Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller-horror film directed by Alfred

Hitchcock starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Janet Leigh. The
screenplay is by Joseph Stefano, based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Ro
bert Bloch loosely inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and grave robber
Ed Gein.[4]
The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who
ends up at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the m
otel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath.[5] Wh
en originally made, the film was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous f
ilm North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television cr
ew and in black and white. Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstand
ing box office returns prompted reconsideration which led to overwhelming critic
al acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress
for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock.
It is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films[6] and praised as a work of c
inematic art by international film critics and film scholars. Ranked among the g
reatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, dev
iant behavior and sexuality in American films,[7] and is widely considered to be
the earliest example of the slasher film genre. After Hitchcock's death in 1980
, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups: three sequels, a remake, a telev
ision film spin-off, and a TV series.
In 1992, the US Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, o
r aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Fi
lm Registry.
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
3.1 Development
3.2 Novel adaptation
3.3 Pre-production
3.4 Filming
3.5 The shower scene
4 Soundtrack
4.1 Score
4.2 Recordings
5 Controversy
6 Promotion
7 Interpretations
7.1 Subversion of romance through irony
7.2 Motifs
7.3 Psychoanalytic interpretation
8 Reception
9 Recognition
10 Legacy
10.1 Sequels
10.2 1987 Bates Motel pilot
10.3 1998 remake
10.4 2012 Hitchcock film
10.5 The Psycho Legacy
10.6 Bates Motel series
10.7 Psychos
11 Cultural impact
12 Ratings
13 Home media
14 See also

15 References
16 Further reading
17 External links
Plot[edit]
Marion Crane and her boyfriend Sam Loomis meet for a secret romantic assignation
during a Friday lunch hour at a hotel in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. They discus
s how they can barely afford to get married due to Sam's debts. Marion returns t
o work at a realtor's office. A client comes in with $40,000 in cash to purchase
a house as a wedding gift for his daughter. The client flirts with Marion. Her
boss instructs her to promptly deposit the money in the bank, and she puts the m
oney envelope in her purse. Marion then asks her boss if she can take the rest o
f the afternoon off, and that she was not feeling well. Back at her room, Marion
starts packing to leave for an undetermined time while contemplating taking the
money. She ultimately decides to steal it, leave Phoenix, and drive to (mythica
l) Fairvale, California, to give it to Sam. However, upon passing through downto
wn Phoenix on her way out of town, she is spotted by her boss as he crosses the
street at a stopped traffic light, which unsettles her.
On the road now in California, she pulls over at night to sleep but is awakened
the following morning by a California Highway Patrolman; he can tell something i
s wrong because of her furtive, anxious behavior. The officer, however, lets her
go. Upon arriving in Bakersfield, Marion pulls into a used car dealership to ha
stily exchange her car (a 1956 Ford Mainline), for another (a 1957 Ford Custom 3
00). Driving up US 99 during the rainy night, she imagines conversations in her
mind of her boss and the client discussing the stolen money, and becomes increas
ingly nervous. After accidentally taking a wrong turn, she drives up to the Bate
s Motel, a remote lodge that has recently lost business due to a diversion reali
gnment of the main highway. The youthful proprietor Norman Bates, nervous but fr
iendly, invites her to a light dinner. Marion, alone in her cabin, overhears a h
eated argument between Norman and his mother about inviting her to the house. He
ends up persuading her to have dinner with him in the motel parlor. Norman talk
s about his daily life and his hobby, taxidermy and discloses that his mother No
rma is mentally ill, but he becomes agitated when Marion suggests his mother be
institutionalized. During their conversation, Marion decides to return to Phoeni
x and return the stolen money. Upon returning to her cabin, Norman, looking thro
ugh a hole he had made in the parlor wall long ago, sees her undress, and return
s to his house behind the motel. Marion subtracts the amount of money she spent
from the stolen money, then tears up the paper and flushes it down the toilet. T
he burden now lifted from her conscience, she takes a relaxing shower. While sho
wering, a shadowy figure of an elderly woman quietly enters the bathroom, shoves
back the shower curtain, and proceeds to stab her repeatedly to death with a la
rge kitchen knife. The figure then leaves the cabin with the shower still runnin
g with Marion laying on the floor dead. Norman comes into the cabin and "discove
rs" Marion's dead body. Convinced that his mother had committed the crime, he wr
aps the body in the shower curtain and cleans up the bathroom. He puts Marion's
wrapped body in the trunk of her car, along with all her possessions and, unknow
ingly, the money, and sinks it in a nearby swamp.
A week later, Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale to confront Sam Loomis ab
out Marion's whereabouts in his hardware store. A private detective named Arboga
st confirms Marion is suspected of having stolen $40,000 from her employer. Arbo
gast eventually finds the Bates Motel. Norman's evasiveness and stammering arous
e his suspicions; when Norman mentions that Marion had met his mother, Arbogast
demands to speak to her but Norman refuses. From a payphone, Arbogast calls Lila
and Sam to tell them about his encounter with Norman, and that he intends to re
turn to the motel to attempt to speak to Bates' mother. He would call Lila and S
am again in an hour. Upon entering the Bates' residence, looking for Norman's mo
ther, a figure emerges from her room and murders Arbogast on top of the staircas
e.

After three hours, fearing something has happened to Arbogast, Sam and Lila go i
nto Fairvale to talk with the local sheriff. The sheriff is puzzled by the detec
tive's claim that he was planning to talk to Norman's mother, stating that Mrs.
Norma Bates died ten years ago, along with her lover, in a murder-suicide. He ca
lls Norman to ask him about Arbogast, and is told that he asked some questions a
nd left. Back at the Bates' house, Norman, seen from above, carries his mother d
own to the cellar of their house; she verbally protests the arrangement, but he
explains that she needs to hide from whoever comes next looking for Arbogast and
Marion.
Sam and Lila, posing as husband and wife on a business trip, rent a room at the
Bates Motel to search the cabin that Marion stayed in. Lila finds a scrap of pap
er (with "$40,000 written on it) that Marion supposedly flushed down the toilet,
while Sam notes that the bathtub has no shower curtain. Lila, not believing Mrs
. Bates is dead, is determined to speak to her. Sam and Lila develop a plan: Sam
is to distract Norman with conversation while Lila sneaks into the house to loo
k for Mrs. Bates. Lila searches hers and Norman's rooms. The conversation betwee
n Sam and Norman turns sour, Sam accusing Norman of stealing the $40,000 to re-s
tart his life. Norman angrily orders Sam and his wife to leave the motel, then w
ants to know where Sam's wife was. The two begin to grapple, but Norman subdues
Sam, and runs into the house to accost Lila. Lila, spotting Norman approaching,
hides in the cellar and sees Mrs. Bates sitting in a rocking chair, her back to
Lila. She calls out to the woman, getting no reply; Lila taps Mrs. Bates' should
er, the chair then rotates to reveal the desiccated corpse of Mrs. Bates, shocki
ng Lila into screaming with fear. A figure enters the basement, wearing a dress
and wig while wielding a large knife, revealing Norman to be the murderer all al
ong. Sam then enters behind Norman, just managing to overpower Norman.
At the county courthouse after Norman's arrest, a psychiatrist who interviews No
rman reveals not only the killings of Marion and Arbogast, but that Norman had b
een excessively dominated by his mother since childhood, and when she took a lov
er, he became insanely jealous that she had "replaced" him, then murdered his mo
ther and her lover. Later, he developed a split personality to erase the crime o
f matricide from his memory and "immortalize" his mother by stealing and "preser
ving" her corpse. When he feels any sexual attraction towards someone, as was th
e case with Marion, the "Mother" side of his mind becomes jealous and enraged. A
t times, he is able to function as Norman but other times, the "Mother" personal
ity completely dominates him. The psychiatrist also reveals that Norman, in his
"Mother" state, had killed two missing young girls some time prior to Marion and
Arbogast.
Norman is now locked into his mother's identity permanently. Mrs. Bates, who, in
a voice-over, talks about how it was really Norman, not her, who committed all
those murders and that she should have 'put him away' years ago, finally saying
that she 'wouldn't even harm a fly' (A double exposure shows Norman's face mergi
ng with that of his mother's corpse). The final scene shows Marion's car being r
ecovered from the swamp.
Cast[edit]
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
Janet Leigh as Marion Crane
Vera Miles as Lila Crane
John Gavin as Sam Loomis
Martin Balsam as Milton Arbogast
John McIntire as Al Chambers
Simon Oakland as Dr. Fred Richmond
Frank Albertson as Tom Cassidy
Pat Hitchcock as Caroline
Vaughn Taylor as George Lowery
Lurene Tuttle as Mrs. Chambers

