Finding the Signifigance of Psycho

Whenever someone talks about the elite collection of American movies from the 20th century, Psycho is destined to come up. It is the definitive horror movie ever made to what all other horror movies made after it have been judged and put up against it.

Upon viewing, it doesn't seem in the least bit dated even 45 years later after it was put out. The man behind it was Alfred Hitchcock. He was a unique filmmaker who pioneered the use of split personalities in one human being which saturates many modern movies.

To my knowledge, he also was one of the first filmmakers to incorporate the word transvestite into a movie script. This word was used in the police chief's office to possibly describe the mind state of Bates by one of the police officers. Even though Bates wasn't a transvestite like the police officer thought he may have been, his well done interpretation of a dual split personality was one of the redeeming qualities of this flick.

In numerous interviews, Anthony Perkins who portrayed Norman Bates, noted that his character had a certain similarity to how a bird moves. This movement is especially noted in the scene where Bates and Marion Crane are eating food in the lobby parlor after she had just arrived.

Throughout the movie, the tension was built very slowly. The movie score composed by Bernard Herrmann does a very precise job of keeping time with the movie and never seeming out of sync with what is going on in the course of the movie.

When the private investigator was stabbed in the main house, Herrmann mimics a knife stabbing with the music itself. That mimic has helped that sound be recognized worldwide, even by people who have never watched the movie. The angles used in this movie were very ahead of their time also.

The angle of Mrs. Bates was shot at the right angle which enabled her face to be concealed for most of the movie which added to the mystery if she was alive or not. All the way at the end of the movie, you find out that she was dead all this time.

The angle of following the private eye down the stairs after he was stabbed was the first of its kind. This was a departure from the usual of watching the person fall down the stairs from the backside. To most for all of these very reasons mentioned in this piece, there will only ever be one true Psycho.