Brandon at Random Reviews

Psycho (1960) (Spoilers):
There’s almost no chance you don’t know the famous shower scene from this film. Strangely enough I feel a great classic thriller has been reduced down to just that one moment. It’s so much more.

Alfred Hitchcock provided a large portion of the funding for this movie where the studio wouldn’t, which is why it’s black and white despite technicolor being the norm by 1960. It seems studios had problems with the controversial story and Hitchcock’s desire to cast relatively unknown actors who didn’t demand high salaries. The blood at the end of the shower scene was actually chocolate syrup btw, which is just a neat tidbit.

Psycho was based on a novel of the same name largely inspired by serial killer Ed Gein. Although Norman Bates wasn’t making lampshades out of body parts, he did have a creepy taxidermy hobby.

Janet Leigh’s character Marion Crane falls prey to Bates after she steals from her employer’s client and flees town. Norman is also kind enough to offer her a gross dinner of sandwiches and milk when she checks in. Honestly between that and the room full of taxidermied animals she probably should’ve figured out nothing good would happen and gotten the fuck out of Dodge and not jumped in the spooky shower.

Norman Bates makes several unsettling remarks about his mother, who we are led to believe lives with him in the large house up the hill near the motel. We hear her holler at him multiple times. This is apparently also an Ed Gein thing, but I only remember leatherface/lampshade shit about him really. Bates even says “a boy’s best friend is his mother” at one point and I mean that’s like a fucking full body shudder thing to hear from a dude in room full of stuffed birds and whatnot. He says it like it’s a common phrase. Nope.

Eventually the right people come along and figure out what’s going on with Bates and the truth about his mother. I won’t spoil anything, but she’s been dead in the basement of the house for a really long time and her death apparently sent ol Norm off the deep end and he’s been killing people while dressed up as her.

But as far as the storytelling, Alfred Hitchcock isn’t called “the master of suspense” for nothing. He proves himself time and time again with movies that amp it up and thrill throughout. You could cut the tension with a knife from beginning to end. But honestly my fav will always be “Rear Window”, honestly perfect imo.

Long story short, there is a reason you know this film or at least know that pivotal scene. This movie broke the mold, this sort of thing hadn’t been done much before and it laid the groundwork for slashers almost two decades later. The tension, the characters, the subject matter, the showing (and not showing) of the right things is just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. Psycho. Top notch. Also, the 1998 shot-for-shot remake with Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche is a big piece of shit no one should ever watch. Oh and uh, watch “Rear Window” too.
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