Psycho directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, is a 1960 American psychological horror-thriller film. The screenplay is based on the 1959 novel named Psycho by Robert Bloch and was written by Joseph Stefano. This film is a clever misdirection, something you’ll never see coming.
The film stars Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, an employee who steals $40,000 which was entrusted with her at work and flees so she could help pay Sam’s debts whom she wants to marry. Clearly, it’s her first time at a robbery as she is the exact opposite of nonchalant. While she trades for her car on her way up to California she manages to get both the dealer as well as a cop suspicious about her. She finally pulls over at this desolate-looking motel where she meets Norman Bates, owner of Bates Motel and also the one who ends up killing her. Played by Anthony Perkins, Norman is quite an intense fella. His gaze is piercing and in the brief conversation that Norman and Marion have, Marion is quite surprised at the oddity of this man. And perhaps also worried for Norman. Norman is taken aback by the concern this pretty strange woman shows for him. Too taken aback which is why he must kill her. Norman dresses up for the occasion and stabs her in the shower. ‘We all go a little mad sometimes.’ We all know that’s very much true. And I’d say a bit more than just sometimes. That was followed by Arbogast, played by Martin Balsam, who probes too much at the case and digs his own grave. Lila, Marion’s sister played by Vera Miles is quite certain of foul play and goes to the Bates Motel with Sam, Marion’s lover played by John Gavin. They sneak around and Lila is greeted by an unexpected someone down at the Bates Mansion’s basement. And everything starts to make sense.
In any horror film the sound, lighting, and editing play a very important role in building suspense and making you get goosebumps. Psycho does it all. The shrieking sound, especially prevalent when Marion is being stabbed to death, is one of the most common sounds throughout the film which creates tension and drama. The specific music being played during scenes helped build the suspense. Another way Psycho maintains the urgency between scenes is with the help of lighting and editing. In the scene where Marion is driving, the camera is focused on her face and would occasionally jump cut to show the surroundings but eventually bring back the focus to her face also letting the viewers understand that Marion has lost a complete sense of time. During this time the lighting around her changed, from the day the scene turned into night. Earlier on this transition is made by fading to black signifying that time has passed.
Hitchcock fools us. He names the film psycho but there was no psychopath in the film. He put all the classic elements which make a horror film a horror film; creepy men, stolen money thus a motive, isolated motels, mansion which looks ancient and haunted. And then from the shower scene till the end, we just anticipate something to happen, at least something a bit gory, a bloody knife even but there’s nothing. Not even a proper stream of blood, even that is diluted with the bathwater.
Throughout the film, we are made to switch sides. We start off by hoping that Marion doesn’t get caught with the money even though we know she stole it. We do this because of the first scene where we see her with her lover and realise their financial problems. And the scene which follows it, where the snotty middle-aged man flirts with her while handing her the money. All of this makes it easier for us to side with her even though we know she is wrong. Till she reaches the Bates Motel, the viewers are fooled to think that Marion is the lead however, that changes during the conversation Marion and Norman have in his parlour. Here the camera starts giving Norman more importance confusing the viewers as to who is the lead in reality. The killing scene makes it clear that Marion is definitely not the lead. After she is killed, we sympathise with Norman because he has to clean up after his sick mother’s deeds. We feel for Norman and hope that the car fully submerges and that he doesn’t get caught by the P.I agent. In this way, we are made to continuously shift perspectives but in the end, we are always on the side of the devil.
Now, let’s talk about the ending. Did the mother’s dominant side actually take over Norman’s submissive one or was it all just a facade? The ending can be interpreted in multiple different ways, the first being that the mother who is one of Norman’s personalities actually takes over him. However, it could very well just be Norman putting up a show because he’s well aware that feigning to be unfit for trial is his only ticket out of prison.
Hitchcock takes huge a risk by releasing this film. From the opening scene itself where an unmarried couple is shown in the same bed, this phenomenon is considered taboo itself back in the 1960s. Nudity was another problem, the censor board made it very difficult for Hitchcock and made him make changes in different areas. Even the scene where Marion flushes down the toilet with the bits of torn paper was of a big concern because flushing of the toilet with its contents was never shown in the mainstream film and television in the United States before this. Many countries had scenes like the shower scene, Norman cleaning the blood, the reveal of the mother’s skeleton, Arbogast’s death, etc. removed before the release. Quite a shame.
Can this film be considered horror in today’s age? Probably not. But at the time, certainly.
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