John Anderson as California Charlie

Mort Mills as Highway Patrol Officer
Virginia Gregg, Jeanette Nolan, and Paul Jasmin (uncredited) as voice of Norma B
ates
Ted Knight (uncredited) as a policeman guarding Norman Bates
The success of Psycho jump-started Perkins' career, but he soon began to suffer
from typecasting.[8] However, when Perkins was asked whether he would have still
taken the role knowing that he would be typecast afterwards, he replied with a
definite "yes".[9]
Until her death, Leigh continued to receive strange and sometimes threatening ca
lls, letters, and even tapes detailing what they would like to do to Marion Cran
e. One letter was so "grotesque" that she passed it along to the FBI, two of who
se agents visited Leigh and told her the culprits had been located and that she
should notify the FBI if she received any more letters of that type.[10]
Norman's mother was voiced by Virginia Gregg, Paul Jasmin, and Jeanette Nolan, w
ho also provided some screams for Lila's discovery of the mother's corpse. The t
hree voices were thoroughly mixed, except for the last speech, which is all Greg
g's.[11]
Anne Dore was chosen by Hitchcock to double for Perkins in the shower sequence i
n Psycho, since he did not want any of Perkins's physicality to betray his ident
ity at that point in the film. Dore wore the mother's costume and did all the st
abbing actions.[citation needed]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Psycho is based on Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name, loosely based on
the case of convicted Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein.[12] Both Gein, who lived just
40 miles from Bloch, and the story's protagonist, Norman Bates, were solitary mu
rderers in isolated rural locations. Each had deceased domineering mothers, seal
ed off a room in their home as a shrine to her, and dressed in women's clothes.
However, unlike Bates, Gein is not strictly considered a serial killer, having b
een charged with murder only twice.[13]
The Psycho set on the Universal lot, featuring a 1959 Ford Custom 300 similar to
that driven by Janet Leigh in the film (the car in the film is a '57 model)
Peggy Robertson, Hitchcock's long-time assistant, read Anthony Boucher's positiv
e review of the Bloch novel and decided to show the book to him, even though stu
dio readers at Paramount Pictures had already rejected its premise for a film. H
itchcock acquired rights to the novel for $9,500[14] and reportedly ordered Robe
rtson to buy up copies to preserve the novel's surprises.[15] Hitchcock, who had
come to face genre competitors whose works were critically compared to his own,
was seeking new material to recover from two aborted projects with Paramount, F
lamingo Feather and No Bail for the Judge. He disliked stars' salary demands and
trusted only a few people to choose prospective material, including Robertson.[
16]
Paramount executives balked at Hitchcock's proposal and refused to provide his u
sual budget.[17] In response, Hitchcock offered to film Psycho quickly and inexp
ensively in black and white using his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television serie
s crew. Paramount executives rejected this cost-conscious approach, claiming the
ir sound stages were booked even though the industry was in a slump. Hitchcock c
ountered he would personally finance the project and film it at Universal-Intern
ational using his Shamley Productions crew if Paramount would merely distribute.
In lieu of his usual $250,000 director's fee he proposed a 60% stake in the fil
m negative. This combined offer was accepted and Hitchcock went ahead in spite o
f naysaying from producer Herbert Coleman and Shamley Productions executive Joan

Harrison.[18]
Novel adaptation[edit]
James P. Cavanagh, a writer on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series,
penned the original screenplay.[19] Hitchcock felt the script dragged and read l
ike a television short horror story,[20] an assessment shared by an assistant.[1
9] Though Stefano had worked on only one film before, Hitchcock agreed to meet w
ith him; despite Stefano's inexperience the meeting went well and he was hired.[
19]
The screenplay is relatively faithful to the novel, with a few notable adaptatio
ns by Hitchcock and Stefano. Stefano found the character of Norman Bates
who, in
the book, is middle-aged, overweight, and more overtly unstable unsympathetic,
but became more intrigued when Hitchcock suggested casting Anthony Perkins.[20]
Stefano eliminated Bates' drinking,[21] which evidently necessitated removing Ba
tes' "becoming" the Mother personality when in a drunken stupor. Also gone is Ba
tes' interest in spiritualism, the occult and pornography.[22] Hitchcock and Ste
fano elected to open the film with scenes in Marion's life and not introduce Bat
es at all until 20 minutes into the film, rather than open with Bates reading a
history book as Bloch does.[21] Indeed, writer Joseph W. Smith notes that, "Her
story occupies only two of the novel's 17 chapters. Hitchcock and Stefano expand
ed this to nearly half the narrative".[23] He likewise notes there is no hotel t
ryst between Marion and Sam in the novel. For Stefano, the conversation between
Marion and Norman in the hotel parlor in which she displays a maternal sympathy
towards him makes it possible for the audience to switch their sympathies toward
s Norman Bates after Marion's murder.[24] When Lila Crane is looking through Nor
man's room in the film she opens a book with a blank cover whose contents are un
seen; in the novel these are "pathologically pornographic" illustrations. Stefan
o wanted to give the audience "indications that something was quite wrong, but i
t could not be spelled out or overdone."[24] In his book of interviews with Hitc
hcock, Franois Truffaut notes that the novel "cheats" by having extended conversa
tions between Norman and "Mother" and stating what Mother is "doing" at various
given moments.[25] For obvious reasons, these were omitted from the film.
The first name of the female protagonist was changed from Mary to Marion, since
a real Mary Crane existed in Phoenix.[26] Also changed is the novel's budding ro
mance between Sam and Lila. Hitchcock preferred to focus the audience's attentio
n on the solution to the mystery,[27] and Stefano thought such a relationship wo
uld make Sam Loomis seem cheap.[24] Instead of having Sam explain Norman's patho
logy to Lila, the film uses a psychiatrist.[28] (Stefano was in therapy dealing
with his relationship with his own mother at the time of writing the film.)[29]
The novel is more violent than the film; for instance, Crane is beheaded in the
shower as opposed to being stabbed to death.[19] Minor changes include changing
Marion's telltale earring found after her death to a scrap of paper that failed
to flush down the toilet. This provided some shock effect, since toilets were vi
rtually never seen in American cinema in the 1960s.[30] The location of Arbogast
's death was moved from the foyer to the stairwell. Stefano thought this would m
ake it easier to conceal the truth about "Mother" without tipping that something
was being hidden.[31] As Janet Leigh put it, this gave Hitchcock more options f
or his camera.[28]
Pre-production[edit]
Paramount, whose contract guaranteed another film by Hitchcock, did not want Hit
chcock to make Psycho. Paramount was expecting No Bail for the Judge starring Au
drey Hepburn, who became pregnant and had to bow out, leading Hitchcock to scrap
the production. Their official stance was that the book was "too repulsive" and
"impossible for films", and nothing but another of his star-studded mystery thr
illers.[14][32] They did not like "anything about it at all" and denied him his
usual budget.[14][32] So, Hitchcock financed the film's creation through his own
Shamley Productions, shooting at Universal Studios under the Revue television u

