Summary:
On the run with a stolen $40, 000, Marion Crane decides to seek rest at the Bates Motel, only to find the hotel owner, Norman Bates and his elderly mother an all too uncomfortable presence.
Employing a number of narrative devices and unusual editing techniques for a Hollywood film, Psycho is perhaps Hitchcock’s most adored works and one of the most analysed and debated films in the history of American cinema. From it’s film noir inspired cinematography, Gothic horror influenced set design, brutal murder scene, Bernard Herrmann’s screeching violins and shock ending - Psycho defined and set the standard of the Horror film genre, becoming an unforgettable classic.
Analysis:
“Of all the scenes in the film, the one on which he spent the most time – an entire week- was the now famous shower murder. Although it would last less than a minute on screen, the sequence required dozens of shots – of the shower head, of Leigh screaming, of a shadowy killer with a plunging knife, of blood (actually chocolate syrup) swirling into the drain beneath the victim’s bare legs. The camera angles were so carefully chosen and the shots were edited together with such precision and rapidity that the scene seems more violent than it really is.” (Adair 124:2002)
Adiar, G (2002) Alfred Hitchcock: filming our fears. USA: Oxford University Press
Release:
1960
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by:
Joseph Stefano
Produced by:
Alfred Hitchcock
Genre/subgenre:
Thriller, Mystery, Horror
Country:
United States
Cast:
Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Janet Leigh
Selected Director Filmography:
The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Notorious, Rope, Stage Fright, Strangers on a Train, I Confess, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, Family Plot
Related Films:
Psycho II, Psycho III, Psycho IV: The Beginning, Peeping Tom, Halloween, Psycho (1998), Battleship Potemkin,
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