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Psycho
File:Psycho (1960).jpg Original film poster
Directed by	Alfred Hitchcock
Written by	Novel: Robert Bloch Screenplay: Joseph Stefano Uncredited: Samuel A. Taylor
Produced by	Uncredited: Alfred Hitchcock Alma Reville
Starring	Anthony Perkins Janet Leigh Vera Miles John Gavin Martin Balsam John McIntire
Cinematography	John L. Russell
Edited by	George Tomasini
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Distributed by	1960-1968: Paramount Pictures 1968-present: Universal Pictures
Release dates	June 16, 1960
Running time	109 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	US$ 806,948

Psycho is a 1960 suspense/horror film directed by auteur Alfred Hitchcock from the screenplay by Joseph Stefano. It is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, which was in turn based on the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein.^[1] The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who is in hiding after embezzling from her employer, at a motel run by the lonely and profoundly disturbed Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). "The Shower Scene" has been studied, discussed, and referenced countless times in books, articles, and film courses with debate focusing on why it is so terrifying and how it was produced, including how it passed the censors and who directed it.

It initially received mixed reviews but outstanding box-office returns prompted a re-review, which was overwhelmingly positive and led to four Academy Award nominations. Today it is regarded as one of Hitchcock's best films^[2] and highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics,^[3] Psycho is also acclaimed as one of the most effective horror films.^[4] The film spawned several sequels and a remake, which are generally seen as works of lesser quality.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler The movie opens on discreet lovers Marion Crane (Leigh) and Sam Loomis (Gavin). Until Sam's finances improve, the two cannot marry. Unhappy and desperate to improve their situation, Marion steals $40,000 cash from a recent sale at work. Asked to deposit the money at the bank for the weekend, she instead packs and leaves town with the money, which she sees as the ticket to her and Sam's happiness.

At a seemingly deserted motel Marion encounters Norman Bates (Perkins), the young owner who looks after the motel and his ailing mother in the nearby house on a hill. Unfortunately for Marion, Norman has completely understated his overbearing mother's madness. As Marion showers in her motel room, she is stabbed to death in the now-famous "shower scene" by a shadowy woman's figure while Bernard Herrmann's screeching violin score plays.

File:Bateshower.jpg

Norman is horrified when he finds the bloody corpse. To protect his mother, he disposes all evidence of the crime by sinking Marion, her car, and her belongings (including the money) in a swamp behind the Bates' property. A private detective, Milton Arbogast (Balsam), hired to find and recover the money, traces Marion to the Bates Motel where he is similarly slashed to death after being pushed down a flight of stairs.

Sam and Marion's sister, Lila, tipped by Detective Arbogast before his demise, are also suspicious of Norman and his involvement with Marion's disappearance. While investigating they decide to check into the Bates Motel, to search for proof of Marion, where they find one of her earrings and a paper with the sum of $40,000 written on it. Theorizing that Norman disposed of Marion to keep the money for himself, Lila sneaks into his house while Sam confronts him at the office. Sam's heated argument with Norman quickly escalates to violence, and Norman knocks Sam unconscious and flees to the house. Meanwhile, Lila slips into the basement to discover the semi-preserved corpse of Norman's mother just as Norman enters to find her. Cross-dressed in his mother's clothing, complete with wig, Norman is wielding the deadly butcher's knife, preparing to kill Lila. Sam regains consciousness, reappearing just in time to wrestle the knife away from Norman and rescue Lila.

At the end of the film, a forensic psychiatrist (Oakland) explains to Lila, Sam and the authorities that Bates's mother, though dead, lives on in Norman's psyche. Norman was so dominated by his mother while she lived, and so guilt-ridden for murdering her eight years earlier, that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. Physically, this was done by exhuming her corpse and preserving it with his taxidermy skills, thereby inciting a split personality in Norman, creating the persona of his mother. He acts as he believes she would, talks as she would, and even dresses as she would, in an attempt to erase her absence and the guilt. Because Norman was so very jealous of his mother while she lived, his split personality is equally jealous of any woman to whom Norman might be attracted. Norman's psychosis prohibits him from knowing of his mother's crimes or her original demise.

