Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho legacy 60 years later

Hello Horror Freaks! Today we celebrate the legacy of a film that changed the genre and the industry forever. Becoming a cult film and part of the pop culture since 1960. This week marks 60 years since the release of the film. The mind behind this masterpiece is no other than the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch and was published on 1959. The book is inspired on the crimes of the serial killer Ed Gein. Paramount Pictures deciden to give a low budget because they found the novel “impossible to a movie”. But this did not stopped Hitchcock from continuing the production.

After stealing $40,000 from her boss, Marion Crane flees from the police and stops for the night in a motel that stands next to a lost highway. The establishment is run by a shy and strange young man and his mother

Plot summary of Psycho (1960)

The shower scene

Of the whole film one scene in particular stands out and it’s today on of the most known on the cinema history. The death of the protagonist on the shower, a 3 minutes scene showing 77 different angles of the camera and 50 cuts. Most of the shots are close-ups and this combined with the short duration of the scene makes the scene to feel more subjective.

Psycho also broke the standards of the era. During this times lovers, murder, violence, and even a direct shot of a toilet weren’t acceptable for audiences. But the success of the film opened the rode for more filmmakers to do the same: break the rules.

It’s considered the first slasher film since the main characteristic of the subgenre is the appearance of a psychopath that kills. But it wasn’t until the release of Halloween (1978) that the subgenre was actually born.

4 sequels, 1 remake, 1 spin-off and 1 inspired series Psycho is to this day an icon of Hollywood. The shower scene has been recreated by no other than the daughter of Jane Leigh and scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis on the tv series Scream Queens (2015). Both mother and daughter become horror icons that will be remembered forever.

• Psycho(1960)
• Psycho II (1983)
• PsychoIII (1986)
• Psycho IV (1990) (TV)
• Bates Motel (1987) (Spin-off)
• Psycho (1998) (Remake)
• Bates Motel (2013-2017) (TV Series)

As a horror fan or just a fan of the cinema industry this is a film that everyone should see. The influence of this film on the industry is way to big to be unnoticed. And if you want to know more about the story of Norma and Norman Bates you should watch Bates Motel on Netflix. You’ll thank me later. Until next time!