Psycho (1960)

Release date: 1960-09-08
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Production Co: Shamley Productions
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 8.5/10
Length: 1h 49min

Storyline

Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks, and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday, Marion is trusted to bank forty thousand dollars by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into the Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.

Plot Keywords

motel, shower, money, maniac, private detective, blood, corpse, stolen money, taxidermy, domineering mother, swamp, shower curtain, victim invited to dinner, female stockinged feet, theft, secretary, stabbed with a knife, murder of a nude woman, dragging a dead body, carrying a dead body

Short Review

Psycho comes nearer to attaining an exhilarating balance between content and style than anything Hitchcock has done in years. Of course, it is a very minor work. But its virtues of tension, surprise, virtuosity and control are all major ones.