nit.[17][33] Hitchcock's original Bates Motel and Psycho House movie set buildin
gs, which were constructed on the same stage as Lon Chaney Sr.'s The Phantom of
the Opera, are still standing at Universal Studios in Universal City near Hollyw
ood and are a regular attraction on the studio's tour.[34][35] As a further resu
lt of cost cutting, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in black and white, keeping t
he budget under $1,000,000.[36] Other reasons for shooting in black and white we
re his desire to prevent the shower scene from being too gory and his admiration
for Les Diaboliques's use of black and white.[37][38]
To keep costs down and because he was most comfortable around them, Hitchcock to
ok most of his crew from his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, includ
ing the cinematographer, set designer, script supervisor, and first assistant di
rector.[39] He hired regular collaborators Bernard Herrmann as music composer, G
eorge Tomasini as editor, and Saul Bass for the title design and storyboarding o
f the shower scene. In all, his crew cost $62,000.[40]
Through the strength of his reputation, Hitchcock cast Leigh for a quarter of he
r usual fee, paying only $25,000 (in the 1967 book Hitchcock/Truffaut, Hitchcock
said that Leigh owed Paramount one final film on her seven-year contract which
she had signed in 1953).[41] His first choice, Leigh agreed after having only re
ad the novel and making no inquiry into her salary.[26] Her co-star, Anthony Per
kins, agreed to $40,000.[40] Both stars were experienced and proven box-office d
raws.
Paramount did distribute the film, but four years later Hitchcock sold his stock
in Shamley to Universal's parent company and his next six films were made at an
d distributed by Universal Pictures.[33] After another four years, Paramount sol
d all rights to Universal.[33]
Filming[edit]
The film, independently produced and financed by Hitchcock, was shot at Revue St
udios,[42] the same location as his television show. Psycho was shot on a tight
budget of $806,947.55,[43] beginning on November 11, 1959 and ending on February
1, 1960.[44][45] Filming started in the morning and finished by six or earlier
on Thursdays (when Hitchcock and his wife would dine at Chasen's).[46] Nearly th
e whole film was shot with 50 mm lenses on 35 mm cameras. This trick closely mim
icked normal human vision, which helped to further involve the audience.[47]
Before shooting began in November, Hitchcock dispatched assistant director Hilto
n A. Green to Phoenix to scout locations and shoot the opening scene. The shot w
as supposed to be an aerial shot of Phoenix that slowly zoomed into the hotel wi
ndow of a passionate Marion and Sam. Ultimately, the helicopter footage proved t
oo shaky and had to be spliced with footage from the studio.[48] Another crew fi
lmed day and night footage on Highway 99 between Fresno and Bakersfield, Califor
nia for projection when Marion drives from Phoenix. They also provided the locat
ion shots for the scene in which she is discovered sleeping in her car by the hi
ghway patrolman.[48] In one street scene shot in downtown Phoenix, Christmas dec
orations were discovered to be visible; rather than re-shoot the footage, Hitchc
ock chose to add a graphic to the opening scene marking the date as "Friday, Dec
ember the Eleventh".[49]
A painting of a large, imposing Gothic house
Edward Hopper's The House by the Railroad, used as inspiration for the look of t
he Bates house.
Green also took photos of a prepared list of 140 locations for later reconstruct
ion in the studio. These included many real estate offices and homes such as tho
se belonging to Marion and her sister.[48] He also found a girl who looked just
like he imagined Marion and photographed her whole wardrobe, which would enable
Hitchcock to demand realistic looks from Helen Colvig, the wardrobe supervisor.[
48] The look of the Bates house was modeled on Edward Hopper's painting The Hous

e by the Railroad,[50] a fanciful portrait of the Second Empire Victorian home a

t 18 Conger Avenue in Haverstraw, NY.[51]
Both the leads, Perkins and Leigh, were given freedom to interpret their roles a
nd improvise as long as it did not involve moving the camera.[52] An example of
Perkins' improvisation is Norman's habit of eating candy corn.[53]
Throughout filming, Hitchcock created and hid various versions of the "Mother co
rpse" prop in Leigh's dressing room closet. Leigh took the joke well, and she wo
ndered whether it was done to keep her on edge and thus more in character or to
judge which corpse would be scarier for the audience.[54]
During shooting, Hitchcock was forced to uncharacteristically do retakes for som
e scenes. The final shot in the shower scene, which starts with an extreme close
-up on Marion's eye and pulls up and out, proved very difficult for Leigh, since
the water splashing in her face made her want to blink, and the cameraman had t
rouble as well since he had to manually focus while moving the camera.[52] Retak
es were also required for the opening scene, since Hitchcock felt that Leigh and
Gavin were not passionate enough.[55] Leigh had trouble saying "Not inordinatel
y" for the real estate office scene, requiring additional retakes.[56] Lastly, t
he scene in which the mother is discovered required complicated coordination of
the chair turning around, Miles hitting the light bulb, and a lens flare, which
proved to be the sticking point. Hitchcock forced retakes until all three elemen
ts were to his satisfaction.[57]
According to Hitchcock, a series of shots with Arbogast going up the stairs in t
he Bates house before he is stabbed were helmed by assistant director Hilton A.
Green, working with storyboard artist Saul Bass' drawings only while Hitchcock w
as incapacitated with the common cold. However, upon viewing the dailies of the
shots, Hitchcock was forced to scrap them. He claimed they were "no good" becaus
e they did not portray "an innocent person but a sinister man who was going up t
hose stairs".[58] Hitchcock later re-shot the scene, though a little of the cut
footage made its way into the film. Filming the murder of Arbogast proved proble
matic owing to the overhead camera angle necessary to hide the film's twist. A c
amera track constructed on pulleys alongside the stairway together with a chairl
ike device had to be constructed and thoroughly tested over a period of weeks.[5
9]
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Psyc
ho, he can be seen through a window
wearing a Stetson hat
standing outside Mario
n Crane's office.[60] Wardrobe-mistress Rita Riggs has said that Hitchcock chose
this scene for his cameo so that he could be in a scene with his daughter (who
played one of Marion's colleagues). Others have suggested that he chose this ear
ly appearance in the film in order to avoid distracting the audience.[61]
The shower scene[edit]
The murder of Leigh's character in the shower is the film's pivotal scene and on
e of the best-known in all of cinema. As such, it spawned numerous myths and leg
ends. It was shot from December 17 23, 1959, and features 77 different camera angl
es.[62] The scene "runs 3 minutes and includes 50 cuts."[63] Most of the shots a
re extreme close-ups, except for medium shots in the shower directly before and
directly after the murder. The combination of the close shots with their short d
uration makes the sequence feel more subjective than it would have been if the i
mages were presented alone or in a wider angle, an example of the technique Hitc
hcock described as "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the
audience".[64]
A silhouetted figure brandishes a knife towards the camera
The shadowy figure from the shower scene.
In order to capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to b

