Saturday, October 13, 2012

#19 - PSYCHO - Horror Countdown to Halloween


This October we here at Dark of the Matinee are counting down our 31 favorite horror films. Join us daily as we countdown from #31 starting on October 1, 2012 leading up to #1 on Halloween!







#19 – PSYCHO (1960)
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock


Today we take you inside our top twenty with Alfred Hitchcock's game changer, Psycho. How fitting with the Hitchcock trailer recently hitting the interweb.

Since you're here at Dark of the Matinee reading this, I think it's safe to say you know all about Psycho, right? You're familiar with poor ole Norman Bates and his mother. And if not, what are you doing here?

Psycho follows Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a secretary from Phoenix stealing money from her employer to help her divorced boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin). Marion steals $40,000 and heads off to Sam's home in California. A rain storm delays her trip causing her to stay a night at the Bates Motel, a small little hotel off the beaten path.

The motel is owned by Norman Bates who advises Marion that he rarely gets visitors based on their location. Norman lives in the house on top of the hill with his mother.

From there...well you know the story.

Psycho is a landmark film that has had a cultural impact that few other movies can match. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch which was loosely based on the serial killer Ed Gein, no studio wanted any part of this.

Paramount, who had a deal remaining with Hitchcock for one more film, wouldn't finance it. They said it was "too repulsive" and "impossible for films." Hitchcock would not be phased. He raised the funds himself under his own Shamley Productions and shot the film at Universal Studios under the Revue television unit.

The Bates Motel and house sets built for the film still stand today and are part of the Universal tour ride. This basically says all you need to know.

The famous shower scene with Leigh consists of 77 different camera angles and 50 cuts. Two cameras were used for the three minute scene made extra creepy by Bernard Herrmann's all strings score.

Hitchcock did all he could to keep the film secretly guarded, even going so far to purchase as many copies of the novel as possible. He wanted to protect his reveal, which would go to become one of the most famous and disturbing twists in cinema history.

Hitchcock's shocking, disturbing thriller is truly a work of art. It introduced us to one of the horror icons in Norman Bates and has terrified audiences for 50 plus years and there's no end in sight.



written by Christopher Coffel

No comments:

Post a Comment