Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context YMMV / Psycho

Go To

1----
2
3* AdaptationDisplacement: Who remembers the novel the film was based on? If you have heard of it, it’s likely just due to the famous story of Hitchcock doing his level best to buy up every single copy in existence to make sure plenty of people would go into the movie not knowing its big twist.
4* {{Adorkable}}: Norman is handsome and sweet-natured, but stammering and shy, a little socially awkward – which also makes it all the more shocking when it turns out that [[spoiler:he kills people]]. Apparently, Hitchcock deliberately cast Perkins in the role to create this type of character, saying:
5-->"I suddenly saw a tender, vulnerable young man you could feel incredibly sorry for."
6* AwardSnub:
7** Creator/AlfredHitchcock not winning the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Director is the most egregious example, but many are utterly shocked that Creator/AnthonyPerkins was never nominated for his performance as Norman Bates. (In 2009, ''Entertainment Weekly'' declared that snub to be the second-worst Oscar snub of all time.) Hitchcock himself expressed to Perkins how ashamed he was because Perkins was not nominated.
8** Overall, the film was nominated for four Oscars, but not Best Picture or Score.
9* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The famous repeated minor-9th violin chords during the shower scene were so monstrously effective, they were used again by later generations of horror movie directors in their own films. They even have [[PsychoStrings their own trope page]].
10* EndingFatigue: Norman's psychosis is explained down to the last detail after the story is over. Creator/RogerEbert famously called this scene the one thing keeping the film from being perfect.
11* GeniusBonus: The painting that Norman removes from his parlor wall in order to spy on Marion through the peephole is Willem van Mieris' ''Susanna and the Elders,'' depicting a story from the Literature/BookOfDaniel about two lecherous voyeurs who attempt to take advantage of an unsuspecting young woman while she's bathing. Also, in keeping with the film's [[AnimalMotifs bird motifs]], Norman accidentally knocks one of the bird pictures off the wall while tidying Marion's room, which confirms him as the murderer because he "offed the bird" – which, in British slang, is killing a young woman.
12* GenreTurningPoint: In addition to marking, for some, the end of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, ''Psycho'' is heralded by many critics as more or less codifying and defining the new mainstream of American cinema. Instead of idealized stars, you had actors playing normal people, at least relative to the mainstream of the time. More importantly it blurred the line between high and low art, with crude pulp material (dealing with illicit sex, robbery and a depraved SerialKiller) becoming as profitable, if not more so than the EpicMovie, TheWestern, TheMusical and other prestige films which Hollywood, before and after ''Psycho'', still saw as their major bread-and-butter, but by the end of TheSixties had become unfashionable and unpopular.
13* HarsherInHindsight:
14** Myra Davis, who was Janet Leigh's stand-in during production of ''Psycho'', was raped and murdered by a neighbor in 1988. For a long time after her murder, Davis was confused with Leigh's shower scene body-double, Marli Renfro, who had been anonymous. All was corrected after Renfro and Davis were the subjects of a book published in 2010.
15** Years later, Anthony Perkins revealed that his own mother was sexually abusive towards him.
16** In-universe, the highway patrolman telling Marion she should have spent the night at a motel, "just to be safe".
17* HilariousInHindsight:
18** People from Salt Lake City who see the film get an extra chuckle from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTVX KTVX]] news van, even though it's supposed to be taking place in California (and the Utah TV station didn't get those call letters until 1975).
19** In 1962, Creator/FrancisFordCoppola directed his first ever feature film, ''Tonight for Sure'', a nudie-cutie comedy (soft-core porn of that decade), which the cast happened to include Marli Renfro, the shower-scene body-double for Janet Leigh. And then Coppola's next feature, the 1963 horror film ''Film/Dementia13'', was a knockoff of ''Psycho''.
20* HollywoodHomely: Marion’s co-worker saying that a man flirted with Marion and not her because he must have seen her wedding ring, the joke being she’s supposedly a lot less attractive when she’s actually not bad-looking at all. Making it even more awkward is that’s Hitchcock’s own daughter playing the role.