The last scene shows Norman Bates in a cell, his mind now completely dominated by the persona of his mother. She blames Norman for the crimes, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that she is utterly harmless, thinking to herself "They’ll see and they’ll say, why she wouldn’t even hurt a fly." A brief epilogue shows Marion's car being towed from its watery grave, presumably to collect her body and the $40,000. Template:Endspoiler

Production

There are many stories about the making of the film, so it is not always easy to distinguish fact from legend.

Pre-production

The film is based on the novel by Robert Bloch, which was in turn based on the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Hitchcock acquired the film rights anonymously through an agent for a very small sum of $9,000.^[5]

Hitchcock embraced Psycho as a means to regain success and individuality in an increasingly competitive genre. He had witnessed many B-movies churned out by William Castle and Roger Corman that cleaned up at box offices despite being panned by critics. There were also a series of competing directors who had tried their hand at typical Hitchcock fare in such films as When Strangers Marry, The Spiral Staircase, Gaslight, and so forth.^[6] Furthermore, both Hitchcock and Henri-Georges Clouzot had adapted two books by the same authors with very different results. Clouzot's Les Diaboliques was critically acclaimed and financially successful, earning him the title of the "French Hitchcock," while Hitchcock's Vertigo had failed both critically and financially.^[7] Hitchcock was also constantly reinventing himself (he once said "Style is self-plagiarism"), so, when Peggy Robertson, a trusted production assistant, brought Psycho to his attention, he seized on it, not only for its originality but as a way to retake his mantle as an acclaimed director of suspense.^[8]

Ned Brown, Hitchcock's longtime agent, explains that Hitchcock liked the story because the focus began with Marion's dilemma then completely turned after the murder.^[9] Hitchcock himself said in an interview with François Truffaut that "I think the thing that appealed to me was the suddenness of the murder in the shower, coming, as it were, out of the blue. That was about all."^[9]

James Cavanaugh wrote the original screenplay, but Hitchcock turned it down citing its dragging storyline that he believed read like a TV short horror story.^[10] Hitchcock reluctantly agreed to meet with Joseph Stefano, who had only worked on one film prior. Despite his inexperience, the meeting went well and Stefano was hired.

The screenplay is relatively faithful to the novel, with a few notable adaptations by Hitchcock and Stefano. The book features Mary Crane, from Phoenix, Arizona as its heroine and protagonist. Since, at the time, a real Mary Crane existed in Phoenix, Hitchcock renamed the character Marion Crane.^[11] Stefano also changed Marion's telltale earring found in the bathroom after her death to a scrap of paper in the toilet. When developing the characters for film, Hitchcock asked Stefano why he did not like the Norman Bates character, to which Stefano replied that Norman was unsympathetic, unattractive, and a drinker. Hitchcock suggested Perkins as a sympathetic man, and Stefano agreed.^[12] Other changes Stefano made for the screenplay include the location of Arbogast's death from the foyer to the stairwell. He also changed the novel's budding romance between Sam and Lila to just a friendly relationship, and instead of using the two to explain Norman's mental condition he replaced them with a professional psychiatrist.^[13]

Paramount, whose contract guaranteed another film by Hitchcock, did not want Hitchcock to make Psycho. Their official stance was that the book was "too repulsive" and "impossible for films," and nothing but another of his star-studded mystery thrillers.^[5][14] They did not like "anything about it at all" and denied him his usual budget.^[15] So Hitchcock financed the film's creation through his own Shamley Productions, shooting at Universal Studios under the Revue television unit.^[16][17] Hitchcock's original Bates Motel and Psycho House movie set buildings, which were constructed on the same stage as Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera, are still standing at Universal Studios near Hollywood, California and are a regular attraction on the studio's tour - see WikiMapia {Coordinates: 34°8'12"N 118°20'48"W}.^[18] As a further result of cost cutting, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in black and white, keeping the budget under $1,000,000.^[19]. Other reasons for shooting in black and white were to prevent the shower scene from being too gory and that he was a fan of Les Diaboliques's use of black and white.^[20][21]

To keep costs down and because he was most comfortable around them, Hitchcock took most of his crew from his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including the cinematographer, set designer, script supervisor, and first assistant director.^[22] He hired regular collaborators Bernard Herrmann as music composer, George Tomasini as editor and Saul Bass for the title design and storyboarding of the shower scene. In all, his crew cost $62,000^[23] Through the strength of his reputation, Hitchcock managed to cast Janet Leigh for a fourth of her usual fee, paying only $25,000. His first choice, she agreed after having only read the novel and without inquiry into her salary^[24]; her co-star, Anthony Perkins, agreed to $40,000.^[25] Both stars were experienced and proven box-office draws.

