“Psycho” Review

“Psycho’s” infamous shower scene has become one of the most iconic moments in the history of film.

Alfred Hitchcock has one of the most impressive filmographies, spanning six decades, and is easily one of my favorite filmmakers. Several of my favorite films were directed by him including the spy-thriller “North By Northwest,” his crime drama “The Lodger,” the psychological thriller “Vertigo” and the small-scale mystery “Rear Window.” But my all-time favorite has to be his 1960 magnum opus “Psycho” which has stood the test of time and is one of the most influential horror films of all time. 

I remember exactly where I was when I first saw the film. I was staying over at my aunt’s house and I saw that it was on late at night on Turner Classic Movies. While I knew how famous the film was, I had no idea what it was about and was completely amazed at how much the film messed with my expectations and disturbed me.

For the first 30 minutes, the film seems like another one of Hitchcock’s thrillers with a young woman named Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stealing $40,000 from her employer to pay off her boyfriend’s (John Gavin) debts so they can get married. While driving to her boyfriend’s home, Marion stops by the Bates Motel for the night and meets the troubled young owner named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who is incredibly repressed by his overbearing mother. After Marion is stabbed to death by Norman’s mother in the infamous “shower scene,” one question blares through the viewer’s mind: what the hell are you going to do now that you’ve killed your leading lady? Because there’s still one hour left in the film’s running time.

It’s no secret that “Psycho” changed everything in terms of the modern viewing experience. Hitchcock wanted the audience to see the whole story so he arranged for no one to be admitted to see the film after it started and he begged audiences not to reveal the twists of the film’s story. Because he was such a popular name, having directed some of the biggest hits of the 1950s and also created the popular show “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” theaters listened to him and now these practices are the norm.

But while “Psycho” is universally beloved and respected, no one had faith in Hitchcock making a slasher film which had yet to become a genre within horror. No producer was willing to fork over the cash to finance the film so Hitchcock, being very wealthy from his string of hits, financed the film himself, using black-and-white film stock (a far cry from his mostly Technicolor films of the 1950s) and hiring lesser known actors instead of the Hollywood giants like Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. 

But these decisions gave Hitchcock an unparalleled amount of creative control which allowed him to make one of his most ambitious films. While there wasn’t a climax on Mount Rushmore like in “North by Northwest” or Nazi spies like in “Notorious,” the film’s story was very much different from anything being made at the time. Serial killers weren’t really depicted in films, at least movies that were in the mainstream of cinema. In fact, the same year “Psycho” was released, influential director Michael Powell made a slasher film called “Peeping Tom” which destroyed his career even though the film is now cited as one of the most important horror films of all time.

Alfred Hitchcock’s (Left) direction was met with no resistance from studio heads because Hitchcock financed “Psycho” himself. While he was already a legend when this film came out, “Psycho” cemented his reputation.

What makes “Psycho” so brilliant is, apart from the opening title sequence designed by Saul Bass with a haunting score by Bernard Herrmann, the first third of the film feels like a standard Hitchcock film. While most slashers, like “Jaws” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” have a death or even a scare in the first ten minutes, Hitchcock builds up the death of Marion Crane by getting us invested in her character. We see that she works as a secretary and has a boyfriend she wants to marry but can’t because of Sam’s debts. So when she steals the $40,000, it’s completely understandable.

But when she stops in the Bates Motel, that’s when the film really becomes interesting. It’s difficult to pinpoint Norman’s character as to whether he’s a tortured soul or a maniacal plotter. When Marion asks Norman why he doesn’t put his mother in a mental institution if she “goes a little mad sometimes,” Norman becomes a bit threatening as he defends his psychotic mother. 

When Marion goes to her motel cabin and takes a shower, she dies in one of the most iconic scenes in film history which has been parodied so many times that most people who’ve never seen the film know about the “shower scene” in “Psycho.” I could go on and on about how great this one scene is from the fact that it took a week to shoot, utilized 78 camera set-ups and 52 cuts and had to use effective sound design and editing to get around the nudity aspect of the scene. 

But, at the end of the day, this scene is undeniably effective because of how it comes out of nowhere and it still manages to get scares out of people. After the death of Marion Crane at the hands of his mother, Norman disposes of the body and the rest of the film follows Marion’s sister Lila (Vera Miles), Sam and a private investigator named Arbogast (Martin Basalm) as they try to find Marion and suspect that not all is right at the Bates Motel.

As per usual, Hitchcock’s direction is fantastic as he knows how to craft a non-stop feeling of tension that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. While the film isn’t that bloody, the only blood shown in the film goes down the drain of the shower and was actually chocolate sauce, the film is fairly scary because of what’s implied as well as the motives that surround the killing of Marion.

At the heart of it is Norman Bates and Anthony Perkins’ performance is remarkable. It keeps you guessing the entire time and his demeanor ranges from being charming to menacing. It’s clear that his mother has emotionally scarred him and it leads to one of the biggest twists in cinematic history. When Lila and Sam search the Bates Motel for Marion and the $40,000, Lila goes to Norman’s house and goes into the fruit cellar where she finds the mummified corpse of Norman’s mother and Norman comes in, wearing a wig and one of his mother’s dresses, brandishing a knife in an image that scared the hell out of me. 

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates has become one of the most iconic horror performances of all time because of Perkins’ balance of vulnerability and menace.

One of the few things about the film that doesn't work comes into play in the last ten minutes after Sam subdues Norman, saving Lila’s life, and Norman is taken into police custody. A psychiatrist (Simon Oakland) comes in and explains that Norman has a split personality which he developed after murdering his mother. These two personalities (The Norman Half and The Mother Half) are in constant battle and now the Mother half has completely dominated Norman’s mind. 

This explanation is unnecessary and nearly every film critic and historian who has seen the film acknowledges this. However, I think Hitchcock wanted the audience to fully understand the secrets of the film and was afraid that they wouldn’t completely understand unless he put the psychiatrist into the film.

What I respect so much about “Psycho” was how it brought a more realistic tone to horror which had previously been thought of as Universal monster films and creature features. Both “Psycho” and “Peeping Tom” brought a new respect to horror and created the slasher genre which would become the biggest films of the 1970s and 80s. The film also reinvented Hitchcock just as his past films like “Rebecca,” “Notorious,” “Rear Window,” “Vertigo” and “North by Northwest” had. Without “Psycho,” it’s hard to imagine modern horror and thrillers existing the way they do today.