audiences with it memorial score and classic scenes that have been parodied and adapted over and over again. This movie is of course is Alfred Hitchcock’s horror flick, Psycho. Psycho has not only set the bar for all future horror movies with the creeds that it creates, but still remains scary today.

Making a horror movie in the 60s was hard work as society was still trying to hold onto its values and morals even though this was a time of drastic change. Hitchcock was not allowed to show Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh getting stabbed in the shower. Even a scene of a woman in a shower is scandalous enough! And then he had to go in and add the first toilet flushed on screen in there two! It is simply outrageous! The nerve of some people.

It is a little known fact that this movie today is seen as being groundbreaking, but back then it was a very rude movie. What with that king women being killed like that and that poor man and his… issues. If a director were to make this type of film today, it would not sell, as a horror movie because compared to today’s horror genre this is a little kitten. But what makes it so scary to audiences?

For starters, the score is terrifying and combine that with the silence of the shower scene, and you’ve got a surprise jump scare with music out of complete silence. The combination of these things will make anyone jump. It’s terrifying!

 Next we look to the female heroine. Merion is a perfectly ordinary workingwoman of the 60s with good morals and tasteful style. But everything is not so perfect if you look closer. Merion, as seen on the poster, is half naked and the first scene that the viewer sees of her is in her underwear. Merion is also impulsive. Stealing the cowboys’ money to be with her boyfriend is completely illogical and stupid. Man, she would make a really bad criminal in the real world. A silhouette then kills her. DUN DUN DUHHH!!!

But that was only the first 30 minutes or so. After Merion is out of the picture, quite literally, the plot revolves around Norman, the motels owner, as he tries to cover up the murder while Merion’s boyfriend and sister  looking for her.

Norman is arguably the most interesting character of the whole movie. For one, he’s crazy and dresses up as his mother to keep the memory of her alive. My social science geek is coming out yet again, but Norman pulls you in and you are forced to be interested in him. He is very obviously sexual repressed as whenever someone ignites that interest he kills him or her. Norman is also very tense whenever he is talking to Merion or the boyfriend or the nameless sister. And can we just all take a minute to admire the imagery of this scene because it is amazing.

The biggest plot twist of this movie is that Norman is actually the killer and he dresses up as his mother while committing the murders. P.S, the mother is dead to boot. Norman is so interesting that there is a show called The Bates Motel that revolves around him. I love this movie because of Norman and the imagery that surrounds him. Because of the score. Because it still is terrifying and because it set the bar so high for todays horror movies. I change what I said earlier, today’s horror movies are the kitten, this film is the big daddy cat that your weird aunt owns and that you know is plotting to kill you. You know the one. 

I give this movie ten giant bongs from The Cabin in the Woods out of ten.

Here's a trailer for a movie made about Hitchcock and the making of the film: 

Hers's the trailer for Bates Motel, the show based off of the movie and of the character Norman Bates:
 



And finally, a little happy valentines card that everyone wants to receive.