I don’t think I am exaggerating when I confidently say that Psycho was the best psychological thriller or best horror movie if you will, of its era. The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, certainly delivered no disappointments when he released this movie in 1960. The movie is basically about Marion Crane, a real estate agents secretary, who runs away with $40, 000. She meets a motel owner, Norman Bates, a quiet man who lives at the house on top of the hill with his dominating mother. Marion goes missing and then so does Arbogast, an investigator and it is up to Marion’s sister and lover to find out what happens and the amazing twists that ends the movie. Every second left us thirsting for more and I am not going to lie but I was peeking from behind my hands a good bit of the time I watched the movie. Hitchcock’s genius is revealed because there are only three or four scenes with gruesome violence but the setting scenes just bring a flood of suspense and drama to keep the movie going.
Norman Bates is one of Hitchcock’s best characters and from the moment we meet him we know that he is going to play a big part of the movie. Just from his reserved yet strange personality to his quotes like “We all go a little crazy sometimes” or “mother isn’t herself today”(which actually shows Hitchcock’s love for irony), Hitchcock sets our hearts beating as we watch the film. Hitchcock shows us the potential of the human character when it has been abused like that of the character of Norman Bates. We can’t even call him the bad guy because like the shrink said, it was his mother pulling the strings. How can a gentle man like him have that inside? How does one person have two different identities, one strong enough to overcome the body that isn’t even hers? Hitchcock is a genius for sure.
The cinematography of the movie was phenomenal. The best scene that demonstrates Hitchhock's genius was the scene where Mama (I can bet you at this point nobody figured out the killer was Norman Bates himself) runs out the door from the side and stabs Arbogast. Believe me I jumped when the perfectly executed scene took place. The camera view was perfect and when the door flies open and mother runs from the side and stabs Arbogast and he falls, we see the look on his face as does so. “Wow I know the secret to mother and Norman but now I’m going to die”. Genius! Watching horror movies from the past, I haven’t even flinched because of the violence I am used to in movies so that must have had quite an effect with the audience of that time period. The music is very important to the movie because it gave life to it and it was what kept our hearts beating the whole time because it kept us expectant. The use of darkness was a great tool as well because this gave us the feeling of evil from the night time darkness outside to the darkness of the interior of the car.
Lastly I just want to talk about the background voices, which I think were genius. When Marion drives away and we can hear her boss and his client talking, is it her imagination or are they really talking? I only say this because she starts to smile as if she can hear the voices when they discover that she is gone with the money. And at the end of the movie we can hear Mothers voice which is truly terrifying and honestly genius. Is it Mother actually talking or just Norman pretending mother is talking? She completely dominates his will so it might be truly her.
