Jessica Webb’s review published on Letterboxd:
Psycho: "A Boy's Best Friend is His Mother..."
I was looking forward to watching this, as Alfred Hitchcock is such an iconic director and filmmaker. There are a couple of his other classics that I have watched before, like "The Birds" and "Rope" which stars James Stewart. This film is a certified classic, and after watching, it met my expectations, and surpassed them!
The opening credits and the music playing in the background already gets you in a sinister mindset. In fact, the whole score has that creepiness. The whole film is in black and white, and in my further research, this is done on purpose. The opening scene: a couple that are ending a promiscuous night together, and probably a scandalous situation ahead of it's time for the year 1960. He has major debts, so they cannot get married. The woman, named Marion, is a young clerk at a bank. After a big time client comes in, with a large amount of cash, $40,000 to be exact, her employer tells her to deposit it immediately. After a few minutes, Marion asks to be let go early, claiming to have a headache. He tells her this is fine, just please remember to deposit the money before she gets back home, which she agrees to do. However, she does the exact opposite, packing a bag and leaving town with the money.
During the driving scene, the background music starts again, and you get the sense that she is paranoid, and her mind is racing. I thought this scene was great, because it gives the viewer an idea of her mindset, and just how worried she is about her stealing the money. Eventually, she comes across the Bates Motel in the middle of the night and decides to get a room. Again, Hitchcock doesn't disappoint, showing that there is a creepy old house next to the motel. The man who comes to put her in a room is the owner of the motel, Norman Bates. He is noticeably "backward" exhibiting some weird personality traits. After inviting her to have dinner with him, she accepts, he goes to get it at the house. She hears him arguing back and forth with his mother exclaiming that he "isn't going to bring some young girl to dinner!"
After dinner, she proceeds to her room, cabin number one, and then the iconic shower scene happens. The old lady, or mother, proceeds to attack Marion with a knife. Although you never see the actual stabbing, you see the water become stained with the blood from her wounds. After doing a little research on the film, I found that after watching this scene, people were very paranoid and often scared in their own showers. Maybe that was Hitchcock's goal. Even though there is minimal gore, the movie changed the way horror movies were made after this film.
Meanwhile, Marion's sister and lover are worried about her, and proceed to go looking for her. The Private Investigator hired by the man owning the 40k decides to check out the Bates Motel. Of course he is yet another victim of "Norma" Bates, once again showing minimal gore, but I still jumped when she appeared out of the room wielding a knife. When Marion's sister and Sam, Marion's lover don't hear from the P.I. they decide to investigate on their own. This leads up to the ending, which is the greatest twist of all! I won't spoil the film, but again, this is iconic.
I give this film a whopping 5 stars! I think that everyone who has a love of films, especially horror films, needs to watch. Brava.