Psycho

Psycho (1960) was a very good film! It had to be my favorite black and white films so far that we viewed in this class. It was very dramatic and very intriguing. All the actors did an extremely good job depicting their characters. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, especially, did a fantastic job. He was able to mask his different personalities very efficiently. When the film first started, it was a scene of Marion Crane and her lover, Sam Loomis. I could automatically tell that Marion wasn't happy, with her life or with him. I just got the feeling that she wanted something different, something more in life than what she had. So with that feeling in my mind, the movie went on to show Marion's life at work. Something was still missing, that was clear, until a man comes in with $40,000. A quick decision and a lie tempt Marion to take the money without anyone suspecting her all. She takes the money and drives far away. The rain makes her stop at a lone motel past the highway. It looked decent enough. That's when Norman comes into play. At first I didn't suspect him to turn out to be the murderer at all! He was just this lonely motel owner who just wanted friendship. He seemed pleasant enough and sweet. Then I learned about some of his hobbies and his mother and my mind changed. Something was definitely up with him. I've watched a lot of horror/suspense movies in the past, so when people start getting murdered, I did think that he was behind it, all of it. Although when Norman's mother's voice was heard and you see him carrying her to the fruit cellar, my thoughts wavered a bit. Maybe the mother didn't die, maybe she was still alive somehow? But nope, she wasn't. It was all him to begin with. He was just a twisted man who killed people his "mother" didn't approve of. The only downside was the murders themselves. It looked so fake! The music gets very dramatic and then Norman comes up and kills. You didn't really get to see anything bloody at all and it was over pretty much in a blink of an eye. The detail more goes to how Norman covers up the murder, than the murders themselves. Overall, the movie was very enjoyable to watch and very well made.