Paramount did distribute the film, but four years later Hitchcock sold his stock in Shamley to Universal's parent company and his next six films were made at and distributed by Universal.^[26] After another four years, Paramount sold all rights to Universal.^[27] When the film became a major hit, the Hitchcocks received a much larger share of the profit than they would have otherwise.

Filming

The film, independently produced by Hitchcock, was shot at Revue Studios^[28], the same location as his television show. Psycho was shot on a tight budget of $806,947.55^[29], beginning on November 11, 1959 and ending on February 1, 1960.^[30][31] Filming started in the morning and finished by six or earlier on Thursdays (when Hitchcock and his wife would dine at Chasen's).^[32] Nearly the whole film was shot with 50 mm lenses on 35 mm cameras. This trick closely mimicked normal human vision, which helped to involve the audience more.^[33]

Before shooting began in November, Hitchcock dispatched assistant director Hilton Green to Phoenix to scout locations and shoot the opening scene. The shot was supposed to be an aerial shot of Phoenix that slowly zoomed into the hotel window of a passionate Marion and Sam. Ultimately, the helicopter footage proved too shaky and had to be spliced with footage from the studio^[34]. Another crew filmed day and night footage on Highway 99 between Fresno and Bakersfield, California for projection when Marion drives to Phoenix. They also provided the location shots for the scene where she is pulled over by the highway patrolman.^[35]

File:Psycho05.jpg

Green also took photos of a prepared list of 140 locations for later reconstruction in the studio. These included many real estate offices and homes like those belonging to Marion and her sister; the Bates's house was based off a Victorian home in Kent, Ohio near Kent State.^[35] He also found a girl who looked just like Marion and photographed her whole wardrobe, which would enable Hitchcock to demand realistic looks from Helen Colvig, the wardrobe supervisor.^[35]

Both the leads, Perkins and Leigh, were given freedom to interpret their roles and improvise as long as it did not involve moving the camera.^[36] An example of Perkins' improvisation is Norman's habit of munching on candy corn.^[37]

During shooting Hitchcock was forced to uncharacteristically do retakes for some scenes. The final shot in the shower scene, which starts with an extreme close-up on Janet's eye and pulls up and out, proved very difficult for Leigh, since the water splashing in her face made her want to blink, and the cameraman had trouble as well since he had to manually focus while moving the camera.^[38] Retakes were also required for the opening scene, since Hitchcock felt that Leigh and Gavin were not passionate enough.^[39] Leigh had trouble saying "Not inordinately" for the real estate office scene, requiring additional retakes. ^[40] Lastly, the discovery of Mother scene required complicated coordination of Mother's chair turning around, Vera Miles hitting the light bulb, and a lens flare, which proved to be the sticking point. Hitchcock forced retakes until all three elements were to his satisfaction.^[41]

According to Hitchcock, a series of shots with Arbogast going up the stairs in the Bates house before he is stabbed were directed by Hilton Green, working only with storyboard artist Saul Bass's drawings while Hitchcock was incapacitated with a "temperature." However, upon viewing the dailies of the shots, Hitchcock was forced to scrap them. He claimed they were "no good" because they didn't portray "an innocent person but a sinister man who was going up those stairs."^[42] The scene was later reshot by Hitchcock, however, a little of the cut footage made its way into the film.