e equipped with a long lens. The inner holes on the shower head were blocked and
the camera placed a sufficient distance away so that the water, while appearing
to be aimed directly at the lens, actually went around and past it.[65]
The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-str
ings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann titled "The Murder". Hitchcock originall
y intended to have no music for the sequence (and all motel scenes),[66] but Her
rmann insisted he try his composition. Afterward, Hitchcock agreed it vastly int
ensified the scene, and nearly doubled Herrmann's salary.[67][68][69] The blood
in the scene is reputed to have been Bosco chocolate syrup,[70] which shows up b
etter on black-and-white film, and has more realistic density than stage blood.[
4] The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a
casaba melon.[71][72]
There are varying accounts whether Leigh was in the shower the entire time or a
body double was used for some parts of the murder sequence and its aftermath. In
an interview with Roger Ebert and in the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making o
f Psycho, Leigh stated she was in the scene the entire time and Hitchcock only u
sed a stand-in for the sequence in which Norman wraps Marion's body in a shower
curtain and places it in the trunk of her car.[73] The 2010 book The Girl in Alf
red Hitchcock's Shower by Robert Graysmith contradicts this, identifying Marli R
enfro as Leigh's body double for some of the shower scene's shots.[74]
A popular myth emerged that, in order for Leigh's scream in the shower to sound
realistic, ice-cold water was used. Leigh denied this on numerous occasions, say
ing the crew was very accommodating, supplying hot water throughout the week-lon
g shoot.[75] All of the screams are Leigh's.[11]
Another concerns Saul Bass, the graphic designer who created many of the title s
equences of Hitchcock's films and storyboarded some of Psycho?'?s scenes, claimi
ng he had directed the shower scene. This was refuted by several figures associa
ted with the film, including Leigh, who stated: "absolutely not! I have emphatic
ally said this in any interview I've ever given. I've said it to his face in fro
nt of other people ... I was in that shower for seven days, and, believe me, Alf
red Hitchcock was right next to his camera for every one of those seventy-odd sh
ots."[76] Hilton A. Green, the assistant director, also refutes Bass' claim: "Th
ere is not a shot in that movie that I didn't roll the camera for. And I can tel
l you I never rolled the camera for Mr. Bass."[76] Roger Ebert, a longtime admir
er of Hitchcock's work, summarily dismissed the rumor, stating, "It seems unlike
ly that a perfectionist with an ego like Hitchcock's would let someone else dire
ct such a scene."[77]
However, commentators such as Stephen Rebello and Bill Krohn have argued in favo
r of Bass' contribution to the scene in his capacity as visual consultant and st
oryboard artist.[78] Along with designing the opening credits, Bass is termed "P
ictorial Consultant" in the credits. When interviewing Hitchcock in 1967, Franois
Truffaut asked about the extent of Bass' contribution, to which Hitchcock repli
ed that in addition to the titles, Bass had provided storyboards for the Arbogas
t murder (which he claimed to have rejected), but made no mention of Bass provid
ing storyboards for the shower scene.[79] According to Bill Krohn's Hitchcock At
Work, Bass' first claim to have directed the scene was in 1970, when he provide
d a magazine with 48 drawings used as storyboards as proof of his contribution.[
80]
Krohn's analysis of the production of Psycho in his book Hitchcock at Work, whil
e refuting Bass' claims for directing the scene, notes that these storyboards di
d introduce key aspects of the final scene most notably, the fact that the killer
appears as a silhouette, and details such as the close-ups of the slashing knife
, Leigh's desperate outstretched arm, the shower curtain being torn down, and th
e transition from the hole of the drainage pipe to Marion Crane's dead eyes. Kro

hn notes that this final transition is highly reminiscent of the iris titles tha
t Bass created for Vertigo.[80]
Krohn's research also notes that Hitchcock shot the scene with two cameras: one
a BNC Mitchell, the other a handheld camera called an clair which Orson Welles ha
d used in Touch of Evil (1958). In order to create an ideal montage for the grea
test emotional impact on the audience, Hitchcock shot a lot of footage of this s
cene which he trimmed down in the editing room. He even brought a Moviola on the
set to gauge the footage required. The final sequence, which his editor George
Tomasini worked on with Hitchcock's advice, however did not go far beyond the ba
sic structural elements set up by Bass' storyboards.[80]
According to Donald Spoto in The Dark Side of Genius, Hitchcock's wife, Alma Rev
ille, spotted a blooper in one of the last screenings of Psycho before its offic
ial release: after Marion was supposedly dead, one could see her blink. Accordin
g to Patricia Hitchcock, talking in Laurent Bouzereau's "making of" documentary,
Alma spotted that Leigh's character appeared to take a breath. In either case,
the postmortem activity was edited out and was never seen by audiences.[19] Alth
ough Marion's eyes should be dilated after her death, the contact lenses necessa
ry for this effect would have required six weeks of acclimatization to wear them
, so Hitchcock decided to forgo them.[81]
It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the "shower scene" never o
nce shows a knife puncturing flesh.[82][83][84] However, a frame by frame analys
is of the sequence shows one shot in which the knife appears to penetrate Leigh'
s abdomen, but the effect may have been created by lighting and reverse motion.[
85] Leigh herself was so affected by this scene when she saw it, that she no lon
ger took showers unless she absolutely had to; she would lock all the doors and
windows and would leave the bathroom and shower door open.[86] She never realize
d until she first watched the film "how vulnerable and defenseless one is".[19]
Leigh and Hitchcock fully discussed what the scene meant:
Marion had decided to go back to Phoenix, come clean, and take the consequence,
so when she stepped into the bathtub it was as if she were stepping into the bap
tismal waters. The spray beating down on her was purifying the corruption from h
er mind, purging the evil from her soul. She was like a virgin again, tranquil,
at peace.[76]
Film theorist Robin Wood also discusses how the shower washes "away her guilt".
He comments upon the "alienation effect" of killing off the "apparent center of
the film" with which spectators had identified.[87]
Soundtrack[edit]
Score[edit]
Hitchcock insisted that Bernard Herrmann write the score for Psycho despite the
composer's refusal to accept a reduced fee for the film's lower budget.[88] The
resulting score, according to Christopher Palmer in The Composer in Hollywood (1
990) is "perhaps Herrmann's most spectacular Hitchcock achievement."[89] Hitchco
ck was pleased with the tension and drama the score added to the film,[90] later
remarking "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music."[91] The singular
contribution of Herrmann's score may be inferred from the unusual penultimate pl
acement of the composer's name in the film's opening credit sequence, as it is f
ollowed only by Hitchcock's directing credit.
Herrmann used the lowered music budget to his advantage by writing for a string
orchestra rather than a full symphonic ensemble,[88] contrary to Hitchcock's req
uest for a jazz score.[92] He thought of the single tone color of the all-string
soundtrack as a way of reflecting the black-and-white cinematography of the fil
m.[93] The strings play con sordini (with a muting device placed across the brid

