Writers: Joseph
Stefano, and novelist Robert Bloch
Main Stars: Anthony
Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles
Storyline: The
muguffin!
Marion Crane is tired
by the way life is not in her favour. She meets her lover, Sam in lunch, and
can’t unfortunately get married because most of his money is given away in
alimony. Marion is trusted to
bank the massive amount of £40,000 by her employer, which is a major
responsibility. However, she saw this as an opportunity to steal the money in
order to enhance her life, starting new. As a result of that, she leaves town,
heading towards Sam’s California store. The storm is heavy, causing her to
become tired and she gets off the main highway, and parks at the isolated and
eerie Bates Motel.
The hotel is managed
by a quiet, and awkward young man named Norman, who appears strangely dominated
by his mother.
Hitchcock Thoughts
He believed that the
audience would initially think the film is based on the $40,000 and Marion starting
a new life, thus the murder becoming an ultimate shock. This makes the audience
apprehensive for what the rest of the film has to be over… Who will be killed
next? Anything can happen in The Bates Motel. The audience is aware that
there is a murderer present. However, they don’t know when and how the murderer
will strike again, the suspence makes the audience prepared for possibly
anything to happen. Hitchcock stressed that less violence on the screen, the
more apprehension amongst the audience.
In what ways is this an archetypal thriller?
The external threat = A mad
man with a deranged mind!
Frequent action & fast
pace
Shower
Car
Suitcase
Most thrillers have a hero, but is there a hero in psycho? The peculiar twist is what made Hitchcock’s movie so famous.
Norman Bates... the creepy guy
Hitchcock emphasised the importance of avoiding cliché and
repetition, particularly in regards to the character, for instance the
murders/villains may appear charming, and the hereoes may be flawed. Often, in
his final films Hitchcock placed evil in the most banal of settings.
...
...
The story of Psycho is spectacular in its construction.
Hitchcock developed cleverly by its consistency in apprehension and suspense.
There are two major surprises which is the brutal murder scene, and the final
frightening revelation about the mother.
Psycho tricked us into thinking that the main character
is Marion, but after her early exit, the audience becomes increasingly aware
and full of anxiety.
The first time viewing the film will result in a unique
experience. The movie interestingly generated a phobia of the shower, the
people became afraid of the vulnerability that the shower imposes. Many started
taking baths, such as Janet Leigh is an example of a victim. She claims that
since she saw the film, she never took a shower again.
When the film was shown, there was no advance
screening. Nobody was allowed to a showing after the feature had already
started. This was to keep the crucial parts of the film secret, and to
emphasise that great suspense Hitchcock was famous for.
Remake?
None of Hitchcock’s previous films had the same
profound impact on the American psyche as this particular film. Initially, when
it was released in the year of 1960 the huge box office hit was humungous. The
facination of the film continued to grow, its siginificance is shown through
the 1998 remake.
The remake doesn’t capture the true uniqueness that the
orginal had. The idea of remaking such a successful classic is risky; the
Hitchcock film is definitive. Depsite the music being reused, the characters
are recycled. Without a doubt, the shower scene is inarguably one of the
greatest execution and editing in cinema history. Surely, no one could re-do such a brilliant scene?
More about the shower scene…
We see:
Knife
Blood (chocolate syrup)
Water
A woman’s partially shown naked body
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