21** The perception Hitch may have assumed for the audience is that Pat is cute ([[https://www.complete-hitchcock.com/web_images/patricia_hitchcock_psycho.jpg she really was]]), but Janet Leigh was a ''stunner.''
22* ItWasHisSled:
23** At this late date, it's hard to find anybody who isn't familiar with the original movie's plot twists, whether they've actually seen it or not, mostly because Norman Bates has become one of the most iconic characters not only in film history but in the 20th Century. On the chance you weren't already aware, [[spoiler: Norma was DeadAllAlong and the killer is Norman himself, who has split-personality disorder and his murderous side "is" Norma]].
24** Marion Crane, the movie's ostensible lead character, being [[DecoyProtagonist murdered midway through the film]] was a ''massive'' twist at the time, so much so that Hitchcock had a policy enacted in which audience members would not be admitted to the theater once the movie had started in order to preserve it. With the shower scene becoming the movie's most iconic setpiece, it would be very difficult to find a modern viewer unaware of the twist now, and even new viewers tangentially aware of the scene will probably guess that the blonde woman that the movie follows for the first hour will end up being the blonde woman they know gets murdered in the shower.
25* MemeticMutation: The PsychoStrings are the most famous example, but two of Norman's lines are fairly common {{Shout Out}}s in other genre pieces:
26--> We all go a little mad sometimes.
27--> Well, a boy's best friend is his mother.
28* MisBlamed:
29** The summation in the end indicates that Norman Bates is not transgender; instead, he has what is now called dissociative identity disorder, with a female alter. Despite this, the movie has received criticism for being transphobic.
30** Some people have criticized the film for being misogynistic, due to Norman's evil mother being [[FreudianExcuse the reason for his mental illness and resulting actions]]. The film makes it very clear that Norma Bates was an extremely abusive parent and possible [[TheSociopath sociopath]], indicating that a father with the same "style" of parenting would have similar results on a child.
31* MyRealDaddy: One of the most notorious controversies about the film is the claim that Saul Bass made in the end of TheSixties that ''he'' and not Hitchcock directed the famous "shower scene". In addition to designing the title sequence of the film, Bass has a credit for "Pictorial Consultant" and in that capacity designed storyboards for both the shower scene and the Arbogast Murder scene. The reason for this controversy is Hitchcock's fault. During production, he and Bass had a falling out. And then in his famous interviews with Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Hitchcock lambasted Bass when Truffaut brought up the Pictorial Consultant credit, stating that Bass designed storyboards for the Arbogast murder which Hitchcock didn't use [[SelfServingMemory and completely neglected Bass' contribution to the shower scene]]. Bass [[BerserkButton was naturally upset at what he saw as a deliberate lie of omission]]. Later authors having consulted the storyboards note that Bass more or less did design the shower scene, the silhouette of the mother behind the curtains, the knife through the curtains and even details like the circular shower-head which rhymes with the Iris of Marion and then the drainage hole of the tub (which was similar to the spiral of ''Vertigo''). The sequence was also quite unusual since Hitchcock rarely used such a montage of shots in his films. In either case, Hitchcock did direct the scene since he was on set and he more or less did delegate Bass to take on a bigger role than before[[note]](properly managing your ProductionPosse is closer to what directors do than outright make stuff up)[[/note]] but the shower sequence is as much Bass' as it is Hitchcock's even if the former did not as he tried to claim "direct it".
32* {{Narm}}: While Marion is showering, the ominousness of her impending murder as seen by the audience is juxtaposed with Marion beaming with the unrestrained delight of a cheesecake model. It appears to be supposed to be ironic, but instead comes off as unintentionally comical.
33%%** The ending scene in the fruit cellar. While Lila's screaming would have brought anyone down to the fruit cellar, the fact that when Norman's alternate personality realized she was in the house that he ''went up to his mother's room to dress up as her'' instead of having a quick look around and then going down to the fruit cellar kind of detracts from the seriousness. Same goes for actually seeing how ridiculous Norman looks in the dress and the wig.%%Needs to be expanded on.