ge) for all the music other than the shower scene, creating a darker and more in
tense effect. Hollywood composer Fred Steiner, in an analysis of the score to Ps
ycho, points out that string instruments gave Herrmann access to a wider range i
n tone, dynamics, and instrumental special effects than any other single instrum
ental group would have.[94]
The main title music, a tense, hurtling piece, sets the tone of impending violen
ce, and returns three times on the soundtrack.[95][96] Though nothing shocking o
ccurs during the first 15 20 minutes of the film, the title music remains in the a
udience's mind, lending tension to these early scenes.[95] Herrmann also maintai
ns tension through the slower moments in the film through the use of ostinato.[9
1]
There were rumors that Herrmann had used electronic means, including amplified b
ird screeches to achieve the shocking effect of the music in the shower scene. T
he effect was achieved, however, only with violins in a "screeching, stabbing so
und-motion of extraordinary viciousness."[97] The only electronic amplification
employed was in the placing of the microphones close to the instruments, to get
a harsher sound.[97] Besides the emotional impact, the shower scene cue ties the
soundtrack to birds.[97] The association of the shower scene music with birds a
lso telegraphs to the audience that it is Norman, the stuffed-bird collector, wh
o is the murderer rather than his mother.[97]
Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith writes that the music for the shower scene i
s "probably the most famous (and most imitated) cue in film music,"[93] but Hitc
hcock was originally opposed to having music in this scene.[97] When Herrmann pl
ayed the shower scene cue for Hitchcock, the director approved its use in the fi
lm. Herrmann reminded Hitchcock of his instructions not to score this scene, to
which Hitchcock replied, "Improper suggestion, my boy, improper suggestion."[98]
This was one of two important disagreements Hitchcock had with Herrmann, in whi
ch Herrmann ignored Hitchcock's instructions. The second one, over the score for
Torn Curtain (1966), resulted in the end of their professional collaboration.[9
9] A survey conducted by PRS for Music, in 2009, showed that the British public
consider the score from 'the shower scene' to be the scariest theme from any fil
m.[100]
To honor the fiftieth anniversary of Psycho, in July 2010, the San Francisco Sym
phony[101] obtained a print of the film with the soundtrack removed, and project
ed it on a large screen in Davies Symphony Hall while the orchestra performed th
e score live. This was previously mounted by the Seattle Symphony in October 200
9 as well, performing at the Benaroya Hall for two consecutive evenings. These p
erformances are part of John Goberman's offering of films with great music perfo
rmed by live orchestras: A Symphonic Night at the Movies, these special events r
ange from "Alexander Nevsky" to "Singin in the Rain" to "Hitchcock!".
Recordings[edit]
Several CDs of the film soundtrack have been released, including:
The 1970s soundtrack recording with Bernard Herrmann conducting the National Phi
lharmonic Orchestra [Unicorn CD, 1993].[102]
The 1997 Varse Sarabande CD features a re-recording of the complete score perform
ed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conducted by Joel McNeely .[102]
[103]
The 1998 Soundstage Records SCD 585 CD claims to feature the tracks from the ori
ginal master tapes. However, it has been asserted that the release is a bootleg
recording.[102]
The 2011 Doxy Records DOY650 (Italy) 180 gram LP release of the complete origina
l 1960 score conducted by Herrmann.
Soundstage Records)
Track listing (Psycho
All pieces by Bernard Herrmann.

"Prelude; The City; Marion and Sam; Temptation"

6:15
"Flight; The Patrol Car; The Car Lot; The Package; The Rainstorm"
7:21
"Hotel Room; The Window; The Parlour; The Madhouse; The Peephole" 8:52
"The Bathroom; The Murder; The Body; The Office; The Curtain; The Water; The Car
; The Swamp" 6:58
"The Search; The Shadow; Phone Booth; The Porch; The Stairs; The Knife"
5:41
"The Search; The First Floor; Cabin 10; Cabin 1" 6:18
"The Hill; The Bedroom; The Toys; The Cellar; Discovery; Finale"
5:00
Controversy[edit]
A large image of Hitchcock pointing at his watch. The words at the other side of
the poster say "It is required that you see Psycho from the very beginning." Th
ere is a space for theatre staff to advertise the start of the next showing.
Theatre poster providing notification of "no late admission" policy
Psycho is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the United States
during the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented
in its depiction of sexuality and violence, right from the opening scene in whi
ch Sam and Marion are shown as lovers sharing the same bed, with Marion in a bra
.[104] In the Production Code standards of that time, unmarried couples shown in
the same bed would be taboo.[105]
According to the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the censors in
charge of enforcing the Production Code wrangled with Hitchcock because some of
them insisted they could see one of Leigh's breasts. Hitchcock held onto the pri
nt for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. Each of
the censors reversed their positions: those who had previously seen the breast
now did not, and those who had not, now did. They passed the film after the dire
ctor removed one shot that showed the buttocks of Leigh's stand-in.[106] The boa
rd was also upset by the racy opening, so Hitchcock said that if they let him ke
ep the shower scene he would re-shoot the opening with them on the set. Since th
ey did not show up for the re-shoot, the opening stayed.[106]
Another cause of concern for the censors was that Marion was shown flushing a to
ilet, with its contents (torn-up note paper) fully visible. No flushing toilet h
ad appeared in mainstream film and television in the United States at that time.
[107][108][109]
Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly
to the shower scene. In Britain and New Zealand, the shot of Norman washing bloo
d from his hands was objected to and in Singapore, though the shower scene was l
eft untouched, the murder of Arbogast, and a shot of Mother's corpse were remove
d.[110]
The most controversial move was Hitchcock's "no late admission" policy for the f
ilm, which was unusual for the time. It was not entirely original as Clouzot had
done the same in France for Diabolique.[111] Hitchcock thought that if people e
ntered the theater late and never saw the star actress Janet Leigh, they would f
eel cheated.[33] At first theater owners opposed the idea, claiming that they wo
uld lose business. However, after the first day, the owners enjoyed long lines o
f people waiting to see the film.[33]
Promotion[edit]
Hitchcock did most of the promotion on his own, forbidding Leigh and Perkins to
make the usual television, radio, and print interviews for fear of their reveali
ng the plot.[112] Even critics were not given private screenings but rather had
to see the film with the general public, which, despite possibly affecting their
reviews,[110] certainly preserved the secret.
The film's original trailer features a jovial Hitchcock taking the viewer on a t
our of the set, and almost giving away plot details before stopping himself. It
is "tracked" with Herrmann's Psycho theme, but also jovial music from Hitchcock'