Filming the murder of Arbogast proved tricky due to the overhead camera angle (to hide the film's twist). A camera track constructed on pulleys alongside the stairway together with a chair-like device had to be constructed and thoroughly tested over a period of weeks.^[43]

The shower scene

The most iconic scene in the film, arguably one of the most iconic scenes in film history, is the murder of Janet Leigh's character in the shower. Although there is little visible gore portrayed on the screen, the shower scene is often regarded as one of the most frightening sequences in cinema history. As such, it spawned numerous myths and legends. It was shot from December 17 to December 23, 1959 and between 71 and 78 angles (the exact number is unknown).^[44]The scene "runs 2 minutes and includes 50 cuts."^[45] Most of the shots are extreme closeups except for medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. The combination of the close shots with the short duration between cuts makes the sequence feel longer, more subjective, more uncontrolled, and more violent than the images themselves were they presented alone or in a wider angle.

In order to capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to be equipped with a long lens. By blocking the inner holes on the spout and placing the camera farther back, the water appeared to be hitting the lens but actually went around and past it.^[46]

The soundtrack of screeching violins was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann entitled "The Murder." Hitchcock originally wanted the sequence (and all motel scenes) to play without music, but Herrmann begged him to try it with the cue he had composed. Afterwards Hitchcock agreed that it vastly intensified the scene and he nearly doubled Herrmann's salary.^[47][48][49] The blood in the scene is in fact chocolate syrup, which shows up better than stage blood on black-and-white film.^[1] The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon.^[50][51]

It is sometimes claimed that Janet Leigh was not in the shower the entire time and a body double was used. However, in an interview with Roger Ebert, and in the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, Leigh stated that she was in the scene the entire time; Hitchcock only used a live model as her stand-in for the scenes in which Bates wraps up Marion's body in a shower curtain and places her body in the trunk of her car.^[52]

Another popular myth is that in order for Janet Leigh's scream in the shower to sound realistic, Hitchcock used ice-cold water. This was denied by Leigh on numerous occasions.^[53][54] Also, all of the screams are Leigh's.^[55]

File:Psycho Knife.PNG

The most notorious urban legend arising from the production of Psycho began when Saul Bass, the graphic designer, who created many of the title sequences of Hitchcock's films and storyboarded some of his scenes, claimed that he had actually directed the shower scene. This claim was refuted by several people associated with the film. Leigh, who is the focus of the scene, stated, "...absolutely not! I have emphatically said this in any interview I've ever given. I've said it to his face in front of other people.... I was in that shower for seven days, and, believe you me, Alfred Hitchcock was right next to his camera for every one of those seventy-odd shots."^[56] Hilton Green, the assistant director and cameraman, also denies Bass's claim: "There is not a shot in that movie that I didn't roll the camera for. And I can tell you I never rolled the camera for Mr. Bass."^[57] Roger Ebert, a long-time admirer of Hitchcock's work, was also bemused by the rumor, stating, "It seems unlikely that a perfectionist with an ego like Hitchcock's would let someone else direct such a scene."^[58]

It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the "shower scene" never once shows a knife puncturing flesh.^[4][59][60] However, a frame-by-frame analysis shows that the knife does indeed visibly penetrate the skin by a fraction of an inch, albeit only once, and so briefly (just three frames of film, or about an eighth of one second) as to be subliminal.

According to Donald Spoto in The Dark Side of Genius, Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, spotted a blooper in one of the last screenings of Psycho before its official release: After Marion was supposedly dead, one could see her blink. The postmortem blink was edited out and was never seen by audiences. However, confusion surrounding Alma's words led to a myth that Marion is seen swallowing after she dies.^{[citation needed]}

Leigh herself was so affected by this scene when she saw it, that she no longer took showers unless she absolutely had to. Then she would lock all the doors and windows and would leave the bathroom and shower door open.^[61]

Janet Leigh and Hitchcock fully discussed what the scene meant:

Marion had decided to go back to Phoenix, come clean, and take the consequence, so when she stepped into the tub it was as if she were stepping into the baptismal waters. The spray beating down on her was purifying the corruption from her mind, purging the evil from her soul. She was like a virgin again, tranquil, at peace.^[62]

