Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

In 1960, a film was released by Alfred Hitchcock entitled, Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock was already a well-known director and was considered one of the best-known filmmakers in the world for his other films in the thriller genre. The film was released on September 8, 1960 and forever changed the horror genre. There was a lot of success surrounding this film and even earned the director an Edgar Award for it being the best motion picture screenplay. The 1960’s Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho, had such great success and caused such a change for future horror movies because it was psychological, graphic, and shocking. To begin, Psycho is an extremely psychological movie. One of the main characters, Norman Bates, suffered from psychological issues himself and this was shown throughout the movie. There is a part in the film where Norman was speaking with a motel guest named Marion, and they are having a somewhat deep conversation about life. Norman begins to talk about traps when Marion explains that she is on the run. He explains that people get caught in their own traps that they can never get out of. As

Keep in mind that this was a time where it was unheard of to have a flushing toilet in public films, yet the movie Psycho shocks the audience on another level by killing a main character one third of the way through the movie with a graphic murder scene. It is stated in an article entitled, “Behind the Camera on Psycho,” that “Alfred Hitchcock even said that one of the reasons he made the film in black and white was because he knew if he filmed it in color, the blood scenes would be too shocking for the audience” (Nixon 20). Scenes like “Arbogast Meets Mother” would keep the viewer on their toes with a quick yet thrilling murder scene; while other parts like the shower scene would leave the audience gasping for