Movie review of Psycho

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Horrorphile - May 2007

Psycho

May 4th 2007 03:47

“We all go a little mad sometimes …”

Arguably Hitchcock’s most effective movie, Psycho (1960) shocked audiences around the world when it was first released. It dared show things mainstream folk weren’t prepared for. Ordinary cinema-goers ran screaming up the aisles, fainting in the foyer, but most importantly, spreading the word! In New Jersey drive-ins there were car queues stretching three miles up the road!

Based on the novel by Robert Bloch which in turn was loosely based on the crimes of Wisconsin cannibal killer Ed Gein, who had a disturbing obsession with his mother and harboured intense fetishistic desires including wearing the skin of his victims (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was also inspired by his horrific crimes).

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is frustrated. She entertains lunchtime love sessions with her illicit lover and then deals with the sexist clients of her real estate boss. When forty grand is plopped on her desk with strict instructions by her boss for it to be delivered straight to the bank she quickly settles on an alternate route: get the hell out of Dodge! Or in this case Phoenix, Arizona.

So nervous Marion steals the cash, trades in her car (to the curiosity of a policeman, wonderfully under-played by Mort Mills) and hides out at the Bates Motel, just off the old highway. The proprietor, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is more than happy to accommodate her, since there’s twelve rooms and twelve vacancies. But Norman is a tortured soul. He has the prying “eyes” of his mother on his back, and she’s a very jealous woman. She knows Norman fancies Ms. Crane. And she won’t have a bar of it!

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Alfred Hitchcock made Psycho on a low-budget using his television crew rather than his usual feature film crew and shot in stark black and white. In his view the movie was a pure piece of cinema as it relied mostly on a visual narrative, the camera movement and composition dominating the mise-en-scene. He broke conventions as well as pioneering them, for example the killing off of the supposed lead character Marion forty minutes into the film was unheard of! With that in mind Hitchock demanded that in all cinemas showing the movie no one, but no one, was allowed into the auditorium after the movie had commenced.

The famous shower scene became de rigueur in film conversation because of how risqué it was, and yet how cleverly it had been filmed, so the audience think they’ve seen much more than they really have. I watched this sequence in slow motion, and could appreciate and marvel at Hitchcock’s ingenuity (a naked body double was used for particular shots which were then filmed slightly out of focus, no doubt for censorship reasons more than anything). There's even three frames (!) depicting the knife actually penetrating flesh! Hitchcock’s regular titles designer, the brilliant Saul Bass, claimed to have directed that sequence, but it was refuted by both Leigh and the cameraman.

The movie is actually a subtle black comedy with numerous genuinely funny moments, such as when Norman attempts to sink Marion Crane’s car in order to get rid of all the evidence. The car sinks halfway and stops. Norman looks perturbed. There is a pause as Norman looks nervously around, then the car gently slides under the surface.

I remember being not much older than eight or nine and there were three movie titles and their accompanying posters which gave me the chills; The Exorcist (1973), Carrie (1976) and Psycho (1960), I had no idea at the time that Hitchcock’s movie had been made nearly ten years before I was even born. It simply looked and sounded bloody scary!

The film boasts sensational performances from Perkins and Leigh, but also Vera Miles as Marion Crane’s sister Lila and Martin Balsam as detective Milton Arbogast who catches onto Norman’s bad behaviour, only to reach the top of the Bates’ stairwell and … well, not to forget Bernard Hermann’s legendary score!

Forget the trite and utterly unnecessary remake by Gus Van Sant (filmed almost shot-for-shot) that only proved just how brilliant Hitchcock’s original is (okay, so Anne Heche did a good job as Marion Crane, so what?) Psycho laid the blueprint for many a modern horror film, and one can watch it again and again, and still find nuances, both in the narrative and visually, which seem so fresh and inspiring, like the overhead camera shots in the Bates home, the blood spiraling down the plughole which dissolves into the camera slowly zooming out from Marion’s glazed eye, and Norman Bates in a cell, grinning ever so maniacally, the voice in his head that of his mother’s, an apparition of her skull subtly super-imposed over his face.

Here is Hitchcock’s original and totally unique trailer:

* images on this page are courtesy of www.moviebox.se and www.movie-board.org

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Comments

11 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by KylieW

May 4th 2007 04:12

Celebrity Obsession

Bryn,

Great review. This is a brilliant movie. I remember being told when I visited Universal Studios that Janet Leigh wouldn't shower after filming this movie cos she found the shower scene so disturbing.....I wonder if that's true.

I never bothered seeing the remake. If you're not going to try and re-interpret it at least....why do it???

I'd never seen the trailer for the movie before. Cool!