Censorship

According to Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the censor board for the Hays Office (later the MPAA) wrangled with Hitchcock because some censors insisted they could see one of Janet Leigh's breasts. Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. Astoundingly, each of the censors reversed their positions—those who had previously seen the breast now did not, and those who had not, now did. They passed the film after the director removed one shot that showed the buttocks of Leigh's stand-in.^[63] The board was also upset by the racy opening, so Hitchcock said that if they let him keep the shower scene he would reshoot the opening with them on the set. Since they did not show up for the reshoot, the opening stayed.^[63]

Another cause of concern for the censors^[64] was that Marion was shown flushing a toilet, with its contents (torn-up paper) fully visible. In film and TV at that time a toilet was never seen, let alone heard. This tradition became so well-known that later shows like All in the Family and Sanford and Son added a laugh track every time a flushing sound was heard.

Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly to the shower scene. Notably Britain objected to the shot of Norman washing blood from his hands and in Singapore, though the shower scene was left untouched, the murder of Arbogast and a shot of Mother's corpse were removed.^[65]

Promotion

File:Psycho08.jpg

Hitchcock did most of the promotion on his own, forbidding Leigh and Perkins from making the usual television, radio, and print interviews for fear of them revealing the plot.^[66] Even critics were not given private screenings but rather had to see the film with the general public, which, despite possibly affecting their reviews^[67], certainly preserved the plot.

The film's original trailer features a jovial Hitchcock taking the viewer on a tour of the set, and almost giving away plot details before stopping himself. It is "tracked" with Bernard Herrmann's Psycho theme, but also jovial music from Hitchcock's comedy The Trouble With Harry; most of Hitchcock's dialogue is post-synchronized. The trailer was made after completion of the film, and since Janet Leigh was no longer available for filming, Hitchcock had Vera Miles don a blonde wig and scream loudly as he pulled the shower curtain back in the bathroom sequence of the preview. Since the title, "Psycho," instantly covers most of the screen, the switch went unnoticed by audiences for years. However a freeze-frame analysis clearly reveals that it is Vera Miles and not Janet Leigh in the shower during the trailer.^[17] The most controversial move was Hitchcock's "no-late admission" policy for the film, which was abnormal for the time. It was not entirely original as Clouzot had done the same in France for Les Diaboliques.^[68] Hitchcock thought that if people entered the theater late and never saw the star actress Janet Leigh, they would feel cheated.^[27] At first theater owners were up in arms claiming that they would lose business, but after the first day the owners enjoyed long lines of people waiting to see the film.^[27]

The film was so successful that it was reissued to theaters in 1965. A year later CBS purchased the television rights for $450,000. CBS planed to screen the film during fall, but three days prior Valeria Percy, the daughter of an Illinois senatorial politician candidate, was murdered. As her parents slept mere feet away, she was stabbed a dozen times with a double-edged knife. In light of the murder, CBS agreed to postpone the screening, but in the end Psycho was never shown.^[69] The film finally made its way to television in one of Universal's syndicated programming packages for local stations in 1970, following another successful reissue the year previous. Psycho was aired for twenty years in this format, then leased to cable for a couple years before returning to syndication as part of the "List of a Lifetime" package.^[69]

Cast

File:Psycho04.jpg

• Janet Leigh as Marion Crane
• Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
• Martin Balsam as Detective Milton Arbogast
• John Gavin as Sam Loomis
• Vera Miles as Lila Crane
• Simon Oakland as Dr. Fred Richmond
• John McIntire as Sheriff Al Chambers
• Lurene Tuttle as Eliza Chambers
• Frank Albertson as Tom Cassidy
• Mort Mills as Highway Patrol Officer
• Patricia Hitchcock as Caroline
• Chief Tahachee as Citizen/Ned Place

Norman Bates's mother was voiced by Paul Jasmin, Virginia Gregg, and Jeanette Nolan, who also provided some screams for Lila's discovery of mother's corpse. The three voices were thoroughly mixed, except for the last speech, which is all Gregg's.^[55]

After Psycho had established itself, Perkins, Leigh, and, to a lesser extent, Stefano suffered from typecasting.^[70] However, when Perkins was asked whether he would still take the role knowing that he would be typecast afterwards he replied with a definite yes.^[71]

