179) Psycho (1960) - Starting off the Psycho Series

"She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes." 

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Cast

Janet Leigh - Marion Crane

Anthony Perkins - Norman Bates

John Gavin - Sam Loomis

Vera Miles - Lila Crane

Martin Balsam - Private Investigator Milton Arbogast
John McIntire - Deputy Sheriff Al Chambers
Simon Oakland - Dr. Richmond

Mort Mills - Highway Patrol Officer

Anyone who calls themselves a horror movie fan, or a movie fan in general, or is someone who simply enjoys a movie just as much as anyone else, should have seen the horror classic "Psycho," directed by horror icon Alfred Hitchcock, at least once in their lives. If anyone reading this has never seen "Psycho," you need to watch the movie first, and then come back to this post. It's one of the best and meticulously well-made films in cinematic history. And I've proudly placed it among my top 10...no, top five...favorite horror movies along with "Frankenstein," "The Shining," "The Exorcist," and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."  

Well, like all the best horror movies out there, "Psycho" not only managed to gain a few sequels, it also got a remake in 1998 starring Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates and Anne Heche as Marion Crane. It's practically a shot for shot remake with slight deviations here and there. 

Incidentally, I saw the remake at a friend's house on Halloween night about 20 years ago. I had no idea at the time that there was a remake until I saw it with my own eyes. We checked it out from a local Blockbuster Video, which I'm pretty sure was the last time I ever stepped foot into a Blockbuster. 

While I've seen "Psycho" before, I've never seen any of the sequels. I've heard from reliable critics that they're not all as bad as I might expect. So, my plan for the next several posts is to watch these "Psycho" sequels - "Psycho II" (1983), "Psycho III," (1986), the made-for-TV movie, "Bates Motel," (1987) and "Psycho IV: The Beginning" (1990).

I'm skipping the 2013 TV series, also titled "Bates Motel" mainly because of time. Maybe I'll get to that later. I don't know.

Based on the book of the same name by Robert Bloch, the original "Psycho" is a horror movie classic in the truest sense of the word. To say it's a ground breaking movie for American horror cinema seems like an understatement. It has withstood the test of time and is still discussed to this day. 

It scared audiences back then, and still makes some audiences apprehensive to get into a shower. 

I watched it for the first time in several years, and I already want to watch it again. It certainly made an impression on me when I first saw it years ago. But, I don't think I really appreciated it when I first saw it. 

Janet Leigh as Marion Crane in 'Psycho.'

Anyways, it seems superfluous to summarize the plot of "Psycho" as it's so ingrained into our pop culture psyche. But I'll do it anyways. 

Janet Leigh plays Marion Crane, a frustrated and tired, yet stunningly attractive real estate secretary. She's been having an affair with her married boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin). 

After meeting Sam in a Phoenix hotel room, she plans on secretly running off to his place out in Fairvale, California.

So, she steals $40,000 in cash from her employer, and then drives clear out to Fairvale. 

When she stops on the side of a California highway to sleep for a while, a highway patrol officer wakes her up. Suspicious, he follows her into town and watches as she hastily trades her car in for a new one at a dealership. 

Once that's done, she makes her way to Fairvale, and loses the cop. 

On her way, she gets caught in a heavy rainstorm hits forcing her to find a place to stay for the night.

Marion comes across the quiet and reclusive Bates Motel owned by the seemingly innocent Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), and checks in. 

Bates lives with his elderly mother in a large house overlooking the motel. 

Marion checks in under an alias, and Norman puts her in room one. 

In her room, she hides the stolen cash in a folded newspaper. 

Norman stops by to check on her and asks if she'd like some dinner, so he invites her to the main office to grab some food. 

During their meal, Norman runs up to his house to check on his mother. Marion overhears them arguing as his mother wants Marion off the motel property because she considers her bad clientele. 

When Norman returns, he apologizes, and talks about his interest in taxidermy, his mother's mental instability, and the things in people's lives that they want to escape from. 

After dinner, Marion has second thoughts about what she's doing and decides to head back to Arizona early the next morning. 

Before bed, she hops in the shower and...well...who hasn't seen what happens next. The scene is still just as uncomfortable and shocking as Hitchcock intended. 

