31 Days of Halloween: Day Seventeen
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Psycho (1960 Rated PGish in the US for suspence and Hitchcock camera angles)
Summary (from IMDB):
Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam’s California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.
RB Wood’s Rating (out of 5): 4.5 Knife wielding wig wearers
The Bates motel. Scenic location of pure terror. The image of Janet Leigh in the shower is one of the most masterful scenes ever filmed in a horror movie. The shear sexuality and horror of the scene is so well done that to this day people swear they saw Janet Leigh completely naked. Norman Bates (played to perfection by Anthony Perkins) is an introverted, mother dominated soul who runs the hotel that bares the family name. This film isn’t the gore-fest of movies that followed. Often cited, repeatedly parodied this classic of classics is the movie that broke holiwood away from the horror=monster genre. Although Norman is his own monster, isn’t he?
It’s not just the imfamous shower scene that makes this film a classic. It’s all the little touches and scenes that builds to the final plot twist. A few examples:
- The depiction of 1950’s/1960’s America in the begining
- The scene with Marion (Leigh) and the cop
- Conversations between Norman and Marion/Norman and Arbogast (Martin Balsam)
And so many others. If you haven’t scene this before, you owe it to yourself to rent/stream a copy. It’s Hitchcock at his best.
Tomorrow: Check the basement for pods
Peace
