Psycho
After stealing $40,000 from a client at work, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) runs away to meet up with her boyfriend Sam Loomis in California so they can start a life together. What Marion doesn’t anticipate is her life-ending stay when she meets Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) at the beaten down Bate’s Motel.
Bernard Herrmann - Psycho (theme), the use of just strings amps up the tone and suspense in the music. The tense monochromatic sound also pairs nicely with the black and white visuals; which the movie was filmed in black and white as it was expensive to obtain the book rights for Robert Bloch's novel. The use of lighting and shadows is complemented well by the timeless black and white as well.
The voices Marion hears when driving represents her guilt and conversations she believes that people she’s interacted with are having about her. Watching bates motel first makes this movie feel super nostalgic especially the set.
Norman Bates as a character is incredibly well-written and complex. So many rememberable character traits: stutter, taxidermy, oedipus complex. I find that Anthony Perkins really drives who Norman is as a character much more memorably than in the TV show (which was still great).
The scene between Marion and Bates in the office talking about his relationship with his mother is like a masterclass in acting. I think these two really build on each other rather than one completely erasing the talent of the other. However, Perkins is definitely the standout in this movie, likely given the longer screen time and iconic nature of being the villain, he deservingly won an Oscar for this role.
Shower scene - door opens and Norman approaches through the curtains, the knife prop and choreography are pretty bad, but the camera work is visually very interesting and in-line with Marion’s iconic screams and the score - quick cuts between different parts of her body ending with his fingers scratching at the wall as her lifeless body slides into the tub. Reaching her arm straight out. Killing off a main character so early on was revolutionary for the time; it now reminds me of Drew Barrymore in Scream.
Around 50 minutes in you wonder if norma is even alive or is Norman acting as both roles. All the doors and windows left open in this movie make me uneasy. When the PI Arbogast gets killed inside the house the music really sells the jump scare.
“Norman bates’ mother has been dead and buried…the past 10 years.” Then we see Sam and Lila (sister) show up at the motel determined to figure out what happened to Marion. We see Norma’s dead body fall to the ground of the fruit cellar then Bates flying in dressed as his mother prepared to kill Lila before Sam is able to miraculously recover and stop him.
Norman murdered his mother and her lover over his oedipus complex when he felt she pushed him out for this new man. He erased the crime in his own mind by stealing Norma’s corpse and taking on her personality, now suffering from extreme DID. He dressed as his mother to keep alive the illusion she was alive, then would cover up the murders as a good son thinking she was the one that committed them. Now he is solely his mother. The look up from Norman’s last scene is so creepy.
As far as horror movie goes for me it’s one of the best of all time for multiple reasons. I think this film is absolutely timeless and we see lots of newer films borrow from it. Plus its considered the FIRST SLASHER MOVIE, so instantly two thumbs up from me!
Quotes:
“I never carry more than I care to lose”
“Would you do me a favor? Would you have dinner with me”
“A son is a poor substitute for a lover”
“We all go a little mad sometimes”
“She might’ve fooled me, but she didn’t fool my mother”
“I got the whole story, but not from Norman. I got it from his mother. Norman Bates no longer exists. He only half existed to begin with and now the other half has taken over.”