This thriller follows Marion Crane after she steals $40,000 from her employer. She checks into the Bates Motel, run by Norman Bates. During her shower, Marion is murdered by an unknown assailant. Her sister Lila and boyfriend Sam investigate her disappearance, shocking audiences with the revelation that Norman Bates is secretly killing people while believing he is his mother. The film is renowned for its unexpected plot twists and effective use of suspense.

1. “PSYCHO” (1960)
This thriller includes
suspense, tension and
excitement.

2. PSYCHO (1960)
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Writers:
Joseph Stefano (screenplay), Robert Bloch (novel)
Stars:
Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles

3. HITCHCOCK THOUGHTS
The audience know there is a murderer in the house. They don’t know
when s/he will strike again but to be suspenseful they must know it
could happen any minute. However the audience think that it’s the
mother who has been committing the mother, but it actually wasn’t, it
was the man who owned the hotel who was committing it.
Hitchcock stressed that as the apprehension increases there is less
and less violence on screen.

4. HITCHCOCK THOUGHTS
In “Psycho” the audience initially think the film is about $40,000 and
the murder becomes a shock. This shock makes the audience
apprehensive for the rest of the film – anything could happen /
anyone could be killed.
This shocks the audience and makes them feel apprehensive for the
rest of the film, because now anything may possibly happen, or
anybody could be killed but the audience doesn’t know who.

5. “PSYCHO” (1960)
“Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action,”
This was especially applied when the young blonde was taking a
shower, unexpectedly you see a shadow behind the curtain with a
knife. Then all of a sudden the you lady is being stabbed, this creates
a sense of suspense because everything is happening in the heat of
the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY
Also the audience were in belief that this young women was going to
be the main character, but all of a sudden her life was taken which
left the audience wondering who will be the new main character.

6. “PSYCHO” (1960)
“Resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and
better equipped villains.”
In this movie you could say that Sam and Lila are the heroes, as they
were the ones who found out that something wasn’t right about her
sister going missing. So they hired out an investigator to help find
her sister, but then he also went missing so they took it amongst
themselves to go and find them. Then they found out that Norman
was behind this, and they called the police and got justice for what
happened to Marlon and the inspector.

7. NORMAN BATES
Hitchcock said it is important to avoid cliché and repetition –
particularly with regard to character – eg murderers can be charming
and the heroes flawed.
Norman Bates was based on two characters. It was based on Ed Gein
murder case.
Bates had suffered serve emotional abuse as a young child when he
lived with his mother, Norma. She brainwashed to him that sexual
intercourse is sinful. Bates killed his mother and faked a note that
Norma killed herself. And he developed dissociative disorder, which is
why he thought that he was his mother.

8. “DEVICES SUCH AS SUSPENSE, RED HERRINGS AND
CLIFFHANGERS ARE USED EXTENSIVELY.”
Story-wise, Psycho is not extraordinary; its true brilliance lies in its
construction. Hitchcock has developed the film in such a way that it
consistently flouts audience expectations.
There are two major surprises:
1. The shower scene murder, this was when the young lady came to stay at
his motel and she was going to take a shower after coming back from
having dinner with Bates and his “mother”. So whilst she was having her
shower, we see a shadow appear, which caused a lot of suspense,
because all of a sudden this shadow brings out a knife opens the curtains
and begins stabbing her. As the audience, they would have thought that
Bates would have come to save her but he didn’t, and the girl dies but he
didnt come and help until after she had passed and he dragged her body
into the car and made it drown in the lake outside the motel.
2. The final revelation about Mother. At the end when Mary’s sister Lila
went into the basement to try and find Mary and Norman comes in to try
and kill her, but Sam stops that from happening and then he catches
Norman and reveals that it is not Bates mother, IT IS ACTAULLY BATES!

9. “DEVICES SUCH AS SUSPENSE, RED HERRINGS AND
CLIFFHANGERS ARE USED EXTENSIVELY.”
A viewer who sees the film for the first time without knowing about
either will experience the full impact of what Hitchcock intended.
The greatest shock for the uninitiated is the early exit of Janet Leigh.
Cause we would have thought that she was going to be the main
character, cause she had stole some money from her boss. But this
was cut short when she had been murdered in the shower, creating a
whole new equilibrium. Whenever anyone speaks about Psycho, the
first images that come to mind are those of Janet Leigh being hacked
to death in the shower. The scene is so famous that even people who
have not seen the film are aware of it. We actually see: a knife, blood
(actually chocolate syrup), water, a woman's naked body (with certain
parts strategically concealed from the camera) and only a brief
showing of the blade penetrating the flesh.
This is doubly unexpected because, to this point, the screenplay had
tricked us into accepting Marion as the main character but she

10. “DEVICES SUCH AS SUSPENSE, RED HERRINGS
AND CLIFFHANGERS ARE USED EXTENSIVELY.”
When she dies and the point-of-view shifts to Norman Bates', the
audience is puzzled. Because in their minds they thought that Janet
Leigh was going to be the main character but then things changed.
In order to keep this crucial aspect of the film secret when Psycho
opened in 1960, there were no advance screenings and no one was
admitted to a showing after the feature had started.
The main suspense I think in the movie, is the shower scene. This is
because at first everything was calm. When she arrived at the hotel
you wouldn’t expect that something would happen to her. She was
just casually having a shower then all of a sudden she gets murdered,
and then the whole equilibrium changes and Norman Bates is the new
main character.

11. “PSYCHO” (1960) AND THRILLER
CONVENTIONS.
“A thriller is a villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the
hero must overcome.”
This is true when it comes to Psycho. This because Norman Bates was
the villain but he was undercover because we was made to believe
that it was Normans mother who was the murder, but it was actually
him. This had shocked the audience a lot because we was made to
follow that Norman Bates mother was the villain. And you could say
that Marys sister and Sam are the heroes as they revealed that
Norman is the murder.
I believe that Norman played a good villain because nobody would
have thought that he was the murder, even at the beginning you
wouldn’t even know that someone would be murdered in the movie.

12. “”THE MCGUFFIN”
Hitchcock said the McGuffin is the plot device that
causes the action to happen.
The McGuffin usually comes in the first part of the film
and sometimes returns at the end.
In his thrillers the audience don’t really care about the
McGuffin.
In this film the McGuffin is Marion stealing the money.

13. DO THESE NARRATIVE THEORIES APPLY TO THIS
FILM?
WHERE? WHEN? BE SPECIFIC!
1. Vladimir Propp – character types – In this film you could say that there was a Vladimir
Propp because the villain you could say, could be Norman Bates and the hero Sam.
You could also say that towards the end Mary’s Sister was the helper, who helped Sam
and the previous detective to gather some clues about the whereabouts of her sister.
This film did not include a Donor or a false hero by any chance
2. Todorov – This film definitely did include a equilibrium, at first it started with Mary
running away from her boss with his money. So this has the audience believing that
the plot of the story is going to be Mary running away from her boss and people could
be coming after her. But then she arrives at this motel and is all of a sudden killed,
which causes a disruption to the equilibrium. Then we have a new equilibrium this is
where Norma Bates is now the new main character and our focus is mainly based on
him now.
3. Roland Barthes – The Enigma codes is also used in this film. The distruption in th
Egnima is a closed text as the disruption was resolved at the end. When Sam and
Mary’s sister had found out about Norman Bates they had found him and had him
arrested. Which means that now there is nothing to worry about, we also find out why
Norman acted this way. It was because of his up bringing with his mother.