Why I watched this film
I watched this film because it is a significant film within the genre of horror that made many revolutionary innovations within the genre that are now taken for granted. This Alfred Hitchcock film is a suspenseful film that has influenced countless other films in the genre and has been named one of Hitchcock’s legendary films. As with any of Hitchcock’s films, it is not only just about the outdated innovative effects, but the atmosphere, cinematography and story that defines this film as a horror master piece.
Facts about the film
One fact regarding the production of the film include the fact that Alfred Hitchcock kept Janet Leigh on edge throughout filming. He did this by hiding the different versions of the ‘Mother’ dummy in her dressing room closet. Another production fact includes the famous shower scene which featured 77 different camera angles and 50 cuts. It took them seven days to shoot the 3 minute scene. Another fact is that Psycho almost didn’t happen. Hitchcock was planning a film called No Bail For The Judge with Audrey Hepburn, but that fell through so he proceeded with Psycho. Paramount was so against the idea of Hitchcock making Psycho that it only agreed to distribute the film when Hitchcock offered to finance the production himself and forgo his $250,000 fee. Cannily, he took a 60% stake in the film’s box office. Ultimately, Psycho earned over $15 million on its initial release, making it Hitchcock’s biggest hit by some distance. Definitely his lucky break considering the circumstances.
What the movie was about
Phoenix-based Marion Crane, who has for ten years worked as an assistant to real estate agent George Lowery, laments the fact she and her divorced boyfriend, Sam Loomis, can’t get married due to money issues, he a penniless hardware store clerk whose debt is a result of having to pay alimony. Marion senses an opportunity when one of Lowery’s wealthy clients pays his account with forty thousand dollars cash, Marion is tasked with taking the money to the bank. Being a Friday afternoon, Marion believes she can slip out of town immediately undetected with the money to join Sam in Fairvale, California where he lives, before Lowery would even suspect that she has absconded with the money the earliest by Monday. The isolated motel has had little business ever since the state highway was moved. The motel is run by friendly, but lonely Norman Bates, who lives with with his invalid mother in the big, old house on the hill overlooking the motel. Although she doesn’t meet Mrs. Bates, Marion knows that she is an angry, controlling woman based on an argument she overhears between her and Norman. That evening, Marion has a change of heart and contemplates returning to Phoenix to return the money. But she never makes it either to Phoenix or Fairvale. As such, several people come looking for her, including Sam, who is suspected of being in cahoots with Marion in stealing the money, Marion’s worried sister Lila Crane, who is able to convince Lowery not to press charges if Marion returns the money, and a private investigator named Arbogast who was hired by Lowery.
Marion Crane
In the film Marion lives in Phoenix, Arizona as a secretary and is unhappy in her relationship with Sam Loomis , a divorcé who is in too much debt to marry her. Marion rejects his idea to take the afternoon off and rushes back to her storefront real estate office. Her boss of ten years, George Lowery , arrives shortly afterward with Tom Cassidy , a wealthy customer who is buying the Harris Street Property, one of Lowery’s houses on the market for $40,000 as a wedding present for his daughter, making cash payment in full, which causes mild alarm to Lowery. After wrapping the remaining money inside a newspaper, Marion overhears a heated argument between Norman and his mother about letting Marion into the house.
During dinner, Marion has a conversation with Norman, who says that he is trapped by his obligation to his mentally ill mother. She realizes that she, too, is stuck in a «private trap», and can only escape it by taking responsibility for stealing the money. She then takes a shower. Suddenly, a mysterious figure enters the bathroom — shadowy through the shower curtain — and stabs Marion to death. Believing his mother has committed the murder, Norman puts the naked corpse and shower curtain — and, unknowingly, the money — in the trunk of Marion’s car and sinks it in a nearby swamp. The climax of the novel and film reveals that Norman murdered Marion while under the control of an alternate personality—one taking the form of his mother, whom he had murdered ten years before. The psychiatrist who examines Norman explains that, when Norman felt attracted to Marion, the “Mother” personality became jealous and killed her. In the final scene, Norman — now completely controlled by the “Mother” personality — is institutionalized for killing Marion.
Norman Bates
Norman (Who is the plot’s main antagonist) suffered from severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preached to him that sexual intercourse was sinful and that all women were whores. The novel also suggests that their relationship may have been incestuous.
Driven over the edge with jealousy, Norman murdered both of them with strychnine. After committing the murders, Norman staged it like murder–suicide, making it look as if Norma had killed her fiancé and then herself. After a brief hospitalization for shock, he developed dissociative identity disorder, assuming his mother’s personality to repress his awareness of her death and to escape the guilt of murdering her. He inherited his mother’s house—where he kept her corpse in the fruit cellar—and the family motel in the small town of Fairvale, California.
“Norma” dominates and belittles «Norman» much as she had when she was alive, forbidding him to have a life outside of her and flying into violent rages whenever he feels attracted to a woman.
Plot Themes
- Criminality: The two criminals are both guilty of their crimes. Marion who merely stole money, and Norman who is a mass murderer. Though their crimes are not equal in gravity, the two are linked to one another. She is eventually killed by Norman, which promotes the theme of equal criminality. Doesn’t matter what crime it is, if you are on the criminal spectrum, justice will reap vengeance.
2. Insanity: Psycho focuses on the insanity involving gender confusion. The lunatic Norman Bates is angry with his sexual desires, his love of being a mother, and his immense jealousy have gotten him immensely confused. It gets to the point where he is incapable of determining whether he is a mother himself or whether he is a confused Mamas boy. Since his current state doesn’t categorize him as a normal guy, he goes crazy and crossdresses as a mother who kills. This reveals deeper prejudices with gender within
3. Sex: Both main characters within the film are avoiding sex for some particular reason. For Norman, he avoids sex because he is scared of it, which leads him to kill someone. Marion is also terrified of sex, she is so terrified that she steals money and runs off just to avoid it. Thus, the themes for sex in this film are connoted with guilt, danger, and the evil.
4. Family: Within the film, the idea of family is directly brought up with Norman’s mother. As famous neurologist Sigmund Freud once theorized that children are attracted to their mothers and will later relocate that love to a woman. For Norman however, this is not the case. he loved his clinging mom too much, killed her in a jealous rage at her new boyfriend, and now whenever he tries to switch his affections, he ends up killing the woman in question. Mommy issues: they’ll mess you up every time.
Conclusion of the film
In the Bates Motel office, Sam insinuates that Norman would try to unload the Bates Motel if he had the chance, to which Norman responds, “this place happens to be my only world.” He claims to have had a very happy childhood. Inside the Bates home, Lila walks around Norman’s childhood room, in which the small single bed looks as though it had recently been slept in. Suddenly, Norman realizes that Lila has gone into the house and panics. He knocks Sam over the head with a vase and runs outside. Lila sees him coming and hides. Norman enters the Bates house and rushes upstairs, thus giving Lila the chance to continue downstairs into the cellar. Lila approaches her slowly, saying, “Mrs. Bates”. She touches the old woman’s shoulder and turns her around – revealing that it is only a skeleton in a wig and a dress. Lila screams and just then, Norman charges into the cellar wearing a grey wig and one of his mother’s dresses, with his knife in his hand and a maniacal grin on his face. Before he can attack Lila, however, Sam wrestles Norman to the ground and disarms him. The scene ends with a closeup of Mrs. Bates’s shriveled skull.
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