Film Review: Psycho

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Probably one of the most famous films of all-time due to the infamous shower scene and the score written by Bernard Herrmann. It was quite controversial upon its release in 1960 due to the opening scene showing Janet Leigh just wearing a bra in bed with a man she was not married to and then later when she flushes some notepaper down the toilet, neither had been shown in films before at the time. Initially Hitchcock was asked to change the opening scene because some censors believed they could see her breast but he sent it back unedited to the censors who now said they couldn't see it.

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in the infamous shower scene

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals $40,000 from her employees to help her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), who is in financial difficulty due to maintenance payments to his ex-wife. After a run-in with a police officer for sleeping in her car she checks into the Bates Motel which is run by Norman Bates (superbly troubled Anthony Perkins) who constantly references his ailing mother who he lives with in a house near the motel. Nervous about being traced by the police, Marion is happy to have dinner with Norman but is slightly un-nerved by his manner as well as being caught.

The shower scene is one of the finest scenes in film history in terms of how it is choreographed and filmed. The famous score of screeching violins and violas was only put in after Bernard Herrmann asked Hitchcock to watch the scene with his score as Hitchcock initially wanted there to be no other sounds. It is a truly terrifying scene despite the fact you never see the knife actually pierce the body. The long shot of the blood and water draining down the plughole is particularly unsettling. The shot of Leigh's eye whilst the camera zooms out was difficult to film as she constantly felt the need to blink due to the water from the shower splashing in her eye, for years after filming this scene Leigh never showered with the shower curtain across due to fear.

Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)

Psycho was a film of so many firsts in 1960 and Hitchcock did a superb job of keeping the plot under wraps. It's a film that has been duplicated and parodied so much since that many people feel like they've seen it before watching it. Anthony Perkins performance as Norman Bates is unforgettable and was impressive enough that he was typecast ever since. But it's Hitchcock's usual magic that really adds to the tension and sinister nature of the film especially the use of shadows throughtout. The tension constantly builds until you are shocked by another twist in the plot.

3.5/4 unsettling and tension filled film that has lost none of its power