--------------------
Everybody has the capacity to murder, but some can't help it. Some men, like Ed Gein, committed the most heinous crimes simply because they were sick in the head. Author Robert Bloch took inspiration from Gein's murders and birthed his own unique saga: the novel Psycho, which centered around a mentally-impaired motel manager named Norman Bates. Inevitably, the novel fell into the hands of Alfred Hitchcock, who saw the potential in presenting the story's terror on the screen. He wanted to push the envelope with it, to the point of showing bloody murder in unprecedented detail. Despite opposition from a reluctant studio and conservative censors, Hitchcock crafted this taut, gritty, graphic thriller and changed the standards of horror cinema forever.
After a flashy opening credits sequence that highlights Bernard Hermann's intense score, the film tracks Mary Crane (Janet Leigh) who takes off with a big wad of cash. For the first half, the film focuses on all her fears and worries, until she stops at a certain motel and meets Norman Bates (played with impeccable skill by Anthony Perkins, chosen for the role precisely because of his everyman look and demeanor). We soon learn that Norman is far from normal--alone in the motel with his mother's oppressive voice dominating his life, all he has is the motel and taxidermy to fill his empty life. But his life is turned upside down as his and his mother's impulses clash with bloody results.
Among the film's highlights, there is the famous shower scene--a gruesome murder skillfully and artfully immortalized with sharp photography, then arranged as an evocative montage. It's not just the centerpiece of the film, it's a powerful scene that encapsulates the terror of human life spiraling down the mortal drain. It's a scene everybody has to see once in a lifetime, if for no other reason than its notoriety. Of all the scenes in the film (if not Hitchcock's entire career), this is the one that reaches beyond the frames of the film and stabs the audience deep into the heart and psyche. So brutal, but too compelling to look away.
The film has a smattering of other iconic scenes. Photography overall is superb, and looks all the classier in black-and-white. Sharp editing keeps the film snappy and swift, although the story dips a little in between the most famous scenes (thanks largely to the side characters, whom I've never felt were all that interesting--and I felt the same with the original book). Despite being shot on a budget, the film boasts good and real-looking sets, props, and locales. The script is faithful to the book, but takes enough liberties to differentiate itself and breathe a different kind of life into each character (especially Mary, who feels more real in the film). This film was notorious in its day for being one of the first (at least in the American mainstream) to show blood on screen. In addition to a toilet that actually flushes. And a nude woman in the shower (although nothing explicit is shown). And other nutty things that are revealed meticulously in the twisty plot. There are some pretty impressive plot twists, courtesy of the novel, which carry over very well cinematically, and holds up to repeat viewings. One major flaw in the plotting occurs only at the very end, when an infodump appears to explain exactly what the audience just saw (and this exists in the book too, but is much less pointed--it seems to stick out worse in the film). The last shot with the voice-over, however, is appropriately chilling.
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is tutted at one of the greatest films of all time, and it brims with iconic sights and sounds that have held up for over 55 years. It is a very stylish character-driven thriller with a few mind-bending twists, and a lot of grit. It's the film that tore down the pretense of the out-modish production code and presented a more perverse face of terror. Countless other films would follow to do the same, but hardly any would match Psycho's cinematic or narrative prowess. It is a must-see.
4.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment