3 minute read
Film Review: Psycho
By Tadhg Curtin
The granddaddy of the modern horror movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking masterpiece, Psycho (1960) is still as sharp as a well edged kitchen knife.
Psycho came about in the last years of what is referred to as Old Hollywood, the studio factory system of the early 20th century that would crumble by 1962. In the aftermath, studios were scrambling to satiate the appetites of a younger, hipper audience. 1967 was seen as the year that seemed to do that. I would argue that Alfred Hitchcock helped get the ball rolling in 1960 with Psycho.
Based on a book by author Robert Bloch, it follows a young woman - Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) - who, desperate to create a better life for herself and her lover, steals a large sum of money and goes on the run. When a storm puts a stop to her journey, she checks into the secluded Bates Motel run by the nervous but well meaning Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins).
Psycho is famously based on Ed Gein, an American murderer and body snatcher. The details of the Gein case are quite bizarre and worth checking out if you are into true crime, so much so that his exploits have inspired several other works, Psycho being the biggest example.
Janet Leigh as Marion Crane
Psycho’s making of is legendary in itself. It was a low budget production. Hitchcock used the crew that shot his television show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He used black and white for the obvious reason of blood, which was chocolate syrup. Psycho was also ground breaking in its depiction of romance. It’s said that Hitchcock deliberately put in racy stuff like Janet Leigh in lingerie so that the censors would kick up a fuss. This would result in Hitchcock having to tone down those scenes but he could sneak in what he really wanted, which was the violence.
The music score by Bernard Hermann is superb. He made it a string score because of its sharp, piercing quality. Apparently, Hitchcock didn’t want music in the shower scene but Hermann scored it anyway just so that they would have it. Outside of the iconic cue, the score as a whole is a moody, evocative listen from start to finish. It’s arguable that this is the score that cemented Bernard Hermann’s legacy as one of the great cinema composers. The cast is fantastic but Anthony Perkins steals the show. So good was he as Norman Bates that he could never shake off his most defining role for the rest of his career.
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
Psycho continued through several more sequels and a very interesting TV show, Bates Motel. But its the first sequel that stands out - Psycho 2 really gives its predecessor a run for its money. It’s pretty terrific.
Alfred Hitchcock was 60 when he directed Psycho. It rarely, if ever, happens that a person of that vintage directs a work so ground-breaking, so new and so shocking for its time. It still stands as a game changer and remains a benchmark in the horror genre.
Psycho endures because it ultimately concludes that the scariest thing a person can encounter is another person and it posits that life is often like driving in the rain; difficult to see what’s ahead of you on the road and that some are just unlucky enough to stop at Bates Motel.
