History YMMV / Psycho

* 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}}''.

* MisBlamed: 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.

** 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 blatant imitation of ''Psycho''.

* HilariousInHindsight: 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).

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The infamous ShowerScene. 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}}''.

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[[folder: Hitchcock's film]]

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[[folder: Sequels]]
* {{Sequelitis}}: This occurred with a different sequel to the original novel, and another plot was bandied about elsewhere: with Norman being released, found to be cured, back into the general populace. [[spoiler: Except it was the 70s, when he went away in the early 60s. The eponymous "psycho" would have been the Anvilicious world around him.]]
[[/folder]]

** Years after the first movie, Anthony Perkins revealed that his own mother was sexually abusive towards him.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Possibly because of the scene of Arbogast's murder being a hasty reshoot -- Creator/AlfredHitchcock's assistant director, Hilton Green 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.

* 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 movie ''Film/{{Split}}'', by Creator/MNightShyamalan is perhaps the closest one would find. The 2018 movie features a main character that follows a similar path.

* 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 ''Film/{{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 recieved. 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.

* SpiritualPredecessor: Plenty of films have tried using the same themes, but very few come close to matching the gravity and substance of Psycho. The movie ''Film/{{Split}}'', by Creator/MNightShyamalan is perhaps the closest one would find. The 2018 movie features a main character that follows a similar path.

* ParanoiaFuel: ''Psycho'' practically invented the fear of having someone 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."

* ParanoiaFuel: Practically invented the fear of someone about to kill you while you're showering, just waiting outside the curtain. Hitchcock famously responded to a 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."

** Creator/SimonOakland, who plays the psychiatrist, would become well-known a decade or so later for playing Tony Vincenzo on ''Series/KolchakTheNightStalker''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/TedKnight briefly appears as a policeman guarding the room where Norman is being held at the end of the film.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The infamous ShowerScene. 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 the bad special effects. 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}}''.

** 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'' considered 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.

* GeniusBonus: The painting that Norman removes from his parlor wall in order to spy on Marion through the peephole is Willem van Mieris' ''Suzanna 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.

* GeniusBonus: All the paintings in the parlor – but most specifically the painting that Norman removes from the wall in order to spy on Marion through the peephole – are versions of ''Susannah and the Elders,'' a biblical story 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.

* GeniusBonus: All the paintings in the parlor, but most specifically the painting that Norman takes off the wall in order to spy on Marion, are versions of ''Susannah and the Elders,'' a biblical story about two lecherous voyeurs who try to take advantage of an unsuspecting young woman while she's bathing. Also, in part with the [[AnimalMotifs bird motifs]], Norman accidentally knocks off one of the pictures of birds in Marion's room, which confirms him as the murderer because he "offed the bird" – which, in British slang, is killing a young woman.

* {{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 [[spoiler:he kills people]]. Apparently, Hitchcock deliberately cast Perkins in the role to create this type of character, saying:

* GeniusBonus: All the paintings in the parlor, but most specifically the painting that Norman takes off the wall in order to spy on Marion, are versions of ''Susannah and the Elders,'' a biblical story about two lecherous voyeurs who try to take advantage of an unsuspecting young woman while she's bathing. Also, in part with the [[AnimalMotifs bird motifs]], Norman accidentally knocks off one of the pictures of birds in Marion's room, which confirms him as the murderer because he "offed the bird" - which, in British slang, is killing a young woman.

** Norman. He's so ''epically'' messed up. His father dies when he is 5 (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.

* HarsherInHindsight: 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.

* RetroactiveRecognition: A policeman guarding the room where Norman is being held was played by Creator/TedKnight.

* SignatureScene:
** The ShowerScene, where Marion Crane gets stabbed to death by Norman Bates.
** The ChairReveal of Mrs. Bates is another scene.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** Composed, once again, by Music/BernardHerrmann.
** 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]].

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** Upon first viewing, many audience interpreted Marion as a titular Psycho the way she evaded the police and stowed away in a hotel with the money. Subverted [[spoiler: as she was killed off rather quickly]].

* {{Adorkable}}: Intentionally {{Invoked|Trope}} by Hitchcock; 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 [[spoiler:he kills people]]. Hitchcock deliberately cast Perkins in the role to create this type of character, saying:

* DeathBySex: Possibly one of the earliest examples of this in American cinema. The opening hotel tryst establishes Marion as sexually active with Sam, and during the shower her expressions start as ecstatic and then dreamy, as if pleasuring herself. Then the stabbings evoke a rape.