s comedy The Trouble with Harry; most of Hitchcock's dialogue is post-synchroniz

ed. The trailer was made after completion of the film, and since Janet Leigh was
no longer available for filming, Hitchcock had Vera Miles don a blonde wig and
scream loudly as he pulled the shower curtain back in the bathroom sequence of t
he preview. Since the title, "Psycho", instantly covers most of the screen, the
switch went unnoticed by audiences for years. However, a freeze-frame analysis c
learly reveals that it is Miles and not Leigh in the shower during the trailer.[
33] The Nostalgia Critic has recently stated that the trailer for the film is on
e of the greatest, if not, the greatest of all time. His analysis was centered a
round how Hitchcock managed to give everything away and nothing away at the same
time. He also made numerous points to how Hitchcock would talk about the murder
s, but never about the motivation, and also stated with Hitchcock giving viewers
descriptions of horrible murders and is rather unfazed while discussing them. H
e stated that Hitchcock made the movie sound so disturbing and surreal that view
ers just had to go see what made him so uncomfortable trying to discuss what was
happening in the trailer.
The film was so successful that it was reissued to theaters in 1965. A year late
r, CBS purchased the television rights for $450,000. CBS planned to televise the
film on September 23, 1966, but three days earlier, Valerie Percy, daughter of
Illinois senate candidate Charles H. Percy, was murdered. As her parents slept m
ere feet away, she was stabbed a dozen times with a double-edged knife. In light
of the murder, CBS agreed to postpone the screening, but as a result of the Apo
llo pad fire of January 27, 1967, the network washed its hands of Psycho,[113] a
nd shortly afterward Paramount included the film in its first syndicated package
of post-1950 movies, "Portfolio I". WABC-TV in New York City was the first stat
ion in the country to air Psycho (with some scenes significantly edited), on its
late-night movie series, The Best of Broadway, on June 24, 1967.[114] Following
another successful theatrical reissue in 1969, the film finally made its way to
general television airing in one of Universal's syndicated programming packages
for local stations in 1970. Psycho was aired for twenty years in this format, t
hen leased to cable for two years before returning to syndication as part of the
"List of a Lifetime" package.[113]
Interpretations[edit]
Subversion of romance through irony[edit]
In Psycho, Hitchcock subverts the romantic elements that are seen in most of his
work. The film is instead ironic as it prevents "clarity and fulfillment" of ro
mance. The past is central to the film; the main characters "struggle to underst
and and resolve destructive personal histories" and ultimately fail.[115] Lesley
Brill writes, "The inexorable forces of past sins and mistakes crush hopes for
regeneration and present happiness." The crushed hope is highlighted by the deat
h of the protagonist, Marion Crane, halfway through the film.[116] Marion is lik
e Persephone of Greek mythology, who is abducted temporarily from the world of t
he living. The myth does not sustain with Marion, who dies hopelessly in her roo
m at the Bates Motel. The room is wallpapered with floral print like Persephone'
s flowers, but they are only "reflected in mirrors, as images of images twice remo
ved from reality". In the scene of Marion's death, Brill describes the transitio
n from the bathroom drain to Marion's lifeless eye, "Like the eye of the amorpho
us sea creature at the end of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, it marks the birth of dea
th, an emblem of final hopelessness and corruption." Unlike heroines in Hitchcoc
k's other films, she does not reestablish her innocence or discover love.[117]
Marion is deprived of "the humble treasures of love, marriage, home and family",
which Hitchcock considers elements of human happiness. There exists among Psych
o?'?s secondary characters a lack of "familial warmth and stability", which demo
nstrates the unlikelihood of domestic fantasies. The film contains ironic jokes
about domesticity, such as when Sam writes a letter to Marion, agreeing to marry
her, only after the audience sees her buried in the swamp. Sam and Marion's sis
ter Lila, in investigating Marion's disappearance, develop an "increasingly conn

ubial" relationship, a development that Marion is denied.[118] Norman also suffe

rs a similarly perverse definition of domesticity. He has "an infantile and divi
ded personality" and lives in a mansion whose past occupies the present. Norman
displays stuffed birds that are "frozen in time" and keeps childhood toys and st
uffed animals in his room. He is hostile toward suggestions to move from the pas
t, such as with Marion's suggestion to put his mother "someplace" and as a resul
t kills Marion to preserve his past. Brill explains, "'Someplace' for Norman is
where his delusions of love, home, and family are declared invalid and exposed."
[119]
Light and darkness feature prominently in Psycho. The first shot after the inter
title is the sunny landscape of Phoenix before the camera enters a dark hotel ro
om where Sam and Marion appear as bright figures. Marion is almost immediately c
ast in darkness; she is preceded by her shadow as she reenters the office to ste
al money and as she enters her bedroom. When she flees Phoenix, darkness descend
s on her drive. The following sunny morning is punctured by a watchful police of
ficer with black sunglasses, and she finally arrives at the Bates Motel in near
darkness.[120] Bright lights are also "the ironic equivalent of darkness" in the
film, blinding instead of illuminating. Examples of brightness include the open
ing window shades in Sam's and Marion's hotel room, vehicle headlights at night,
the neon sign at the Bates Motel, "the glaring white" of the bathroom tiles whe
re Marion dies, and the fruit cellar's exposed light bulb shining on the corpse
of Norman's mother. Such bright lights typically characterize danger and violenc
e in Hitchcock's films.[121]
Motifs[edit]
The film often features shadows, mirrors, windows, and, less so, water. The shad
ows are present from the very first scene where the blinds make bars on Marion a
nd Sam as they peer out the window. The stuffed birds' shadows loom over Marion
as she eats, and Norman's mother is seen in only shadows until the very end. Mor
e subtly, backlighting turns the rakes in the hardware store into talons above L
ila's head.[122]
Mirrors reflect Marion as she packs, her eyes as she checks the rear-view mirror
, her face in the policeman's sunglasses, and her hands as she counts out the mo
ney in the car dealership's bathroom. A motel window serves as a mirror by refle
cting Marion and Norman together. Hitchcock shoots through Marion's windshield a
nd the telephone booth, when Arbogast phones Sam and Lila. The heavy downpour ca
n be seen as foreshadowing of the shower, and its cessation can be seen as a sym
bol of Marion making up her mind to return to Phoenix.[122]
There are a number of references to birds. Marion's last name is Crane and she i
s from Phoenix. Norman comments that Marion eats like a bird. The motel room has
pictures of birds on the wall. Brigitte Peucker also suggests that Norman's hob
by of stuffing birds literalizes the British slang expression for sex, "stuffing
birds", bird being a British slang for a desirable woman.[123] Robert Allan sug
gests that Norman's mother is his original "stuffed bird", both in the sense of
having preserved her body and the incestuous nature of Norman's emotional bond w
ith her.[124]
Psychoanalytic interpretation[edit]
Psycho has been called "the first psychoanalytical thriller."[125] The sex and v
iolence in the film were unlike anything previously seen in a mainstream film. "
The shower scene is both feared and desired," wrote French film critic Serge Kag
anski. "Hitchcock may be scaring his female viewers out of their wits, but he is
turning his male viewers into potential rapists, since Janet Leigh has been tur
ning men on ever since she appeared in her brassiere in the first scene."[125]
In his documentary The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, Slavoj i ek remarks that Norman B
ates' mansion has three floors, paralleling the three levels of the human mind t

