Clinging to The Past !

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2008)

I think that's an important horror piece. Bold, and nasty. But being just the well-done even original horror, doesn't make it outlive all the other movies of the genre as sure it did. What I loved about Psycho, regarding that I don't "love" the Horror genre in the first place!, else being a brilliant case of Jekyll and Hyde as son and mother, or being that awesomely suspenseful and highly creepy, is that it has unique interpretation, and talented inner meaning of its own that will give it the immortality it deserves. In short, this genre movie.. Got brains!
Norman Bates is nothing but a rare perfect type of a person who lives the past, and can't let it go. He is a clear proof that the strong clinging to the past, with losing the contact with the present, makes you a monster indeed. Look at him, lost it after the murder of his mother, the time stopped in that sick point, and also him. So when he couldn't utterly face the truth, the reality, he had to continue living yesterday endlessly and dopily, which led him to be the freak he was. He managed to kill his days by killing his best dreams / the nice girls, because he was a slave of his fear to face the world with his desires, transforming into the most ravenous, as well as the most alive, stuffed animal in the house.
Norman buried his mother so himself into this motel where only his demons were being comfortable. This old palace illustrated perpetually the dark bygone, or the importunate sins, when we don't have the ability to break it away to become our chosen big tomb, and our dreams' slaughterhouse. Strange that nobody ever helped Norman, but since when anybody ever thinks of a troubled person like him in a greedy world that runs after the money, and the money only. Actually, it could be the reason why Norman Bates pulled off murdering whoever came to the motel, as he was stronger than them all, since he doesn't want the money.
I liked the idea of suppressed kid in Anthony Perkins's performance as Norman, and how that could make him a serial killer in a way. The dialogue was plain and deep if you catch on the film's main motif, and interesting also with its sarcastic indications at the second watching: "Mother didn't feel like herself tonight!". And (Bernard Herrmann) is the best when it comes to create great horror music; I read once about making his music for black and white films into black and white feel too, by his own special orchestration. This man got both the eloquent style and the commercial captivity superbly. I'm obsessed with the opening credits' hot score, it said it all, and it can infiltrate into your deepest nastiness, or deal with what's under your skin of the most awful thoughts ever.
I adore the brief, yet marvelously clever, zoom-in on Norman's face after he drowned the car, aside from being darkly expressing and distinctive at the 1950s' end, it's a slight touch confirms how Hitch was madly in love with the art of cinema. Though, still the most terrifying moment was when we have the chance finally to meet Mrs. Bates' face, but as for now, it's definitely the moment after, when Norman as Mrs. Bates smiles at the camera's eye refusing to harm a fly, and in one split second, we saw the ghost of the real mother's empty skull while the mix of the lifted car / the film's last shot; I believe Hitchcock made it confident that someone would see it as well as relish it in the assured next watching. As you see, one watching isn't enough.
For negative points; unlike millions, I hated the bathtub's crime scene; yes, it was new, frightful, and Hitch enjoyed handling it cinematically, but it took sex and violence to extremes on screen, representing a new age of exploiting these factors in a shocking manner. A manner that would pave the way for more shocking, less human horror movies. I know that it's art, and the artist is free, and their creations have to develop, and push the boundaries, but maybe I don't like this kind of development, or encourage pushing these very boundaries.
Btw, he lost reason behind the rest of Psycho's franchise as being lower is easy, they were only the exploitation, as cheap horror movies, with nothing under the surface to present, let alone the matter of breakable surface already, with less artistic everything, as if the producers took the worst of Norman Bates and Marion Crane themselves; killing madly yet to earn some big bucks!
Psycho is some climax for Hitchcock, in terms of ability and popularity. It's a fine genre movie with possible meaning, which means very fine in my book apart. And the best about it was that it achieved being the most *film* among all the genre's movies.