I'm a little bit psycho for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. It's amazing!

Rating: 9/10 (26 June 2013)

Some critics believe 'Psycho' to be Director Alfred Hitchcock's Magnum opus. In my opinion, it's an masterpiece that set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films. Even before the 1960's, Alfred Hitchcock was already famous as the screen's master of suspense and perhaps the best-known film director in the world at the time. This movie just add to it with subliminal themes, subtext and images. The center theme of Psycho is the concept of multiplies identifies where characters are challenge to live through life under multiplies roles. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is just that type of a character. She is unhappy in her job at a Phoenix, Arizona real estate office and living in a double life with her affect with strong will Sam Loomis (John Gavin). One day, Marion is given money to be deposited in the bank. Instead of depositing it, Marion takes off with the cash, hoping to leave Phoenix for good and start a new life with her love affair Sam. Rather than meeting Sam, she finds a nervous charming innkeeper Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) at the Motel, she was staying. He was control by his over demanding mother. Anthony Perkins gives a subtle performance here. She is taken by Norman Bates innocent charm, as she sees him as the fragile alter-ego of Sam. In many ways, Norman Bates and Sam have very similar stories, the only different is that Norman can't live without her mother, while Sam can. There's hardly a film fan alive who doesn't know what happens next, as the shower scene is probably the film's most famous sequence. In a way, the shower scene was like baptismal waters. Marion had decided to go back, come clean, and take the consequence, so when she stepped into the bathtub it was as if she cleaning herself of sin. I like the fact that Marion's underwear is white before the theft, and black after. Feeling in rage that Marion might steal Norman away from her when Marion suggests to Norman that he put his mother in a mental hospital, her mother strikes Marion, only for Norman to cover it up. When Marion goes off missing, her personality live on with her double, twin sister Lila Crane (Vera Miles) who finds herself staying at the Bates motel, just like her long-lost sister. I love how Hitchcock utilized and probably was the first to establish the writing technique of the false protagonist. The false protagonist is when the viewers are introduced to a character that supposed to be the main character, only to be removed from the story either by death or other means early in the film. By removing Marion Crane from the story, early on. It might offend Janet Leigh's fans, but Alfred Hitchcock's know what's for the best. One of the best image scenes are the mirrors in why show that the characters have multiply personality. Another running theme is the money. The stolen money that Marion carries about with her represents her dirty little secrets. Hitchcock goes so far as to symbolically link this pile of money to a pile of feces. Every talk about money is weaved into dialogue about how filthy it is. While the showing scene can be seen as erotica for Norman Bates; Norman Bates mother sees it as filth. Contrary to a widely told tale, Hitchcock did not arrange for the water to suddenly go ice-cold during the shower scene to elicit an effective scream from Leigh. But Hitchcock did tested the shock value of Mother's corpse by placing it in Leigh's dressing room and listening to how loud she screamed when she notice it there. Compare to Modern Day Slasher films, this film is really tame of violence. The film was known to be nauseating for some viewers at the time, even with it being shot in black and white. The novel is more brutal than the film version. It had a beheading no less in it. Alfred Hitchcock cut it out, and did stabbing instead. Even with its graphic nature, the "shower scene" never once shows a knife puncturing flesh. Alfred Hitchcock desire to prevent the shower scene from being too gory so he film the movie in black and white, while also trying to cut cost down. I think, the biggest reason why it is in black and white is because it's better for horror films with the use of shadows. While it is tame, the movie is still disturbing. Hints why the film still have the Rated R label. What might bizarre is how often the film talks about eating. Considering that the writer of the original book, Robert Bloch based his story loosely upon the activities of serial killer and cannibal Ed Gein, some of these constant references to eating could simply be a sly reference to cannibalism. One subliminal theme of Psycho is when Norman chats to Marion about his hobby of taxidermy. It's remind us another Hitchcock classic movie 1963's The Birds. By having Marion eat like a bird, and having a last name like a bird. No wonder why Norman wants to eat her all up, but Norman couldn't hurt a fly or could he. That's actually a form of symbolism. The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann titled "The Murder" is amazing. It works for the film so well. This film sequels that followed in 1983 are just mediocre at best. There was also a 1998's remake of the film with Director Gus Van Sant that was God awful. 2012 and 2013 was a big high for Psycho fans as Bates Motel started to aired on A&E. Anthony Hopkins star in 2012 film Hitchcock about filming the movie, and also a HBO telefilm call 'The Girl" with Toby Jones as Hitchcock during the filming of this movie, Psycho.