Psycho (1960)

It’s Halloween! What better way to spend it than watching the glorious Psycho? Made in 1960, by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, it stars John Gavin, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles as three unfortunate souls who come face to face with the superbly creepy Mr Norman Bates, played by Anthony Perkins. Based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, Psycho is loosely based around the notorious grave robbing psychopath, Ed Gein, a man who had a bit of thing for using decayed body parts as ‘decorations’ in his home. We’ll leave it at that shall we?

The film opens on the beautiful Marion Crane who is discussing money matters with her soon to be divorced boyfriend Sam. They need a lot of money, pronto, as Sam is about to lose everything in his divorce proceedings. Marion is entrusted with $40’000 by her boss to pay in to the company bank account which she obviously steals and runs to California where Sam is waiting for her. In what is potentially one of the film’s most iconic scenes (aside from that incident in the shower) Marion driving depicts her satisfaction for stealing the money and her fear of getting caught perfectly. She nervously glances in her rear view mirror often enough to look suspicious, but she looks pleased with herself at the same time, creating an excellent ‘secretary gone wild’ feel about her. Her journey is interrupted by a huge rain storm and she is forced to pull in to the slightly off-the-beaten-track, Bates Motel. It’s here that she meets the superbly creepy Norman Bates and becomes aware of his illusive ‘Mother’. Norman tells her he doesn’t get many people coming his way, a typical thing for someone like Norman to divulge to a beautiful woman, and shyly invites her to supper. She begrudgingly accepts but after hearing an uncomfortable exchange between Norman and his Mother about Norman’s sexual intentions with Marion, she suggests he have her sectioned. Obviously, Norman doesn’t respond well to this and Marion awkwardly retires to her room where she decides to take a shower. Need I say anymore? I think we all know what happens to Marion in the shower.

So less than an hour in, the woman we all invested so much time in has been slashed, thus thickening the tasty plot that’s about to unravel before us. Not long after this hideous crime is committed and the evidence is plunged into a lake, Detective Arbogast is hired by Lila, Marion’s sister and Sam, Marion’s boyfriend to locate Marion and the missing $40’000. He traces Marion to the Bates Motel and questions Norman as to her whereabouts. Norman’s not the best at lying to Detectives and comes across edgy and suspicious, so Arbogast takes a room for the night to continue his investigation in the morning. He calls Lila while looking out at the house on the hill behind the motel and he spots a womanly figure standing in one of the windows. He tells Lila he will call her back and ventures up to the house to investigate. Not long after her arrives is he stabbed in the face and pushed down the stairs by a mysterious figure. Goodbye Detective Arbogast.

Lila and Sam end up phoning the local police when Arbogast doesn’t call her back, explaining about the woman in the window. The Deputy seems puzzled as he recalls the house behind the motel belonged to Norman and his Mother, but she had died 10 years ago. He brushes their story off thinking there’s nothing to be worrying about, cops eh? This leaves them no choice but to pose as husband and wife and stay at the Bates Motel together. It doesn’t take long for Lila to be drawn to the house where she tries to find her sister and the Detective. When Norman notices she’s gone, he knocks Sam to the ground and angrily runs up to the house to find her. I shall stop there for fear of ruining the ending, but let’s just say this; it’s not exactly a happy one.

Psycho is considered to be Hitchcock’s ultimate masterpiece, earning him a fortune at the box office as the studio didn’t want to associate themselves too much with what they thought was going to be a failure. Hitchcock succeeded in creating a suspenseful and highly successful horror film that terrified audiences, and even Janet Leigh into never having a shower again. By hiding so many elements of the story from the audience, and retaining the mystery surrounding the Mother character builds high levels of suspense. He never shows her face or body in full so we begin to question why Hitchcock is keeping her from us, what is so horrific about this woman that we’re not allowed to see her? *snigger snigger*

Hitchcock shrouded the production of his film in mystery to enhance the actual mystery within and to make absolutely sure that no one would find out the ending. He made production staff take an oath not to reveal the ending, and he even had a chair made up for ‘Mrs Bates’ so that nothing could be leaked or speculated upon. All this attention to detail, and willingness to protect his own movie made the ending all the more terrifying, giving it the ‘masterpiece’ status that it still has today. If only Gus Van Sant and Vince Vaughn hadn’t ruined it, I mean honestly…VINCE VAUGHN? As Norman Bates? It was never going to work.

Psycho is what horror movies are made of and fifty-two years on, it’s obviously quite dated. So my advice is this; watch it with friends on Halloween and have a good laugh, or watch it on your own at night in the dark and have nightmares.

Happy Halloween everybody!