Figure 1 Poster Art

Psycho was released in 1960 and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho was the
start of the slasher genre. In Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock not only created a blazing
masterpiece and spawned a new cinematic genre the slasher. He also delivered
one of the boldest blows in screen history. It was not just how he killed Janet
Leigh's Marion Crane, astonishing though that was it was when. (Monahan,
2014) this movie is only 109 minutes long but feels longer than that. The
moment you feel like you have figured out what is going on everything gets
flipped upside down and spun.

Figure 2 shower scene

The shower scene in Psycho is so Iconic at same point or another even if you
have not seen Psycho you would have seen an image or the music from that
scene. Due to the fact it was filmed in 1960 Hitchcock could not show gory stuf
that you would see during modern day movies, as the CGI was not there to
support it. This made Hitchcock find another way of conveying this violent scene.
There follows one of the most disgusting murders in all screen history. It takes
place in a bathroom and involves a great deal of swabbing of the tiles and
flushings of the lavatory. (Lejeune, 2010) Hitchcock took a long time getting all

of the necessary shots together to compile the scene we see on screen down.
Although you do not actually see the knife stabbing her, the way it is edited
together just show enough to make you know what is happening. Within this
scene there is also very little blood shown until she falls and pull the shower
curtain down. Before this character dies she seems to be the main character, but
she dies faster than you would have expected. This puts everything that you
think you now about this move in a spin.

Figure 3 Norman/his mother

As this story goes on you start to believe that Norman is the one to feel sorry for.
His mum just killed the girl he had feelings towards and seem to be a controlling
influence on his life. By the end, this whole feeling sorry for Norman has gone out
the window as you soon find out that Norman is himself and his mother. After
Norman is caught he is arrested and psych evaluated. Roger Ebert mentions
during his review: "Norman Bates no longer exists. He only half existed to begin
with. And now, the other half has taken over, probably for all time." (Ebert, 1998)
Ebert believes that this is a great quote as it explains a lot. From the point of
Norman killing his mother and her lover, he snapped and from that point
onwards and he contracted two personalities. No matter what Norman could
have done he would have always end up where he got to. At the end of the
movie the mother side of his personality took over as this was the stronger one.
The fact that you do not know any of this is going on till the end, just shows how
well the camera is places; this is shown during the scene where Norman and his
mother are talking about her going to the cellar and then he carries her down the
stairs. If the camera did not stay out the room and panned up above the door
you would have been able to see that his mother was mummified, this would
have massively given away the ending.

Illustration list

Figure 1 Poster Art

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/Psycho_(1960).jpg

Figure 2 shower scene

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/hitch1.jpg

Figure 3 Norman/his mother

http://tpsonganalysis.pbworks.com/f/1240420016/Psycho_293.jpg

Bibliography

Monahan, Mark. (2014) Psycho, review, The telegraph At:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11025424/Psychoreview.html

Lejeune, CA. (2010) Psycho: Archive review, theguardian At :

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/22/psycho-hitchcock-archive-reviewhorror

Ebert, Roger. (1998) PSYCHO, rogerebert At:

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-psycho-1960