Psycho Review

This movie, in my opinion, was a hundred times better than Casablanca. I never really lost interest in the storyline and I could easily follow what was going on throughout the entire movie without looking at any summaries or synopses on the Internet. The movie tells the tale of a woman named Marian Crane who works at a bank and selfishly steals forty thousand dollars when given to take care of. On her road trip to meet with her lover, she stops at the Bates Motel one night to escape from the downpouring rain. Norman Bates is the owner of the motel and at first seems like a nice guy. Little do we know, he is a madman and ends up murduring Marian by the end of the movie. Norman has a double sided personality and acts like his deceased mother...who is psycho to say the least. This movie, all time, is one of the most definitive horror movies ever made. Since it was made in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock felt that the movie would have been more appropriate for the audience if it was filmed in black and white. This would make the infamous shower scene less gory and more tolerable for people. However, when looking at the movie now, horror movies have come a LONG way since then. The shower scene (and the movie to be fair) was not really that scary at all. Hitchcock used chocolate syrup instead fake red blood to make it less gory...but the knife never really gets shown penetrating the woman. I'll just say the scene's special effects were not of high quality back then. One thing I really liked about the movie is the complex storyline. The storyline is straight out of a Scooby-Doo show and it keeps you guessing and confused throughout the plot of the film. The thought that Norman kept his mother's corpse and wore a wig to act like his mother and be his mother at times was really sketchy, but it surprised me a lot after seeing him revealed at the end. Another thing I really liked about Psycho was the ending when it showed Norman talking to himself in his empty locked up room. The creepiness and the craziness of Norman is truly shown at this time. The audience can hear mother's voice in Norman's head as she/he tries to form a plan to get free. When mother's skull is super imposed over Norman's face, I found that effect really interesting and it showed the unity of the two personalities becoming one to the audience. The way it was used at the end made it a great ending in my eyes. I also noticed during that end scene how Norman says to himself how he wouldn't even harm a fly. I have heard that line a million times before and I never knew it was used at the end of Psycho. When I heard it during the class, I recognized the line immediately and I just found it interesting that it was in the end of the movie. When we first started watching Psycho, I found it extremely sketchy, but humorous at the same time. The scenes that involved the cop stalking Marian were very funny to watch. Espescially when the music cuts in when Marian starts to drive away from him, it's very amusing to hear. The music is supposed to be suspenseful, but it just doesn't fit that role for me. As for when the murders take place, there is a huge difference if there is sound or no sound involved. You can definately anticipate and sense a more horrific feeling for what is about to happen. Without sound, the movie being scary is a non-factor for the audience. But, all in all, I liked Psycho. It was a very interesting movie to watch, it kept my attention the entire time, and it was way more exciting than Casablanca! Why couldn't we answer questions about this movie instead of Casablanca?? I actually paid attention to this one and enjoyed watching it. The lack of confusion in the storyline made it a lot easier to watch also.