Happy Halloween! Here we are at the end of 31 Days of Horror – 10 Years of Fear. I decided to end this year with Psycho – the movie that got me hooked on horror as child.
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) has just stolen a large sum of money from her boss and is driving out to California to where her boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin) lives. Sam has massive debts and can’t marry Marion so she took the money to help them. Along the way she switches cars at a dealership and then continues driving into the night. Tired and in a rain storm she stops at a little motel called Bates Motel.
No one else is staying there as the motel is off of the main road. The friendly but lonely clerk/owner is Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Despite Norman’s mother, who lives in a house above the motel, objections, Norman has a sandwich with Marion and helps her decide to go back home and face the consequences for her actions.
If you don’t know what happens next then you need to watch the movie. I love this film. It’s brilliantly shot. The music, the camera angles, the acting and of course the directing. It’s all perfect. The movie would set the stage for modern horror for decades to come.
Here’s my original post.
