Throughout the history of horror films leading up to 1960 most of them had concentrated on the classic 'monster'. These included the likes of vampires, wolfmen, mad scientists and their creations and otherwordly beings. Alfred Hitchcock changed all this by introducing a new kind of evil. An evil which could be standing next to you in an elevator or crossing the road in front of you.
The impact of Psycho cannot be underestimated. Hitchcock planned the film to be the most frightening experience possible at the time. For this he had to find a new horror and in Norman Bates he would change the course of scary films for ever.
The plot of the film is a fairly basic thriller where a girl (Janet Leigh) absconds with some money and is hunted down by a private investigator and the police. Unknown to them she had arrived at the Bates Motel and suffered a tragic end. An end which has become one of the most iconic in cinema history.
It is not the plot that provides the horror (any average thriller of the time would have murders) but the idea behind the film. In his search for a new kind of horror Hitchcock picked the average, everyday man but one who is afflicted with serious mental problems. The idea of an ordinary Joe being capable of such deeds was a terrifying thought for viewers.
The film is also groundbreaking in the way it treats its heroine. From the start of the film we are with Marion Crane has she robs her boss and then leaves the city. We are with her when she arrives at the Bates Motel and then Hitchcock drops a bomb. He has his big name star murdered in the first half hour of the film leaving us wondering where on earth we are supposed to go now. The impact leaves viewers disconcerted and without any character to grasp on to apart from the psychotic Norman Bates.
Marion's demise deserves mention as it is possibly the most famous horror scene ever. The shower scene has become part of film folklore with its slashing knife and Bernard Herrmanns famous score. It has been imitated and parodied countless times but without taking from the original. In short it could be labelled as a perfect piece of horror cinema.
By the end of the film we have been so taken in and almost become voyeuristic in our ways of watching it that the pay-off is all the more terrifying. It is not so much the final scenes in the house but what we are left with. We witness a man who seems normal in every way and wouldn't even hurt a fly but inside we know what he is capable of. Viewers in 1960 must have been on tenterhooks leaving the cinema.
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