Some movies mark their history not because of their cast, acting elements, good direction but also because they portray good themes and amazing subject that leave good message and ever lasting impression upon the audience. Psycho is considered as leading movies that are complex, psychological, and powerful thriller and suspense film, revolutionizing the history of English black and white movies. Psycho was a horror movie with amazing graphics that one had not even seen before and with shocking killings (Sterritt, 1993). It highlighted various themes and subjects such as vulnerability, corruptibility, past histories, murders, human victimization, dangerous impacts of money, which were repeated in the movie by making use of birds, mirrors, hands, eyes, motifs etc. Psycho is one of such remarkably directed movies that brought revolt in the history of films and media in the 1960’s and for upcoming years.
Directed by the world’ acknowledged and best director Alfred Hitchcock and screenplay by Joseph Stefano, the movie starred Anthony Perkins, John Gavin, Vera Miles, and Janet Leigh and was an inspiration from the novel by Robert Bloch named as “the same name.” The movie portrayed the same theme as used in the novel to highlight the crimes of Grave Robber Ed Gein and Wisconsin murderer. The movie was a great masterpiece of suspense and thriller, proving as changing the tone, concept, and shape of screen thriller, and revolving around the character of Marion Crane acted by Janet Leigh. Psycho was a promise by the director to bring its audience at an unusual experience and provide them to know the story they had never enjoyed before.
The movie had a suspense that was skillfully manipulated with plenty of secrets and evil forces that made the story more interesting. The story starts when Marion who would work for a real estate company was in love with the store manager and long time boyfriend Sam Loomis played by John Gavin. Marion was given 40,000$ to deposit in bank that she decided to take off to use money in starting her new and happy life (Jacobs, 2007). Prompted by the huge amount of cash and opportunity to escape, Marion felt happy but same time frustrated and exhausted from the situation and her secret love with Sam. Marion was feeling ashamed of her intentions to steal the money, as she knew it very well that that she was thinking about sinful behavior that was not respectable. Nevertheless, at the same time she wanted to have respectable and happy life with Sam who could not marry her until he would be out of his burdens and other life commitments. Following such thoughts, she decided to run away, taking money to Sam for elopement and marriage with him. As a result, she found it more suitable to spend night at the Bates Motel. In the following scenes Marion, escape no more supports her but she is caught by her boss.
Feeling nervous and fearful she meets innkeeper in a motel named as Norman who shares and amuses her by his curios stories of his mother and that she was the first guest in a week. Eventually the motel turns out to be a haunted house. The mother of a Norman keeps being unrevealed until it becomes obvious that she would use knife to get holes into people and draw blood. The mysteries of the haunted house keep revealing and bringing Marion into big and bigger troubles, with sudden, sure, and effective shocks as much expected by the fans of Hitchcock’s movies (Erb, pp. 45-63). Marion had no idea that her fateful decision to stay for a night at motel would turn into her ultimate murder by the Motel manager’s mother. Marion was taking a shower when Norman’s mother used a knife to kill Marion. Norman had a perfect idea that it would have been done by his mother and as a solution, he takes the dead body of Marion to her car to throw to a swamp. Finding no clue of where Marion disappeared, Marion’s sister takes the help of Sam and detective.
Psycho was not a usual movie at all. With three following sequels, the movie was very complex to understand and multiple layers that it would not have been possible to understand it at one go. The movie really had fearful anticipation, giving the audience a lifetime experience. The movie brought outrage, fear, laughter, and shaky feelings and that was the success of the director. Because of its complexity, it is suggested for the movie to be watched at least thrice to enjoy it as thriller, fearful, comedy, and then as symbol, that had hidden meanings necessary to understand. Marion’s skip from the town and rash decision to take off the money led her to sacrifice her life.
Psycho was under many critics that it broke the rule and was an explicit movie. It was considered as showing sexual situations, brutal murder, and various complex and unacceptable scenes of the character Norman. The movie had remarkable construction and dialogues that made it extremely entertaining, scary, and entirely intoxicating movie. The character of Marion was not bad at all but the story highlighted the consequences of taking wrong decisions and her last shower of life brought her to the ultimate destination of doom and death. By the horror and black and white movie, the storywriter and thus director tried to highlight the psyche of a person with undeniable terror, mysteries, and good atmosphere.
Work Cited
Erb, Cynthia Marie. "" Have You Ever Seen the Inside of One of Those Places?": Psycho, Foucault, and the Postwar Context of Madness." Cinema Journal 45.4 (2006): pp. 45-63.
Jacobs, Steven. The wrong house: the architecture of Alfred Hitchcock. 010 Publishers, 2007.
Sterritt, David. The Films of Alfred Hitchcock. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
