Being a movie lover in this era, you must’ve gotten use to horror cliches. The beautiful and (most often) sexy ladies as the victim, the high-pitched scream of them when a killer about to stab them, and of course, a murdering scene in the shower. Now wait, I might just explain some things in the movie Psycho (1960). A movie that was based on a novel with the same name, and loosely based on a true events in Wisconsin. A movie that might be responsible for making this cliche horror scenes, the one who started it all.
Seeing Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) itself easily targeted as a victim. She’s beautiful, drives alone across city and seem to be lost. Craved for security in life she desperately seeks from a secretive relationship she has with her divorced-boyfriend, who couldn’t afford a life together, let alone a wedding. It is the reason she steals $40.000 from her boss and drive away from the city before weekend starts. She checked in Bates Motel later in a rainy night, where she is greeted by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who owns the motel. They talked for a while over dinner, after Marion heard Norman’s mother in their house near the motel, seemingly disagree for him to accompany Marion for dinner.
There’s an old saying, “First customer of the day is always the trouble!”From their conversation, it seems Norman is suffered from his mother’s dominating and demanding personality, but couldn’t leave her because he’s the only one who will look after her. Then Marion said she’s tired, to get back to her cabin and plan to forget her trip and return the money. But she couldn’t set things straight, since she gets murdered in the shower, over a shadow of a woman with a knife. It is only matter of time before people started to noticed Marion went missing, and they begin their search.
I repeatedly said that classic movies are considered classic and timeless, because they are simply great. They don’t need much effect, gimmicks or even CGI. They have strong scripts, solid performance and time placement. And because of their simplicity, they are easily remembered. It is almost like that, even in today’s movies. Same as Hitchcock’s Psycho. It is as simple and horrific as Leigh’s anxious face all over the screen, or her screaming in the shower, or her dead face on horror still look touching the floor. But I do felt the horror sound effects were too much when Leigh drive away after being seen by his boss.
Psycho brought a dilemma of a kid, love and hate to their parents. Once again, a person is basically born innocent, but life can really mess them up. Anthony Perkins was charming, convincing and brilliant as Norman. Though I could guess the real motive and mystery, I still found the structure and plot of the story was solid and neat.
Honestly, I’ve seen more horror in movies that Psycho. So back then, there weren’t make-up artist or computer effects yet. Or dynamic video editing. But I think the fact that it was based on real story and being told quite vivid and simple, makes it horrifyingly easy to remember. How can you forget, when the murderer stares at you with his psycho look on the screen, in the very last scene? It makes one of the best iconic scene ever seen, possibly best horror ending scene ever made, since it revealed the layers of the murderer right before the movie ends.
If you are an attractive woman, being impulsive and decide to runaway with a pile of money on your wallet, please beware of a deserted motel. You wouldn’t want to run into a psycho.
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