Film Review for Psycho

The initial scene in the film Psycho is of who we are lead to believe are to be the main characters named Marion, (Janet Leigh) and Sam (John Gavin) in a love scene. They are having a relationship but Sam is experiencing some money difficulties as he is still paying maintenance to his ex wife. We then see Marion arriving at her place of work which is an estate Agents where a man is securing a deal, buying a house for his daughter for $40,000. Marion is asked to bank the money but instead of banking the money as requested by her boss she takes the money hoping that this will be the end to Sam’s financial problems.

Over come by guilt she then escapes in her car but sees her boss whilst waiting at a zebra crossing. Marion carries on driving without direction and eventually gets weary so she pulls into a roadside lay-by and has forty winks. When waking she is greeted by a policeman staring at her through the window or her car. Marion is obviously nervous about her crime, and when answering the policeman’s questions she stutters. Supposedly satisfied with her answers he then leaves Marion and she continues her journey. She has a detour, that being going to buy a car as you do!!!

She trades her car in record time for a new one surely someone must have known something was going on!!. Again she sees the policeman who is watching her movements from the opposite side of the road, he obviously wasn’t pleased with her answers, but no action is taken!! After her lucky escape from the policeman Marion checks into Bates Motel, what a mistake that was… Alfred Hitchcock’s clever use of full screen camera shots help’s the viewer to feel secure and protected when in actual fact he is leading us to something the audience is not expecting!!

This has film has to be watched to know what the outcome will be! watch it!! Marion and Norman Bates are often seen in full face screen and many a time they are in silhouettes, to enhance their true character. Aha ha ha ha!! Hitchcock cleverly produced the film in Black and White in order not to shock his 1960 audience. In today’s modern film production this would be no problem as many thriller films are in colour and include many 3D effects, unlike then, also according to a report by Roger Edbert it said that Hitchcock wanted to make the film on the cheap, $800,000.

Marion Crane is the main character in Psycho, from early on the in film she is portrayed as a bad individual as she has stolen $40,000 from the estate agent where she is employed. Another key character that is seen is Norman Bates who has a principal role in the film. He lives with his ‘Mother’ and they own Bates Motel where much of the action takes place. The aspect of the film that really stood out to me was the suspense of who was the murderer and this suspense was carried out for all of the film.

It kept leading my mind and thoughts to different conclusions. The plot played many tricks with my mind also. Leading my thinking in all directions. Did the policeman know that she had stolen the money? Why was he following her? Who was Norman Bates Mother? In my perspective ‘Psycho’ is a fantastic enigma code of a film. Throughout the film you are constantly trying to work out what is happening next, but by the end the true murder is revealed. ‘Psycho’ what a thriller of a film, in all ways.

Read next:

Market Analysis matrix and Eastenders
Analysis of Reservoir Dogs and The Killing in terms of Narrative and Genre
Enduring Love’ and ‘Atonement’