Alfred Hitchcock is one of the visionary directors who consistently attempted his best and exceeded expectations in the psychological thrillers. His contribution to cinema from the late 1920s to the late 1970s is the main reason behind the popularity of psychological thriller genres and psychological horror genres. There are heaps of motion pictures that originated from Hitchcock which were termed as the greatest movies of all time; however, there is one specific film which was named by many moviegoers, film critics and scholars around the globe as Hitchcock’s unarguably most popular and, arguably his greatest work ever to bless the silver screens. Yes, you are right! We are talking about Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho!
Psycho is a movie that changed the structure of storytelling in the Psychological horror genre forever in world cinema. The Cult Classic is often termed as the main reason behind the resurrection of the psychological horror / psychological thriller genre in Hollywood, which inspired lots of filmmakers to come up with similar storylines. Indeed, even today, the prominence and the freshness of this cult classic movie remains the same. Many people are unaware of the fact that Psycho is based on a horror novel of the same name which was published in 1959. The novel was written by Robert Bloch, which was later adapted to a feature film by Alfred Hitchcock.
Who could forget the creepy Norman Bates and the nail-biting shower scene in this movie? Norman Bates, depicted by Anthony Perkins, is constantly named as one the best antagonist ever and even today he can send a few chills into our spine as a man with riddles. After 60 years of the movie’s release, Norman Bates is still getting so much love and recognition from the audience, movie critics, and scholars alike on account of the flawless acting capability of Perkins. Apart from Norman Bates, the one thing that pops up in our mind, when we think about this movie is the murder of Leigh’s character in the shower. The scene is one of the most talked and sensational scenes ever made in cinema history. Seventy-seven different camera angles were used to film that particular scene. It is said that the duration of the finished scene is around three minutes which includes 50 cuts. The kind of tension and fear that the audience experience while watching this scene even today speaks the volume of Hitchcock’s vision and his standard in filmmaking nuances The scene is splendid enough to bring out the dread in us and the excellent part is, it is less violent (at least comparing it to the random slasher films) and the entire scene managed to frighten the audience through camera angles, Leigh’s performance, and background music.
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Another interesting fact about the movie is that Hitchcock shot the film in black and white as he thought the entire movie might look too gory in color. Besides, Psycho will be cherished by the audience on any given day. The astonishing performance, compelling storyline, outstanding technical aspects, and spellbinding direction of this timeless classic is never going to let down the audience of any generation.
Therefore, we conclude this article stating that Psycho is not only the best thing that ever happened to the psychological horror genre, it is also one of the greatest movie ever made in the World Cinema Industry. If you love movies, then your journey to watch a path-breaking and unique movie will always remain incomplete without watching Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