34* NarmCharm:
35** Not everyone dislikes the psychiatrist's scene. Mostly because Simon Oakland's performance is deliberately over-the-top, it relieves some of the tension and that there was no other way to dispatch so much exposition economically given the constraints and structure of the film. There's a bit of FridgeBrilliance on Hitchcock's part--while the audience may have figured out everything, everyone in the room is clueless, so of course, ''they'' need the explanation, even if most of the viewers don't.
36** The PsychoStrings have been parodied a lot, so hearing them is bound to make some viewers laugh. But that doesn't stop them from being effective.
37* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: The infamous ShowerScene, to the point [[PsychoShowerMurderParody it has its own trope]]. If the movie was put in theaters today, most, if not all, people in the audience would probably watch on with indifference to the scene, and possibly complain over things like how there are no wounds on Marion's body after the killer leaves, or how there are never any shots of the knife entering flesh. However, it's important to take into account that the movie was released in the early ''60's''. At the time, the directors were not allowed to show explicit violence, nudity or a [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking toilet flushing.]] (Hitchcock got that last part through, though.) Through fast-cut editing, timing, and effect, Hitchcock made it happen as explicit as the film industry would allow, which is why it was a great shock and terror to the people back then; you had not even expected someone to make a scene work that way. The world was left in a state of awe and terror for a long time after its premiere. Adding to the shock factor was that Marion had been set up as the protagonist, and was played by the best known actor in the cast. So to see the movie subvert PlotArmour was also quite shocking. Creator/WesCraven would repeat this later with Creator/DrewBarrymore in ''{{Film/Scream 1996}}''.
38* OutOfTheGhetto: For low-budget horror and slasher films. Hitchcock, himself a PigeonHoledDirector, was fascinated by William Castle's cheap horror productions and was curious to see if he could make a movie of that kind and raise it out of its ghetto. Usually associated with an elegant type of thriller (featuring high production values and A-list stars), he made ''Psycho'' cheaply with little-known actors and created perhaps the most commercially successful horror movie ever made, one of cinema's most iconic villains and launched the slasher genre, and also scored one of the few Best Director nominations he ever received. Thanks to the film's low-budget, great success and Hitchcock getting a bigger share of the profits, its a movie with a very high profit margin and it was the first time a horror movie became as much of a box-office sensation as an EpicMovie, TheWestern and TheMusical.
39* ParanoiaFuel: ''Psycho'' practically invented the fear of having somebody sneak in to kill you while you're showering. Hitchcock famously responded to one letter complaining that the writer's daughter refused to get in the tub after seeing the film with "I suggest you have her dry-cleaned."
40* RetroactiveRecognition:
41** Creator/SimonOakland, who plays the psychiatrist, would become well-known a decade or so later as Tony Vincenzo on ''Series/KolchakTheNightStalker''.
42** Creator/TedKnight briefly appears as a policeman guarding the room where Norman is being held at the end of the film.
43* TheScrappy: The psychiatrist is considered one for his long-winded scene that comes at the end of the film, which states information that should for the most part be obvious by the end. He is also happened to be an UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom in the sequel ''Film/PsychoII'', due to his diagnosis of Norman being permanently insane; this provokes Lila (who was present at the psychiatrist's hearing) to [[WellIntentionedExtremist staunchly]] believe Norman will always be crazy and attempts to [[spoiler: drive him insane again to get him recommitted]] when he is released and [[spoiler: initially]] indeed cured of his insanity.
44* SignatureScene: The ShowerScene, where Marion Crane gets stabbed to death by Norman Bates, is deeply ingrained in pop culture and can be easily recognized even by people who never watched the film. The brutal and surprising death of the DecoyProtagonist had a powerful impact on audiences, becoming an object of study by cinematographers and psychologists alike, on top of inspiring many homages and parodies in various other works.
45* SpecialEffectFailure: Possibly due to the scene of Arbogast's murder being a hasty reshoot -- Creator/AlfredHitchcock's assistant director Hilton Green had originally stepped in to direct it after Hitchcock was taken ill, but the resulting footage was deemed to make it too obvious that he was about to be killed -- the sequence is realised with some shoddy (even for the time) rear-projection, which makes it look like Arbogast somehow ''dances'' his way backwards down the stairs before falling over just in time to be killed.
