Scare Value Hall of Fame – 2025
Psycho review
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho had its world premiere 65 years ago today. It changed the genre forever.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Psycho
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by Joseph Stefano
Starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, Frank Albertson and Janet Leigh
Psycho Review
Of the many things there are to discuss about Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 game changer Psycho, all of which have been over the course of the film’s 65 years of existence, one of my favorites is that it sits one degree of separation from one of our greatest horror fiction writers, H.P. Lovecraft. Robert Bloch wrote the novel Psycho upon which the movie is based. He was a protégé of Lovecraft…inspired and encouraged to write by the Cthulhu creator. Bloch got his start writing Lovecraftian tales for pulp magazines…a practice he continued long after the death of his mentor. Psycho was nothing like a Lovecraft story. Bloch had eventually turned his interest towards psychological horror…and based his story, in part, on serial killer Ed Gein.
While it’s interesting to connect a great horror writer with one of the most important horror films ever made…23 years after his death, no less…reading Bloch’s novel exposes why it’s nothing more than a fascinating footnote. Although Bloch’s Psycho has the pieces of Hitchcock’s film…it doesn’t quite know how to put them together. Psycho is a good book. As a movie…it’s a masterpiece. Almost everything Hitchcock does is directly from the novel…so why does one format work so much better than the other?
Two key changes Hitchcock includes transform Psycho into what we know it as today. First, he withholds the introduction of Norman Bates. Bloch puts the character right up front. Marion (Mary in the novel) meeting him feels fated since we’ve been given an unconnected peak into his life prior to her arrival. Second, and most importantly, Hitchcock cast Anthony Perkins in the role. Bloch’s Norman was described as an ugly, unlikable character. Perkins gives Hitchcock the exact opposite. It allows Psycho to pull its greatest trick.
Marion dies in the novel just as she does in the film. Partway through a story that had appeared to be hers. Hitchcock (and screenwriter Joseph Stefano) can’t take credit for that. What they do with it, however, is brilliant. By keeping Norman offscreen until Marion arrives…and presenting him as a troubled but seemingly kind, good looking young man…Hitchcock manages to transfer the viewers’ allegiance to the story’s killer. Bloc had the pieces…Hitchcock had the execution.
When Marion (Janet Leigh) is taken out of the story…a strange thing happens. Something that can’t happen in the novel because its Norman isn’t someone you want to follow. We willingly take the POV of Norman Bates. We feel sorry for this dutiful son forced to clean up after his sick mother. When Arbogast (Martin Balsam) begins to suspect Norman is involved in Marion’s disappearance…we worry. Given where the story is heading in its climax…the turn is nothing short of brilliant. It follows the most shocking scene in film to that point…the infamous shower scene that has been written about too many times to bother recapping here. A jolt to remove our hero…and replace it with the villain.
Marion’s story in Psycho is standard thriller fare for the time. If it wasn’t directed by one of our greatest suspense dealers…it could easily wander into boredom. But it’s incredibly important to what Psycho is doing. Casting the likable Leigh in the role allows the character to make dubious moral decisions and retain her appeal. Though it feels like her arc is cut off midstream…it really isn’t. Her story was never about finding love with Sam (John Gavin) with a church wedding in the climax. It was about her decision to steal from a rich client. Before she steps into that fateful shower, Marion makes clear her intention to return home and give back the money. Marion’s arc is about what kind of person she is. Psycho’s point is that it doesn’t matter.
The money that served as the catalyst for the events of the film ends up in the trunk of a car…sunk to the bottom of a swamp behind the Bates Motel. The killer doesn’t care about that plot. Norman isn’t even aware of what Marion was running from. It doesn’t matter. Marion could decide to keep the money. She could, and does, decide to redeem herself and give it back. She’s going to face the same result either way. Her story is important to making Psycho work…but it doesn’t matter how her character feels about any of it. What matters is that her death leads us to Norman’s side. Their discussion in the motel parlor shows them as two sides of the same coin. People caught in private traps they’ve largely made for themselves. Norman sees no way out of his trap. Marion chooses to escape hers…and it doesn’t matter.
Now on Norman’s side…we are faced with the same problem Norman carries with him. We have no understanding of what Norman’s true trap is. How could we? Norman doesn’t even know. As Arbogast, Sam and Marion’s sister Lila (Vera Miles) begin to circle the Bates Motel for answers…we want Norman to get away with everything. This isn’t his fault, we think. A conclusion we are both right and wrong about. We know what happened to Marion. Even as we feel sorry for Sam and Lila…we feel sorry for Norman as well. One of the best aspects of Psycho’s iconic twist ending is that it’s ok to feel that way even after we see the knife in his hand.
That complicated psychological horror comes from Bloch’s novel. It’s heightened by Hitchcock’s direction and a couple of key storytelling choices. The Norman Bates in Bloch’s story couldn’t hold our sympathies. Anthony Perkins wrings every drop out of us. The shock of seeing the A plot of the story viciously cut off mid shower comes from Bloch’s story as well. You can’t give too little credit to his novel…the pieces are all there from the start.
It can, however, cheat in a way that Hitchcock can’t. Mother can exist as a separate character written as a whole person until Bloch chooses to reveal the deception. That doesn’t work in film. She’s kept to shadows and in distant shots to conceal the truth. In a way this handicap ends up benefiting the movie even more. It forces Hitchcock to put Norman in front at all times. Leaving us no one we would rather identify with. Making the shocking twist play upon us in a way that almost none ever have.
Scare Value
Psycho’s influence has been felt for over six decades now. The music has been stolen repeatedly. The idea of killing off your lead character has been aped nearly as often. Its showstopping death scene has served as a template for so many set piece slaughters you wouldn’t be able to count them. Generations have borrowed from it…some without even realizing it. That’s how engrained Hitchcock’s biggest game changer has become to modern film language. It doesn’t just hold up 65 years later…it lifts everything that came after it.
5/5
Psycho Links
Streaming on Netflix
Rent/Buy on VOD from Fandango at Home and Amazon
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