When Norman realizes his mother has done something terrible, he checks on Marion and finds her dead on the bathroom floor. 

He cleans up the crime scene, takes Marion's remains and belongings including the newspaper, and tosses them in her car. He has no idea that the newspaper is hiding $40,000. 

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates.

Norman then rolls the car into a nearby lake where it completely sinks into the murky water. 

Marion's sister Lila Crane (Vera Miles) goes looking for Marion, stopping to speak with Sam Loomis who's just as clueless as Lila as to where Marion is. 

The story shifts onto Norman as he becomes more and more tormented by his mother. 

Lila and investigators show up to the motel where Norman remains calm and apparently naïve. 

As Lila starts snooping around the Bates's house, she finds the shocking disturbing truth behind Norman and his mother. 

The biggest twist comes when the star of the movie, Janet Leigh, is killed early in the film. The story sets her up as the main subject of the story, only to have her die in the first act in one of the most, if not the most iconic horror movie scene in cinema history. 

Movie stars/ main characters don't normally die so soon in a movie. That was unheard of back when "Psycho" was released. It's a daring and bold move on Hitchcock's part. Yet the old man pulled it off. 

And the money Marion stole seems like it's going to be the focus of the movie as well. But nope! It's tossed out along with her remains. 

Hitchcock called this object the "McGuffin" - an object that serves as a trigger for the plot. 

The money Marion steals is what gets her on the road and ultimately to the motel. It gets the plot started. But once she dies, the McGuffin served its purpose. So, Norman cluelessly throws the cash away. Once he does, it's clear the story is really about Norman. He's the center of the plot. 

It's an ingenious method, and truly masterful writing on Hitchcock's part. 

No doubt Hitchcock was delighted to see audiences being misled by the abrupt turns in the movie. He was clearly meticulous with every solitary detail of his film - the expressions, the score, the camera angles, and the lightening. Everything is so delicately placed and balanced. 

Anthony Perkins's performance is amazing, to say the least. He doesn't look like he's acting. He comes across as just being Norman Bates. He's likeable, gentle, and friendly when he's introduced. 

Gradually he grows darker while still remaining a sympathetic character, even after we see him clean up the murder that took place in cabin one. Perkins is absolutely iconic. 

The idea of a split personality, which is Bates's condition, was so new to audiences at the time. So, the final scene in which Dr. Richmond (Simon Oakland) explains it was certainly necessary at the time. Now, the scene seems superfluous as that plot point wouldn't go over the heads of modern audiences. 

The movie doesn't waste time inducing dread among the audience. It begins with the soundtrack at the beginning of the film. It sets up the trepidation and fear right away.  

Hitchcock's previous movie, "North by Northwest" (1959) with Cary Grant was shot in glorious technicolor. And then "Psycho" was released in shadowy black and white mainly for the sake of the

budget. Still, it gives the film a unique style and feel matching the overall death motif. It takes nothing away from the movie. It makes it timeless, and as though this frightful scenario could really happen at anytime. 

"Psycho" is a horror movie that modern audiences should imagine themselves back in 1960 if they're watching it for the first time. 

It shocked audiences back then as it was a horror unlike anything else released up to 1960. 

Prior to the 1960s, horror went from Universal monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula to the atomic age of aliens and giant mutated monsters attacking entire cities. Audiences in 1960 were at the peak of that atomic age.

And then "Psycho" comes along and lays a foundation in the slasher genre which still wasn't a thing at the time. It's not a slasher in itself. But the slasher subgenre as some roots branching from "Psycho." 

It focuses on one serial killer who steals the show abruptly. For 1960, it was realistic. Too realistic. As far as today's knowledge of horror movies, "Psycho" was definitely ahead of its time. 

Hitchcock stood close to his masterpiece. He demanded theaters not allow anyone into the movie once it started. Theaters had signs and posters, and even audio recordings of Hitchcock requesting this, playing in the lobby and over the line of people waiting to get a ticket. 

He wanted each and every single ticket holder to see his movie from beginning to end. 

Everything about this movie is iconic - the soundtrack, the infamous shower scene, the house on top of the hill, the ending. It has been discussed, analyzed, mimicked, and parodied over the decades. 

"Psycho" skidded across the grain of its era in view of millions of cringing audiences, and it endures to this day.