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Release Year: 1960
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Janet Leigh.
Plot: After stealing an enormous quantity of money and disappearing, Marion Crane is killed at a motel by a mysterious murderer, who happens to have an unexpected identity.
Review: 'Psycho' was my second Hitchcock film and an opportunity to be amazed by the talented director after the underwhelming 'Vertigo'. As the movie goes by, you start thinking that such thing is not going to happen... until you reach the ending scenes.
One of the reasons is that the film is quite slow and has a big contrast with the assassination scenes. But once you see them, you can't stop shaking. The famous shower scene is only one of the multiple visually dazzling and perfectly executed murders that are shown in the film. Not only does it have the most horrifying score in film history, but it also uses an additional key factor; the killer arrives fast, kills fast and leaves fast.
The horror... Simply terrifying
With that technique, together with the quieter environment they're located in, the chills are assured, as you are left tense the rest of the movie, just to realize that at the exact murder moment you were again caught off guard.
And this way, we reach the ending. God, the ending is PERFECT. I had all the time the feeling that the mother was dead but when the son moves her in his arms to another room I thought: "Well, she's real! He's carrying her in his arms. He can't be speaking alone all the time...". But of course, I forgot the last option: a mummified mother is the cadaver with whom the insane Norman speaks to. The scene towards the end in which Marion's sister discovers the truth and he appears all of the sudden to murder her is a horror milestone that has never been achieved again. Hats off; Hitchcock is a genius.
At the end, the psychiatrist (in what it's an outstanding psychoanalysis excercise) unfolds the truth completely: Norman had murdered her many years ago and, tortured by guilt, he had kept her mummified persona to pretend she was still alive. And she was... in his mind. Battling with his real identity, the protective mother aroused inside him when she thought he was in danger (that's the reason why he kills Marion, because the mother identity doesn't want his son to be attracted by a woman), forcing him to dress up like her to commit the crimes as another person.
Finally, we see Norman talking alone with his mother's voice in his head (dominated by her identity), explaining his intention of seeming harmless by not smashing a fly that has just landed on his hand. And with a terrifying smile, the movie ends.
Completely insane and dominated by his mother; if we pay attention, as Norman smiles for the last time, his mother's skull can be seen intertwined with his face
One of the reasons is that the film is quite slow and has a big contrast with the assassination scenes. But once you see them, you can't stop shaking. The famous shower scene is only one of the multiple visually dazzling and perfectly executed murders that are shown in the film. Not only does it have the most horrifying score in film history, but it also uses an additional key factor; the killer arrives fast, kills fast and leaves fast.
The horror... Simply terrifying
With that technique, together with the quieter environment they're located in, the chills are assured, as you are left tense the rest of the movie, just to realize that at the exact murder moment you were again caught off guard.
And this way, we reach the ending. God, the ending is PERFECT. I had all the time the feeling that the mother was dead but when the son moves her in his arms to another room I thought: "Well, she's real! He's carrying her in his arms. He can't be speaking alone all the time...". But of course, I forgot the last option: a mummified mother is the cadaver with whom the insane Norman speaks to. The scene towards the end in which Marion's sister discovers the truth and he appears all of the sudden to murder her is a horror milestone that has never been achieved again. Hats off; Hitchcock is a genius.
The terrible truth is unfold in an incredible ending
At the end, the psychiatrist (in what it's an outstanding psychoanalysis excercise) unfolds the truth completely: Norman had murdered her many years ago and, tortured by guilt, he had kept her mummified persona to pretend she was still alive. And she was... in his mind. Battling with his real identity, the protective mother aroused inside him when she thought he was in danger (that's the reason why he kills Marion, because the mother identity doesn't want his son to be attracted by a woman), forcing him to dress up like her to commit the crimes as another person.
Finally, we see Norman talking alone with his mother's voice in his head (dominated by her identity), explaining his intention of seeming harmless by not smashing a fly that has just landed on his hand. And with a terrifying smile, the movie ends.
Completely insane and dominated by his mother; if we pay attention, as Norman smiles for the last time, his mother's skull can be seen intertwined with his face
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