What Is The Influence and Legacy of Psycho?

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Psycho still holds up today as one of the best horror movies to watch

Psycho, simply put, is a cinematic masterpiece. 

Directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, the film broke new ground and has one of the most famous and imitated sequences in movie history.

Before Psycho, most horror films largely revolved around monsters and supernatural elements, but Hitchcock’s film introduced horror as a genre that could explore more of the human psyche and everyday fears of people, and helped inspire the wave of psychological horror movies that followed ever since, not to mention slashers.

It's a 10/10 movie for me.

The film is so good, the strong sequel, Psycho II, often gets forgotten, which is a shame, as that is also a really good film in it's own right.

Box Office Success

Alfred Hitchcock's enthusiasm for the film Psycho was evident from the start, as he was so confident in its success that he chose to take potential earnings from the box office gross instead of his normal salary, and this decision certainly paid off for him, as Psycho went on to become an immense box office success, earning Hitchcock millions.

The marketing of the film was also pretty legendary, with a six-minute trailer featuring Alfred Hitchcock himself that did not show a single shot from the movie

This approach helped build a lot anticipation around the film and contributed to its eventual success at the box office, where Hitchcock had some strict rules for theaters too, such as not admitting latecomers and asking audiences not to share the film's final twist.

The immense success of Psycho at the box office also helped open the door for other filmmakers to explore darker and more disturbing themes in their work, as Hitchcock's film demonstrated the potential for such storytelling to audiences while achieving commercial success.

The film ended up making over $50 million worldwide on a budget of $806,947, and if we put that into perspective with inflation, that would be over $500 million today.

Despite the success it ended up having, Paramount originally had a lot of doubts about the film and were reluctant to finance it, so much so that they deferred almost all of the rights to Hitchcock.

I wonder if anyone got sacked for that decision?

Remote Location and Norman Bates

The remote location of the Bates Motel helped create an atmosphere of isolation and vulnerability, with the feeling of being far from help or protection added to all of the suspense and fear experienced by the characters and those watching. 

The main character of Norman Bates, portrayed by Anthony Perkins, is an ever so complex and enigmatic character who defies the typical portrayal of a killer in films. 

He has an handsome and very charming demeanor, who has a troubled relationship with his controlling mother, and then throw in The Bates Motel as the haunting backdrop and remote location, you have a sense of danger and unease at all times, and creates the perfect setting for the dark and disturbing story to unfold.

The Art of Suggestion and Psychological Fear

I am sure everyone has watched the classic shower scene in Psycho, and this scene had a massive impact when it was first screened. 

The intense and sudden nature of the scene shocked audiences, and helped set a new standard for on-screen violence and terror. 

With Bernard Herrmann's chilling score and the use of sound effects all helping create a sense of fear and suspense that has become a benchmark for horror films ever since.

Hitchcock showed very little actual violence on screen, with the scene relying on the power of suggestion, allowing our imagination to fill in the terrifying details, which only helped it's impact I feel.

Even today, the shower scene in Psycho remains one of the most studied and discussed moments in film history.

This was Psycho's biggest strength and achievement, with just how it was able to evoke the fear and suspense without relying on explicit violence or nudity, and this is a testament to the power of suggestion in storytelling, such as in the shower scene mentioned above.

By only hinting at the horrifying events and leaving much to the viewer's imagination, Psycho tapped into the innate fear of the unknown, creating a sense of dread and suspense that lingered long after the film had ended.

This was a new standard for how horror stories could be told, and has inspired filmmakers to this day, to explore the psychological aspects of fear,  without relying on explicit violence or gore.

And here's a little fact about the shower scene.

To get a close-up of water spraying from the showerhead without wetting the camera, they built an oversized, six-foot showerhead and rigged it to spray around the lens. 

And for all of the ''blood'' you see, well they actually used chocolate syrup, which looked much darker and more dramatic on black-and-white film than fake blood would have.

And what about some of the themes potrayed in the film? These were considered taboo topics at the time, such as sexual repression and mental illness, but Psycho helped pave the way for these topics to be shown and accepted in film.

And we also have voyeurism and privacy invasion, which is also explored in the film, and is still relevant to this day, especially privacy invasion, all be it today it is more digitally focused.

Simply put, Psycho redefined what horror could be, and carved out a legacy that has proven timeless

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