hat are postulated by Freudian psychoanalysis: the top floor would be the supere
go, where Bates' mother lives; the ground floor is then Bates' ego, where he fun
ctions as an apparently normal human being; and finally, the basement would be B
ates' id. i ek interprets Bates' moving his mother's corpse from top floor to basem
ent as a symbol for the deep connection that psychoanalysis posits between super
ego and id.[126]
Reception[edit]
Initial reviews of the film were thoroughly mixed.[127] Bosley Crowther of The N
ew York Times wrote, "There is not an abundance of subtlety or the lately famili
ar Hitchcock bent toward significant and colorful scenery in this obviously lowbudget job." Crowther called the "slow buildups to sudden shocks" reliably melod
ramatic but contested Hitchcock's psychological points, reminiscent of Krafft-Eb
ing's studies, as less effective. While the film did not conclude satisfactorily
for the critic, he commended the cast's performances as "fair".[128] British cr
itic C. A. Lejeune was so offended that she not only walked out before the end b
ut permanently resigned her post as film critic for The Observer.[129] Other neg
ative reviews stated, "a blot on an honorable career", "plainly a gimmick movie"
, and "merely one of those television shows padded out to two hours."[127][130]
Positive reviews stated, "Anthony Perkins' performance is the best of his career
... Janet Leigh has never been better", "played out beautifully", and "first Am
erican movie since Touch of Evil to stand in the same creative rank as the great
European films."[127][131] A good example of the mix is the New York Herald Tri
bune?'?s review, which stated, "... rather difficult to be amused at the forms i
nsanity may take ... keeps your attention like a snake-charmer."[127]
The public loved the film, with lines stretching outside of theaters as people h
ad to wait for the next showing. This, along with box office numbers, led to a r
econsideration of the film by critics, and it eventually received a very large a
mount of praise. It broke box-office records in Japan and the rest of Asia, Fran
ce, Britain, South America, the United States, and Canada, and was a moderate su
ccess in Australia for a brief period.[127] It was the most profitable black-and
-white sound film ever made,[citation needed] and Hitchcock personally realized
well in excess of $15 million. He then swapped his rights to Psycho and his TV a
nthology for 150,000 shares of MCA, making him the third largest shareholder in
MCA Inc. and his own boss at Universal, in theory; however, this did not stop th
em from interfering with his later films.[132][133] Psycho was, by a large margi
n, the most profitable film of Hitchcock's career, earning over $12 million for
the studio on release, and $15 million by the end of the year. Hitchcock's secon
d most profitable was Family Plot ($7,541,000), and third place was a tie betwee
n Torn Curtain (1966) and Frenzy (1972), each earning $6,500,000. Around the tim
e of the run's end, the film had grossed $32 million in domestic theaters.[2]
In the United Kingdom, the film shattered attendance records at the London Plaza
Cinema, but nearly all British critics panned it, questioning Hitchcock's taste
and judgment. Reasons cited for this were the critics' late screenings, forcing
them to rush their reviews, their dislike of the gimmicky promotion, and Hitchc
ock's expatriate status.[134] Perhaps thanks to the public's response and Hitchc
ock's efforts at promoting it, the critics did a re-review, and the film was pra
ised. TIME switched its opinion from "Hitchcock bears down too heavily in this o
ne" to "superlative" and "masterly", and Bosley Crowther put it on his Top Ten l
ist of 1960.[134]
Psycho was initially criticized for making other filmmakers more willing to show
gore; three years later, Blood Feast, considered to be the first "splatter film
", was released.[135] Psycho?'?s success financially and critically had others t
rying to ride its coattails. Inspired by Psycho, Hammer Film Productions launche
d a series of mystery thrillers including The Nanny[136] (1965) starring Bette D
avis and William Castle's Homicidal (1961) was followed by a slew of more than t
hirteen other splatter films.[135]

On the review aggregator website, RottenTomatoes.com, Psycho holds a 'Certified:

Fresh' score of 96%, with the critics consensus reading: "Infamous for its show
er scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho
was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn't just create modern horror
, he validated it".[137]
Recognition[edit]
Award Category
Name
Outcome
Academy Awards (33rd) Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Janet Leigh
Nominated
Best Cinematography, Black-and White
John L. Russell Nominated
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
Joseph Hurley, Robert Cl
atworthy, George Milo Nominated
Directors Guild of America
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pi
ctures Alfred Hitchcock
Nominated
Edgar Allan Poe Awards Best Motion Picture
Joseph Stefano (screenwriter), R
obert Bloch (author)
Won
International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers Best Actor
Anthony Perkins
Won (tie)
Golden Globe Awards (18th)
Best Supporting Actress Janet Leigh
Won
Writers Guild of America, East Best Written American Drama
Joseph Stefano
Nominated
In 1992, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically signifi
cant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation
in the National Film Registry.
In 1998, TV Guide ranked it #8 on their list of the 50 Greatest Movies on TV (an
d Video).[138]
Leigh asserted, "no other murder mystery in the history of the movies has inspir
ed such merchandising."[139] Any number of items emblazoned with Bates Motel, st
ills, lobby cards, and highly valuable posters are available for purchase. In 19
92, it was adapted scene-for-scene into three comic books by the Innovative Corp
oration.[139]
Psycho has appeared on a number of lists by websites, television channels, and m
agazines. The shower scene was featured as number four on the list of Bravo Netw
ork's 100 Scariest Movie Moments,[140] whilst the finale was ranked number four
on Premiere?'?s similar list.[141] Entertainment Weekly's book titled The 100 Gr
eatest Movies of All Time ranked the film as #11.[4]
American Film Institute lists
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies
#18
AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills
#1
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
Norman Bates #2 Villain
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
"A boy's best friend is his mother."
#56
"We all go a little mad sometimes."
Nominated[142]
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores #4
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)
#14
Legacy[edit]
Sequels[edit]
Three sequels were produced: Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), and Psycho IV:
The Beginning (1990), the last being a part-prequel television movie written by
the original screenplay author, Joseph Stefano. Anthony Perkins returned to his
role of Norman Bates in all three sequels, and also directed the third film. Th
e voice of Norman Bates' mother was maintained by noted radio actress Virginia G
regg with the exception of Psycho IV, where the role was played by Olivia Hussey

