Alfred Hitchcock’s magnum opus Psycho was released in 1960. Made on a shoe string budget and shot in black and white, to save budget and create a mood similar to the noir films of the Classical Hollywood Era, the film followed a radical path in every way- from advertisement to storytelling techniques and musical score. The film was an immense commercial success and still continues to have a huge impact on the thriller genre.

The film opens with an overhead shot of a city with a haunting and ominous background score by Bernard Hermann and we meet our protagonist in a hotel room with her boyfriend Sam. Marion Crane is a typical Hitchcockian, working-class people stuck in unexpected situations, protagonist embezzles money from her bosses to pay off her boyfriend’s debts and escaped to live a life of freedom. But her escape is fraught with obstacles such as her co-workers and law enforcement but she manages to evade them all and ends up in Bates Motel to stay the night. There she meets a sweet but socially awkward Norman Bates, who runs the deserted motel. But it all changed when she was killed off in the middle of the story by a mysterious person and covered up by Norman Bates. The iconic death of the protagonist in the first half of the film marked a radical shift in the storytelling forms in Classical Hollywood Films. The film started as a character driven story where Marion created an expectation that the story will end with the outcome of her future. Played by Janet Leigh, one of the biggest stars in Classical Hollywood, it helped to get the audience to root for her more easily and her sudden shocking demise created a sense of doom and shock in the audience which also allowed Norman Bates to come to forefront very strongly as he is mixed up in her death. This allowed the mystery of the killer to kept hidden as long as possible thus keeping the suspense throughout the film.

The antagonist, Norman Bates, is a receptionist at the Bates Motel who is introduced as a kind yet slightly weird person who dabbled in taxidermy. The parlour where Marion and Norman had food is filled with animals who were subjected to taxidermy indicating visually that there was death all around him. This also has similarities to how he kept his dead mother in the house- dead but still close to him. Through classic Hitchcockian strategy, he is created as a person who is apparently caught in this situation where in he has to hide the crimes committed by his mother. The split personality disorder which he suffered from is inflicted upon through years of hinted emotional abuse and isolation from the world. His mother’s dominant personality takes over his submissive personality and creates an image of herself in him after her death.

He is a victim and a criminal at the same time and raises the question that whether every human being has a dark side that is kept hidden.

The film is then carried on by two secondary protagonists: Arbogast, a private investigator hired to find the money and Lila, Marion’s sister trying to find her. They drive the story forward by searching for Marion and ends up in Bates Motel. Here, since it is already established that there is a murder running lose in the house and motel, we are now anticipating of what the future holds for them. Arbogast’s death marks the second protagonist death and turns the story to a more terrifying path. Lila’s crusade seems to be more difficult without any answers. Now she and Sam, Marion’s boyfriend, goes to confront Norman, the mystery seems more degraded as much as it peels off. In an unforgettable climax, Marion find’s Norma’s dead body and Norman as his mother but she gets saved by Sam. The climax is very powerful as it reveals the horror and degradation of human nature in a very short amount of time. The anticipation built over the story comes to a very frightening and horrifying imagery allows Hitchcock to shock the audience to their core. The appearance of Norman as his mother and her dead body in the same room also cleverly closes out the question of how a woman was killing people who was revealed to be a dead person.

The last part of the film although consists of an iconic shot of Norman Bates, the whole explanation was slightly unnecessary but it bookends the film completely without any questions. The only questions that were raised was whether to punish Norman for the murders because he committed it or release him because of his mental condition. The moral ambiguity of whether Norman was pure evil or just a product of his condition even though it was explained it wasn’t his fault. Human nature is affected by the surrounding he grows up in and might answer a lot of question on why some behaviours. Terror in the the spaces also played a great part. The Bates Motel and the house on the hill became part of the horror. While Bates Motel became a place where there is no privacy and murder, the house on the hill becomes a symbol for the past trauma Norman faced and the horrors it hides in its basement i.e., the body of Norman’s mother. The house stood out from the surroundings, almost looking like gates to hell. The film raised uncomfortable questions about human psyche and at the same time showed a perfection of cinematic craft.