Until her death, Leigh continued to receive strange and sometimes threatening calls, letters, and even tapes detailing what they would like to do to Marion Crane. One letter was so "grotesque" that it was passed along to the FBI, two of whose agents visited Leigh and told her the culprits had been located and that she should notify the FBI if she received any more letters of that type.^[72]

Reception

Initial reviews of the film were mixed with about 60% of them negative.^[73] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times warned people that Hitchcock "comes at you with a club in this frankly intended bloodcurdler" and complained that the "denouement falls quite flat for us."^[74] Other negative reviews stated, "a blot on an honorable career," "plainly a gimmick movie," and "merely one of those television shows padded out to two hours."^[75] Positive reviews stated, "Anthony Perkins' performance is the best of his career ... Janet Leigh has never been better," "played out beautifully," and "first American movie since Touch of Evil to stand in the same creative rank as the great European films."^[76] A good example, of the mix is the New York Herald Tribune's review, which stated, "... rather difficult to be amused at the forms insanity may take ... keeps your attention like a snake-charmer."^[77]

The public loved the film, with lines stretching outside of theaters as people had to wait for the next showing. It broke box-office records in Asia, Japan, China, France, Britain, South America, the United States, and Canada.^[78] It is one of the largest-grossing black-and-white films and helped make Hitchcock a multimillionaire and the third-largest shareholder in Universal.^[79]

In Britain it shattered attendance records at the London Plaza Cinema, but nearly all British critics panned it, questioning Hitchcock's taste and judgment. Reasons cited for this were the critics' late screenings, forcing them to rush their reviews, their dislike of the gimmicky promotion, and Hitchcock's expatriate status.^[80]

Perhaps thanks to the public's response and Hitchcock's efforts at promoting it, the critics did a re-review, and the film was praised. Time magazine switched their opinion from "Hitchcock bears down too heavily in this one" to "superlative" and "masterly," and Bosley Crowther put it on his Top Ten list of 1960.^[81]

Psycho was criticized for making other filmmakers more willing to show gore, and indeed a scant three years later Bloodfeast, considered to be the first "gore film," was released.^[82] Psycho's success financially and critically had others trying to ride its coattails. Inspired by Psycho, Hammer Film Productions launched a series of mystery thrillers, most shot in black and white and all with twist endings, starting with Taste of Fear (1961), followed by Maniac and Paranoiac (1963), Nightmare and Hysteria (1964), Fanatic and The Nanny (1965), and Crescendo (1969).^[83] Other films inspired by the success of Psycho include William Castle's Homicidal, followed by a whole slew of more than thirteen other splatter films.^[84]

Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Janet Leigh), Direction (Alfred Hitchcock), Black and White Cinematography (John Russell), and Black and White Art Direction-set decoration (Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy; George Milo). It did not win any Academy awards, though Leigh did win a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and Perkins tied for best actor in an award from the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers. Stefano was nominated for two writing awards by Edgar Allen Poe Awards and the Writers Guild of America; he won the former only. Hitchcock was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures by the Directors Guild of America.

Psycho is considered "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress^[85] and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry^[86].

"No other murder mystery in the history of the movies has inspired such merchandising."^[87] Any number of items emblazoned with Bates Motel, stills, lobby cards, and highly valuable posters are available for purchase. In 1992, it was adapted scene-for-scene into three comic books by the Innovative Corporation.^[87]

It is represented in the following of the American Film Institute's lists:

• #18 on the list of the 100 Greatest American Movies.
• #1 on the list of the 100 Most Thrilling Movies Ever.^[88]
• Norman Bates was ranked the second best villain on their list of the 50 Best villains in cinema history.
• The music in the film was ranked #4 in the list of the 25 best film scores of all time.
• Norman's famous line "A boy's best friend is his mother" was 56th on the list of the 100 Most memorable movie quotes in history.