. Vera Miles also reprised her role of Lila Crane in Psycho II.[143] The sequels
were well received but considered inferior to the original.[144][145]
1987 Bates Motel pilot[edit]
Bates Motel was a failed television pilot spin-off which later aired as a televi
sion movie (before the release of Psycho IV). Anthony Perkins declined to appear
in the pilot, so Norman's cameo appearance was played by Kurt Paul, who was Per
kins' stunt double on Psycho II and III.[146]
1998 remake[edit]
Gus Van Sant directed a 1998 remake of Psycho. The film is in color and features
a different cast, but aside from this it is a near shot-for-shot remake copying
Hitchcock's camera movements and editing.[147] The film was panned by critics a
nd audiences alike and was a box office bomb.
A Conversation with Norman (2005), directed by Jonathan M. Parisen, was a film i
nspired by Psycho.
2012 Hitchcock film[edit]
In 2005, it was reported that a new film was in development based on the book by
Stephen Rebello, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The film was origin
ally titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and it was originally to be directed by R
yan Murphy.[148] Later the film was retitled Hitchcock, and filming began on Apr
il 13, 2012.[149] Filming was completed in early June 2012 with a worldwide rele
ase on December 14, 2012. The film centers on the relationship between Hitchcock
and his wife and co-worker Alma Reville during the filming of Psycho in 1959. T
he film was directed by Sacha Gervasi and written by John McLaughlin and Stephen
Rebello. The film stars Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, Helen Mirren as Reville,
Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, and James D'Arcy
as Anthony Perkins. The film was released worldwide on December 14, 2012, to mos
tly positive reviews and one Academy Award nomination.
The Psycho Legacy[edit]
On October 19, 2010, an independent documentary called The Psycho Legacy was rel
eased on DVD. The documentary discussed the legacy and impact Psycho has had, no
t only on cinema, but on the world in general. The documentary also included pro
duction stories about Psycho II, Psycho III and Psycho IV: The Beginning. This d
ocumentary received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans.
Bates Motel series[edit]
On January 13, 2012, A&E announced that a television series called Bates Motel w
as in development at the network. The TV series has nothing to do with the earli
er Bates Motel failed TV pilot released in 1987. The series takes place before t
he events of the original film and chronicles Norman Bates' teen years living at
the Bates Motel, as did the flashback sequences in Psycho IV: The Beginning.[15
0] However, the series is set in the present day in a seaside town in Oregon rat
her than the inland California town of the film - thus the series is a reboot, t
hough it's been widely reviewed as a prequel, as it is devoted to providing a ba
ckstory to a younger Norman Bates prior to his becoming a murderer. In July 2012
, A&E announced that the network had picked up the show for a 10 episode first s
eason, skipping the initial pilot stage. The series premiered on March 18, 2013
to high ratings and very positive reviews. The show aired a second season in 201
4 and is scheduled to return for a third in 2015.
Psychos[edit]
On February 24, 2014, a mashup (video) of Alfred Hitchcock's and Gus Van Sant's
versions of Psycho appeared on Steven Soderbergh's Extension 765 website. [2] Re
titled "Psychos" and featuring no explanatory text, the recut appears to be a fa
n edit of the two films by Soderbergh. Reaction to the mashup appears to reinfor
ce the prejudice against the 1998 film. The opening credits intermingle names fr

om both the 1960 and 1998 versions, and all color has been removed from Van Sant
's scenes.[151][152]
Cultural impact[edit]
Psycho has become one of the most recognizable films in cinema history, and is a
rguably Hitchcock's best known film.[153][154] In his novel, Bloch used an uncom
mon plot structure: he repeatedly introduced sympathetic protagonists, then kill
ed them off. This played on his reader's expectations of traditional plots, leav
ing them uncertain and anxious. Hitchcock recognized the effect this approach co
uld have on audiences, and utilized it in his adaptation, killing off Leigh's ch
aracter at the end of the first act. This daring plot device, coupled with the f
act that the character was played by the biggest box-office name in the film, wa
s a shocking turn of events in 1960.[104]
The most original and influential moment in the film is the "shower scene", whic
h became iconic in pop culture because it is often regarded as one of the most t
errifying scenes ever filmed. Part of its effectiveness was due to the use of st
artling editing techniques borrowed from the Soviet montage filmmakers,[155][156
] and to the iconic screeching violins in Bernard Herrmann's musical score. The
iconic shower scene is frequently spoofed, given homage to and referenced in pop
ular culture, complete with the violin screeching sound effects (see Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory, among many others).[157]
In 2008, Marion Cotillard re-enacted the shower scene in a photoshoot for Vanity
Fair.[158] Cotillard shares the same first name of Janet Leigh's character in P
sycho, who was called Marion Crane.[159]
Psycho is now widely considered to be the first film in the slasher film genre,[
160][161] and has been referenced in films numerous times; examples include the
1974 musical horror film Phantom of the Paradise, 1978 horror film Halloween (wh
ich starred Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh's daughter),[162] the 1977 Mel Brooks
tribute to many of Hitchcock's thrillers, High Anxiety, the 1980 Fade to Black,
the 1980 Dressed to Kill and Wes Craven's 1996 horror satire Scream.[163] Bernar
d Herrmann's opening theme has been sampled by rapper Busta Rhymes on his song "
Gimme Some More" (1998).[164] Manuel Muoz's 2011 novel What You See in the Dark i
ncludes a sub-plot that fictionalizes elements of the filming of Psycho, referri
ng to Hitchcock and Leigh only as "The Director" and "The Actress".[165] In the
comic book stories of Jonni Future, the house inherited by title character is pa
tterned after the Bates Motel.[166]
The Simpsons pays tribute to the film in several episodes, such as "Itchy & Scra
tchy & Marge" (Maggie hits Homer on the head with a hammer, and the rest of the
shower scene is played out, including quotations of Bernard Herrmann's music), "
Realty Bites" (Ned screaming like a woman seems to mirror Marion Crane's murder
in the film and the mansion that the Flanders family buys seems to resemble the
mansion from the film), "The Springfield Files" (The theme from the shower scene
plays when it appears a fearful Homer is being followed and is about to be hit
by a bus, until two violinists exit the bus and the theme fades as they walk awa
y) and "Brother From The Same Planet" (Principal Skinner looks over his shoulder
at his house and sees his mother, Agnes, in the window, and screams).
Ratings[edit]
Psycho has been rated and re-rated several times over the years by the MPAA. Upo
n its initial release, the film received a certificate stating that it was "Appr
oved" (certificate #19564) under the simple pass/fail system of the Production C
ode in use at that time. Later, when the MPAA switched to a voluntary letter rat
ings system in 1968, Psycho was one of a number of high-profile motion pictures
to be retro-rated with an "M" (Mature Audiences).[167] This remained the only ra
ting the film would receive for 16 years, and according to the guidelines of the
time "M" was the equivalent of a "PG" rating.[168][169] Then, in 1984, during t

he uproar of increased parental concern regarding violence in "PG" films,[168][1

69] Psycho was retro-rated again to its current rating of "R". This rating took
effect, however, before the institution of the "PG-13" rating by the MPAA that s
ame year, and there are those who have speculated that if the rating had existed
at the time, or if Psycho were rated in America today, it would receive a "PG-1
3".[170]
Home media[edit]
The film has been released several times on videotape, LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-r
ay Disc. MCA DiscoVision Incorporated (parent company, MCA Inc) first released P
sycho on the LaserDisc format in "standard play" (5 sides) in 1979, and "extende
d play" (2 sides) in October 1981. MCA/Universal Home Video released a new Laser
Disc version of Psycho in August 1988 (Catalog #: 11003). In May 1998, Universal
Studios Home Video released a deluxe edition of Psycho as part of their Signatu
re Collection. This THX certified Widescreen (1.85:1) LaserDisc Deluxe Edition (C
atalog #: 43105) is spread across 4 extended play sides and 1 standard play side
, and includes a new documentary and isolated Bernard Herrmann score. A DVD edit
ion was released in at the same time as the LaserDisc.[171]
Laurent Bouzereau produced a documentary looking at the film's production and re
ception for the initial DVD release. Universal released a fiftieth Anniversary e
dition on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2010,[172] with Australia f
ollowing with the same edition (featuring a different cover) being made availabl
e on September 1, 2010.[173] A Blu-ray in US was released on October 19, 2010 to
mark the film's 50th anniversary, featuring yet another different cover.[174] T
he film is also included on two different Alfred Hitchcock Blu-ray boxsets from
Universal.[175][176]
See also[edit]
Portal icon
Film in the United States portal
Portal icon
Horror fiction portal
Hitchcock, a 2012 biopic film about Hitchcock and the making of Psycho with Anth
ony Hopkins as Hitchcock, Helen Mirren as his wife Alma, Scarlett Johansson as J
anet Leigh, and James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins.
References[edit]
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