65th Anniversary of Psycho

          Long before the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Silence of the Lambs, there was Sir Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Psycho was the first ever, shocking, horror film loosely based off the murders of Ed Gein, a murderer who killed numerous ladies, while wearing the skins of his victims but more importantly has mother issues growing up. Look if you want the full bio, just watch the Netflix miniseries I'm sure Charlie Hunnam is excellent-ish? The point I'm making is that I suddenly realized that this year marks the 65th Anniversary of Hitchcock's greatest achievement in film and I don't think I could ever forgive myself if I at least don't mention or recommend the greatness that is Psycho, especially on Halloween week.

          Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the run, stealing 40 grand from her employer to run away with her boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin), is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother. 

          A surprising notion to add is Psycho was actually based off the bestselling book Psycho, that was of course based off the murders of Ed Gein but the interesting thing is Ed Gein was arrested in 1957, moreover became a wide known serial killer overnight and yet there was a book published around April of 1959, for which is strange in sense because you’re a writer and the first thing you hear on the news is a killer nobody would expect and then publish a book overnight which is, when you think about it, finding great inspiration on the local news because really your creating your own story not buy the rights of this killer and writing about his story your just simply creating your own story and props to Robert Bloch because without him, Sir Alfred Hitchcock wouldn't get the inspiration for his next movie. The other thing in what makes Psycho in iconic horror movie is Hitch saw the potential as well as something new that he never expected to have in a movie (full disclosure if you want a full story just watch the bio pic Hitchcock 2012) and Hitch, when pitching the book to Paramount for his next and final project to the studio didn't want to finance the story because of its graphic violence, as well as the idea of a guy dressing in his mother's clothes, it's almost unheard off especially in the mid-fifties and early-sixties. So, with no other option, Hitch had to make this movie in a low-budget moreover under a million dollars at the time but even when watching the movie and knowing all of those facts you're strangely curious of how Hitch was able to film this movie with some of the landscapes and filming the entire movie in the back lot of Paramount moreover the way he was able to shoot it is simply outstanding and I love the way it turned out. And even after the film’s success Hitchcock made a fortune off Psycho's box-office success because the people at Paramount believed the film would do poorly. To me what makes this film amazing as well as terrifying is simply you feeling for Janet Leigh's character when she's on the road fearing for her life in terms of getting caught and yet we don't know where she goes but of all places she comes across, she comes across a mediocre motel in the middle of know where that's next to a untrustworthy house moreover was owned by Anthony Perkins who looks like an okay dude, but when you get to know him, there's something not right with that guy and you don't technically trust him. But more importantly what really creeps me out is staying at a down and out motel owned by untrustworthy people because you never know whose coming in your shower and stabbing you to death, and I live in the Midwest of the United States and I can tell you the many motels in Nebraska that I wouldn't want to step into because of how awful looking they are and still are. Even when shooting Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock had to make the movie as well as the story confidential because he didn't want anyone including his audience to know how the story ends especially in the book, so everything about this movie was all hush, hush to the point that once the film’s release everyone was caught off guard, for which now with so many trailers it's almost impossible to hold the story of a movie a secret because they're basically telling you the whole movie after watching countless movie trailers they release. I still say that Anthony Perkins was an actor ahead of his time especially after watching Fear Strikes Out because he does an exceptional job play a character whose insecure always a doubter upon himself, moreover always awkward but in this movie he does have all of those qualities but through the course of the movie you begin to see a darker side to him that slowly comes into fluorescent until the final reveal and the way he comes down the stairs I still can't get over his face because it's just so, shocking and you can't get enough of him coming down the stairs even when the final shot of the movie where he has his iconic smile is always so chilling that you can't get enough of him and it's so great, moreover goes back to us as humans, we all have that psychotic animal inside of us and it's always a matter of how we're able to unleash that animal at the cost of our own humanity, though the way Perkins exploits it is just fantastic all because he's slowly shedding his humanity and not revealing any details yet. I don't think I can close this review without mentioning music composer Bernard Herrmann who wrote the score to Psycho for many reasons without his chilling musical score, we wouldn't have the chilling and suspenseful elements that you see in the movie, moreover it's basically the final ingredient to what you need for a film like this, almost the way John Williams score for Star Wars or the Indiana Jones films. Just the chilling stretches of the violin in the shower scene are so great and so chilling that you can't get that music out of your head, and it just works in so many ways. Even after the film’s release people gave the film a bad rap and not accepting the film for what it is and it's basically another way to give suspense to the audience at that time, but then you have Walt Disney who wouldn't let Hitchcock film at any of Disneyland all because of the disgusting movie (Psycho) and yet this is the same guy who’s a massive anti-sematic and yet his company is massively woke so, jokes on that man because he's spending the rest of his afterlife rolling around in his own coffin. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is a master class of modern horror storytelling, and I can't think of nothing better than recommending to the whole world in watching Psycho on your TV or Blu-Ray even on Peacock or Hulu and for this Halloween season this film is worth the watch. So, until next October, Happy Halloween.