It appeared on a number of lists by websites, TV channels, magazines, and books including the following:

• Psycho is consistently in the top 25 on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films.[3]
• #4 on the list of Bravo Network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.^[89]
• The finale was ranked #4 on Premiere's list of "The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History."^[90]
• #11 in Entertainment Weekly's book titled The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.^[1]

Innovations in film

Template:Spoiler In his novel, Bloch used an uncommon plot structure: he repeatedly introduced sympathetic protagonists, then killed them off. This played on his reader's expectations of traditional plots, leaving them uncertain and anxious. Hitchcock recognized the effect this approach could have on audiences, and utilized it in his adaptation, killing off Janet Leigh's character halfway through. This daring plot device, coupled with the fact that the character was played by the biggest box-office name in the film, was a shocking and disorienting turn of events in 1960. Template:Endspoiler The most original and influential moment in the film is the "shower scene," which became iconic in pop culture because it is one of the most terrifying scenes ever filmed. Part of its effectiveness was due to the use of startling editing techniques borrowed from the Soviet Montage filmmakers, and to Bernard Herrmann's intense and imaginative musical score.

Psycho is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence. In addition, the censors were upset by the shot of a flushing toilet; at that time, the idea of seeing a toilet onscreen - let alone being flushed - was taboo in American movies and TV shows. According to Entertainment Weekly, "The Production Code censors ... had no objection to the bloodletting, the oedipal murder theme, or even the shower scene—but did ask that Hitchcock remove the word transvestite from the film, He didn't."^[1] At one point, Hitchcock actually considered releasing the film without censorial approval. Its box office success helped propel Hollywood toward more graphic displays of previously-censored themes.

Psycho is widely considered to be the first film in the slasher movie genre.^[91][92]

Interpretation

The film often features shadows, mirrors, windows, and, less so, water. The shadows are present from the very first scene where the blinds make bars on Marion and Sam as they peer out the window. The stuffed birds' shadows loom over Marion as she eats, and Mother is only seen in shadows until the very end. More subtly, backlighting turns the rakes in the hardware store into talons above Vera Miles's head.^[93]

Mirrors reflect: Marion as she packs, her eyes as she checks the rear-view mirror, her face in the policeman's sunglasses, her hands as she counts out the money in the car dealership's bathroom. A motel window serves as a mirror by reflecting Marion and Norman together. Hitchcock shoots through Marion's windshield and the telephone booth, when Arbogast phones Sam and Lila. The heavy downpour can be seen as foreshadowing of the shower, and it letting up can be seen as a symbol of Marion making up her mind to return to Phoenix.^[93]

There are coded references to birds. Marion's last name is Crane, and she is from Phoenix. Norman's hobby is stuffing birds, and he comments that Marion eats like a bird.^[93]

Sequels and remakes

The film spawned three sequels: Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), the latter being a TV movie written by the original screenplay author, Joseph Stefano. Anthony Perkins returned to his role in all three sequels, and the voice of Norman Bates' mother was maintained by noted radio actress Virginia Gregg with the exception of Psycho IV, where the role was played by Olivia Hussey. Vera Miles also reprised her role in Psycho II. The sequels were generally considered inferior to the original.^[94][95] Hitchcock did not participate in the making of any of the Psycho sequels (he passed away before any of them were made). A spinoff of the Psycho series is Bates Motel (1987) a failed TV pilot turned TV movie. In it, the Bates Motel is taken over by a new, equally mentally ill owner.

In 1998, Gus Van Sant remade Psycho. The film is in color and features a different cast, but aside from this it is a virtually shot-for-shot remake copying Hitchcock's camera movements and editing.

A Conversation With Norman (2005), directed by Jonathan M. Parisen, was a film inspired by Psycho. It premiered in New York City just three days short of the 45th anniversary of the premiere of the original film. It starred Christopher Englese as Norman, Grace Orosz as Marion and Tom Loggins as Sam.

Popular culture references

Psycho is commonly regarded as one of Hitchcock's best films. Highly praised, the film is referenced countless times in popular culture. In television and film, great homage is paid to Psycho, especially the infamous and possibly best remembered "Shower Scene," complete with shrieking violins.

