Introduction
Psycho is a psychological horror film released in 1960. This film is directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and it was written by Joseph Stefano based on a novel with the same name by Robert Albert Bloch. This film had given a lot of influence to the film industries because it is the pioneer of every slasher genre film that we have ever seen.
Synopsis
Marion Crane, a real-estate secretary stole $40,000 cash of a client when her boss asked her to deposit it in the bank. She was motivated to do so because she wanted to marry her boyfriend, Sam but they couldn’t afford to do so because of Sam’s debts. While she was on her way with the stolen money to meet Sam in Fairvale, Marion stopped for a night at the Bates Motel. She met the owner of the motel, Norman Bates. As Norman brought Marion to his motel parlor for dinner, he told Marion about his ill mother. After Norman went back to his house behind his motel, Marion got stabbed and died while she was showering. After Norman realized about Marion’s death, he quickly cleaned up the crime scene and put Marion with her possessions, which includes the money into the trunk of her car. Then, he sank them in the swamps near to his motel. A week later, Marion’s sister, Lila confronted Sam for Marion’s location, and they were approached by a private investigator, Milton Arbogast. He was searching for Marion in many local hotels and motels because she was wanted for stealing money. Arbogast suspected that Norman is hiding something as he updated that to Lila and Sam after his investigation at the Bates Motel. However, Arbogast was murdered when he was investigating in Norman’s house. As Lila and Sam didn’t hear anything from Arbogast, Sam went to the Bates Motel to look for him but Arbogast was nowhere to be found. Then, they looked for the local deputy sheriff for help but it was helpless. Thus, Lila and Sam went to the Bates Motel to look for the truth, and turned out, Norman’s mother was found as a mummified corpse. Norman tried to kill Lila in his mother’s outfit but failed as he was subdued by Sam. Norman was arrested and the death of Marion was discovered.
Description
After I watched the entire film, I was so amazed with the cinematography, editing and the mise-en scene of the film. This is my first time watching this film in its full length. Previously, I had only watched the famous shower scene of this movie. To be honest, I wasn’t so amazed when I watched the movie clip of this shower scene, and I even think that this scene is really funny because the acting looks kinda fake to me. However, my impression changed a lot after I finished the whole film. In my mind, I was like “Wow! No wonder this movie is a legend! It is so fascinating!” I really love how the filmmakers utilized the film language to tell the story. For example, I really love the differences of the scenes where Arbogast and Lila walking up the stairs in Norman’s house. In Arbogast’s scene, the filmmakers use a high angle shot to show that Arbogast is in a dangerous situation, and in Lila’s scene, I can see that the scene is mostly shot in low angle to give us a hint that Lila might not be threatened in this scene. Moreover, I also really like how the lighting is used to present a character. Before reaching the climax of the story, I can see some shots of Norman is shown with hard light. This gives me a feeling that Norman could be a dangerous person, which he actually is. I also like how the filmmakers edit the films as continuity is often being achieved. Although we can see such quality films in most theaters nowadays but back in the 70s, this film is truly a masterpiece! My heart was so trembling when I was watching this movie because of their good uses of music. The music plays a really good role in heightening the mood. Again, I admit that this film is truly an exciting film!
Analysis
Psycho (1960) had truly influenced the cinema throughout the years. First of all, this film’s genre itself had already influenced the later horror films. We all know that Psycho (1960) is a horror film with slashing killers but as what Gleiberman (2009) said, the horror film that we know before Psycho (1960) was being released are recognized as ‘monster’ films. They are all films with fantasy and supernatural creatures like vampires, Frankenstein, Godzilla, zombies and so on. Psycho (1960) is the first horror film that projects the “inner monster” of a human in history. As we can see, this influence is so impactful because we know that there are plenty of psychological horror films with slashing killers are being made since this film is released until today.
Furthermore, this film surprised a lot of audiences with the sudden cut off of the leading role. As Robb (2010) mentioned, Michael Brooke, the Screenonline curator at the British Film Institute says that audiences had never seen a film that kill off the main character halfway through the film. For instance, the audience follows the leading character, Marion, and build an engagement with the supposed central character of the film. This is because the film at this point is focusing on Marion’s story. However, Marion’s part was being killed off after she was murdered in the shower scene and the focus of the film is then switched to Arbogast, followed by Lila and Sam.
Besides, Psycho (1960) had also broke the Hollywood taboos of projecting sex and violence (Johnson, 2010). As Johnson mentioned in his article, there is not any American film back in the 1960s shows the actress with underwear before this film is released. For instance, we can see that there are several scenes, even in the very beginning of the movie, the main actress, Janet Leigh who played as Marion is wearing a bra and underwear.
Last but not least, this film had also proved that a big production budget is not the main key of producing good film. Other than censoring the blood, this film is shot in black and white because Hitchcock wanted to reduce the budget for the production, even though colored films are already exists since the making of Cupid Angling in 1918. Yet, this film can still be a masterpiece because of the new concept in that era, the cinematography and also the mise-en-scene of the film.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the very first horror film that features human as the “monster”, Psycho (1960) had became a legend throughout the years. It is indeed a film back in 1960 that breaks all the traditions of a typical Hollywood film. This film had also prove to us that it is not the production budget that limit us to produce good films, but the creativity of the filmmakers.
References
Gleiberman, O. (2009). 'Psycho': The horror movie that changed the genre. Retrieved from https://ew.com/article/2009/08/04/psycho-the-horror-movie-that-changed-the-genre/.
Johnson, B, D. (2010). The Psycho Effect. Retrieved from https://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-psycho-effect/.
Robb, S. (2010). How Psycho changed cinema. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8593508.stm.
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