Robert Bloch's Psycho

There are not many people who are not familiar with the Psycho, whether they only heard about it or actually encountered the book or the movie. All it took was a woman, a shower and a butcher’s knife combined with a widely recognizable sound effect in order to create one of the most famous and defining scenes in horror movie history. Unfortunately, more people are familiar with the movie and not the book itself. Psycho, which can be characterized as either a horror novel, a psychological, suspense or crime novel, was written by Robert Bloch in 1959. Upon reading the novel, one can say that it has characteristic pieces of every genre mentioned above. The story was then, in 1960, adapted into a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Robert Bloch

Within the very first pages, Norman and his Mother get into a malicious fight as Mother criticizes Norman. He is unable to stand up to her. In his head he imagines the thrill and excitement of killing her, but the guest at the front door of the motel shatters his thoughts. The woman in need for a room, Mary Crane, has driven across several states in order to meet her fiancé, Sam Loomis. Norman is unaware of the fact that Mary stole $40,000 from her employer, so that she could meet her fiancé, pay off his debts and start a life together as a family. Norman, inexperienced with young women, invited Mary up to the house for dinner. After witnessing the horrible and abusive relationship between Norman and his mother, Mary suggests to put Mother into an institution. Hearing it, Norman screams that Mother is not crazy. Later that night, Norman watched Mary undress in her room through a peephole in his office. At the time he was drinking and soon passed out on the office chair. An old woman enters Mary’s room while she was taking a shower and murders her. Norman woke up, found Mary’s corpse and instantly assumed Mother to be a murderer. He knew he needed to protect and help her, since the thought of being separated from her was dreadful. As might be expected, people were looking for Mary: her fiancé Sam, sister Lila, a detective and a police sheriff. All the traces lead back to the Bates Motel, the place of many secrets which are yet to be