• The Simpsons character of Principal Skinner, and his relationship with his overbearing mother, was originally a parody of Psycho. A scene in the episode Brother from the Same Planet shows Skinner opening the blinds in his office. Peering at his house from the window, he sees what looks like the Bates' house on a hill, and says "There's Mother now." Later episodes have revealed the floor plan of the Skinners' house to be identical to that of the Bates'.
• Cape Feare, another episode of The Simpsons, had a scene where the character Sideshow Bob was planning the murder of Bart at the Bates Motel during a bad storm.
• Part of the title's musical theme is sampled in Busta Rhymes' hit, "Gimme Some More."
• In an episode of The Brak Show entitled "Psychoklahoma," some events from the film are combined with elements of the musical Oklahoma!, and are set to music, creating a bizarre, yet humorous, play.
• In the film Scream, after supposedly being seriously injured and left for dead, Billy Loomis quotes Norman Bates by saying, "'We all go a little mad sometimes.' Anthony Perkins, 'Psycho'".
• The name of the high school where Sissy Spacek's character in Carrie attends is called Bates High School. This is supposedly "director Brian De Palma's homage to Hitchcock's Psycho."^[1]

Shower scene parodies

• In The Simpsons episode Itchy & Scratchy & Marge, after Maggie hits him on the head with a mallet in the garage, Homer rips the table cloth and falls to the ground, knocking over a bucket of red paint that spills and spirals into a water hole on the floor.
• In an episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Escargoon is repeatedly bashed with a hammer by King Dedede while showering in a haunted house.
• Mel Brooks spoofed the shower scene and other famous Hitchcock scenes in High Anxiety.
• Brian De Palma spoofed the scene to good effect in Phantom of the Paradise.
• Tobe Hooper parodied it in the opening of The Funhouse.
• Ren & Stimpy featured a parody of the shower scene in the episode Haunted House.
• In Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire," the infamous and iconic shower scene music in the background is heard when he mentions Psycho.
• In 1992 movie Wayne's World Garth is heard imitating the music from the shower scene whilst stabbing a donut-man.
• In the film Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Bugs Bunny imitates the shower scene, complete with pouring a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup down the drain.
• The shower scene was also parodied in Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, Tiny Toon Adventures, Colonel's Bequest, National Lampoon's Vacation, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the gay exploitation horror film City In Panic, That '70s Show, Dexter's Laboratory, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Trivia

• In a strange case of life imitating art, Janet Leigh's stand-in, Myra Davis, was murdered (stabbed) in her home in 1988. She was also sexually assaulted. The case, which was profiled on Cold Case Files on A&E, was solved in 1998 when another woman, Jean Orloff, was found assaulted and murdered in a similar way. Subsequent investigation, circumstantial evidence, and DNA evidence from both scenes brought Kenneth "Sonny" Hunt to justice and death row for both those crimes.
• Hitchcock created various versions of the "Mother corpse" prop, and hid them in Janet Leigh's dressing room closet. There were no hard feelings as Leigh took the joke well, and she wonders whether it was done to keep her on edge and thus more in character.^[96]

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• One error in the shower scene is that Marion's eyes should be dilated after her death. The contacts necessary for this effect would have required six weeks of acclimatization in order to wear them, so Hitchcock decided to forgo them.^[97]
• Both Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins were fans of Hitchcock and had seen most of his films when they agreed to Psycho.^[98]
• The Mrs. Bates prop is on display at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.^[87]
• Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Psycho he can bee seen (7 minutes into the film) through a window, wearing a Stetson hat, standing outside of Janet Leigh's office.

References

See also

• Twist ending
• Schizophrenia
• Dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities- commonly confused with schizophrenia)
• Psycho (1998 film)
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Anthony Perkins

Further reading

• Stephen Rebello. Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Dembner Books, 1990. ISBN 0-942637-14-3
• Janet Leigh. Psycho : Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. Harmony Press, 1995. ISBN 051770112 .

External links

• Psycho (1960) at IMDb
• Psycho (1960) at AllMovie
• Alfred Hitchcock Fans Online - Psycho (1960)
• Bright Lights Film Journal article on Psycho
• Filmsite: Psycho In-depth analysis of the film.
• Psychohouse WebSite
• The Psycho Movies Web Site
• Psycho and other serial killer films
• Review of the UK Special Edition DVD release, by Brian Elliott of DVD Reviewer