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The way films shot in black-and-white portrays itself to the
audience and materialise into something more than just a critical acclaimed
film is surely alluring to experience. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho might not be
my first movie I watched from the 60’s era but it’s definitely the one creating
a greater impact than the other. The movie has pure visceral feel and induces a
thrill so powerful that you might find yourself quite intrigued by it.
Psycho opens up with a scene with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh)
and Sam Loomis (John Gavin) in a rented room of cheap hotel in Pheonix. Their
apparent actions and conversations give vivid impression that both are
currently having an intense love affair and want to get married soon but are
unable to do so since they can’t afford the expenses involved. Marion is
working in an estate agent’s office and meets with a client who gives her
40,000 dollars to buy a house for his daughter.
A desperate Marion steals 40,000 dollars from the client and
flees from the town. Marion, on the run
takes refuge in a motel called as Bates Motel, whose business appeared to be in
total shambles. Even being strongly confronted by his dominant mother, the
owner of the motel Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) warmly welcomes Marion with
warm dinner and cosy room to spend the night in. Things turned horribly ugly
when Marion gets murdered in the room of the motel by an unknown entity as she
gets stabbed multiple times. The unknown entity in the movie will somewhat be perceived
by the audience as ‘Psycho’ and the overall objective of cold-blooded murder
however remains a mystery.
Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, Psycho
is a mystery thriller with the suspense not being kept on hold for long and
becomes quite flagrant. Alfred Hitchcock has made an audacious effort to make
such a thriller in which the title of being the ‘protagonist’ vacillates from
one person to another quite impressively. You may not be sure who the lead
character actually is but you are pretty sure that the film is not a bizarre scramble of sheer
ambiguity. A cinephile’s experience will spring to life if he doesn’t have the
prescience of the suspense before. The film is capricious but still thrilling
and fantastically riveting.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is worth the encomium and claps.
9 on 10 stars