Kylie

Comment by JohnDoe

May 4th 2007 04:24

Film & TV on DVD

Psycho stills stands up to modern eyes, the censorship of Hitchcock always bugged me...I enjoyed the remake for the fact it was able to insert the masturbation scene Hitch had always wanted, plus the over head nude shot that was left on the cutting room floor.

Fantastic review as always.

Comment by katyzzz

May 4th 2007 04:59

Photography Tips
Health Focus
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MS Paint Art

I was there Bryn,

The whole movie theatre rose from their seats in unison at the stabbing, that's how GOOD IT WAS.

I was with my boyfriend, fortunately.

Do you think that could have catapaulted us into marriage?

katyzzz

Comment by Bryn

May 4th 2007 05:05

Horrorphile

Kylie,
yeah I read that about Janet as well ... And yeah, hilarious trailer! Hitchcock hired pinkerton policemen to make sure there were no late admitances by lazy cinema staff

JD,
Ahh, yes, the masturbation! I'll give Van Sant that.

katyzz,
wow, that's cool that you got to see it upon its release, gee, you can't be the spring chicken I thought you were .... lol

Comment by Damo

May 4th 2007 11:39

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

Good review
Great Film
Immortal Director.

There were two two thing that creeped me out when I was younger. One was 'The is a touch of evil in all of us...Pleasent Dreams.' The other was Perkin's saying, 'I wouldn' hurt a fly.'

Psycho is such a good film and laced with Hitchocks sense of humour. Modern film makers can still learn a lot from his motto of making the audience suffer as much as possible.

Saddly many horror films these days are so processed that the barely raise the pulse.

Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner

May 4th 2007 15:56

Bryn,

this is classic movie that I think everyone should have in their collection!

I remember the first time I saw it in a movie theater, I screamed about as loud as the gals...yes, me, a full on girly scream too! LOL

Great review!

Take care,

Nick

Comment by Bryn

May 4th 2007 16:24

Horrorphile

Damo,
word.

Nick,
i've only ever seen it on the small screen. I'll vicariously through you then.

Comment by David

May 4th 2007 21:33

Bryn ...

Great review, as always ...

I've read and re-read and re-read Harold Schechter's 'Deviant' (The Life of Ed Gein) ... which, in some respects I wish some film-maker would make into a decent film, and yet Hitchcock captures the essence of Gein in the closing scenes of Psycho ... Bates during Psycho is nothing like Ed Gein at all ... (and that's not a criticism ... Hitchcock used Robert Bloch's novella ... (which took a lot of poetic licence on Ed Gein's life) ... but in the closing scenes ... Perkins captures the deviant / simplistic nature of Gein ...

Psycho is one of those rare films that it's hard to press play on the DVD and not watch the entire film ...

I liked Tarantino's tribute to Psycho in Pulp Fiction (where Bruce Willis is driving his little car along singing about the kangaroo ... and arrives at the traffic lights ... and sees 'Mr. I'm gonna get medieval on your arse' ...

The other thing I heard (whether it's true or not I don't know ... I'm not a film historian) ... But I heard that Hitchock wasn't happy with Janet Leigh's look of horror / terror ... so he set up a camera behind a closed door ... and when the door was opened there he was naked before her ... and her scream was genuine ...

More random thoughts ...

David ...

Comment by Bryn

May 5th 2007 06:28

Horrorphile

David,
I'd love to read that Ed Gein book! I must hunt it down! I hadn't ever made that Hitchcock/Psycho connection with that sequence in Pulp Fiction! Well done! And as for the naked in front of Leigh myth? Well, blow me down, that would illicit a scream I'm sure! Whether the ultra-professional Hitchcock would've crossed that line is another matter .... Surely Leigh would've pressed sexual harrassment charges ..?? (just quietly, I now know where Jamie Lee Curtis got her great set of lungs from!) Cheers for the random thoughts!

Comment by David

May 5th 2007 17:07

Bryn ...

Harold Schechter is the pre-eminent, true crime writer ...

Every one of his books is a masterpiece on the world's most notorious mass-murderers / serial-killers ...

Deviant is a book well-worth hunting down ... (All of Schechter's books are ...

As for Pulp Fiction? The film is chocka-block full of references to, and parodies and sequence-imitations of all the great films ... To this day, it remains the one film that completely blew me away at the cinema ...

David ...

Comment by Bryn

May 8th 2007 05:06

Horrorphile

David,
yes I will track that one down.
As for Pulp Fiction, I'm well aware of most of the references, although that one escaped me! When it came out I saw the film twice in one day! I hadn't done anything as remotely gushy since Star Wars when I was nine!
To be honest, after the third viewing it lost some of its oomph! But I will return to it soon enough! I actually prefer Reservoir Dogs as a whole .... Pulp just seemed a little too referential after the third viewing ...

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