46* SpiritualSuccessor: Plenty of other films have tried exploring the same themes, but very few come close to matching the gravity and substance of ''Psycho''. The 2018 film ''Film/{{Split}}'', by Creator/MNightShyamalan, is perhaps the closest one would find. It features a main character that follows a similar path to Norman Bates.
47* ToughActToFollow:
48** ''Psycho'' is looked at as Hitch's peak of cultural appeal and influence. None of his films were as commercially successful or culturally impactful. ''Film/TheBirds'' is still considered a classic and a pioneer in special effects and sound design, but it was not as big of a sensation as ''Psycho'' and while ''Film/{{Marnie}}'' is now considered his final masterpiece, it was critically disliked and commercially unsuccessful.
49** ''Psycho'' is also a final hurrah for Hitchcock's ProductionPosse in general. It was the last film Saul Bass designed titles for, on account of a personal and professional falling out. It was Hitchcock's final film for Paramount Studios (where he had made all his great films in TheFifties). In the following years, his longtime editor George Tomasini and cinematographer Robert Burks[[note]](who didn't actually work on the film; Hitchcock couldn't afford his salary due to the film's low budget, forcing him to give the job to ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' cinematographer John Russell)[[/note]] would pass away, and Hitchcock would have another falling out with Music/BernardHerrmann. So it was in a real sense an EndOfAnAge for Hitchcock.
50** Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay, worked as a producer and writer on ''[[Series/TheOuterLimits1963 The Outer Limits]]'', but otherwise never came to close to the success of ''Psycho'' again.
51* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The way everyone treats $40,000 as such a huge deal very much dates it to the economic status of 1960. It's quite telling that the remake felt the need to add an extra zero so that this would still make sense.
52* ValuesDissonance: Norman's reaction to Marion suggesting his mother go to a mental hospital or care home is shock and outrage. [[spoiler: Of course this is because she's been dead for years]] but the idea of getting help or care for a mentally ill relative is treated like AFateWorseThanDeath. On the other hand, if you know [[BedlamHouse what mental hospitals could be like in the 60s]], his outrage might make more sense.
53* ValuesResonance:
54** It's pretty cool to see this film, released in what was basically the Dark Ages as far as views of non-heterosexuals were concerned, go a bit out of its way to point out that Norman should ''not'' be considered a transvestite, or have his evil actions ascribed to such an identity.
55** It also seems more understanding towards mental illness. The psychiatrist's explanation at the end specifies how Norman's condition has manifested and how it affects him. In an era that would ordinarily write him off as "crazy for the sake of being crazy," the psychiatrist empathizes with Norman and recognizes that his personality is separate from his murderous alter.
56** Both the ValuesDissonance and ValuesResonance examples are inverted among the Anti-Psych platforms for obvious reasons.
57** A smaller example, but this is the first movie to show a toilet flushing, in a time period where this would be considered vulgar. It seems pretty silly to modern viewers, but the idea of showing a toilet ''at all'' was considered very inappropriate. The fact that this happens right before the infamous Shower Scene has a lot to do with how Hitchcock got away with it, as audience members quickly forgot about it after such a horrific scene.
58* TheWoobie:
59** Marion Crane made a terrible impulsive mistake, came to regret it and was going to make amends but [[spoiler:ended up being murdered]].
60** Norman. He's so ''epically'' messed up. His father dies when he is 6 (it's never made clear how this happened). After this, his mother deliberately isolates and dominates him, making him completely dependent on her. She verbally abuses him, (if the way his alternate personality speaks is any reflection of how she was in life is to be believed, and there's no reason why it wouldn't be) and fills his head with the belief that all women (besides her) are evil whores. Then she shows up with a man when Norman is 12. At this point, he's only been with and known his mother almost all his life, no other person, so he killed them out of jealous desperation. The woman who was responsible for his abusive childhood now ''lives inside his head'', berating, watching, punishing - no peace, nowhere to hide. Norman's trap is his own mind, and he can't escape. Hitchcock deliberately cast Creator/AnthonyPerkins in the role to emphasise Norman's woobie quality.

Top