Sam and Lila, realising that the Arbogast has also gone missing, visit the motel, finding evidence that Marion was there. When Lila explorers the Bates’ house, she stumbles upon Mrs Bates’ skeleton in the fruit cellar. She screams, alerting Norman, who rushes in dressed as his mother and wielding a knife. Just before Norman attacks Lila, Sam rushes in and a struggle ensues between Norman and Sam, with Sam eventually taking the knife off him.
The scene changes and we see Lila and Sam at a police station, and here is where all is revealed, and the various stories brought together by a psychiatrist, who explains that Norman incorporated his mother’s personality into his own after murdering her and her lover. Norman, meanwhile, sits in a straightjacket, his mother’s personality completely overtaking his own.
It is a story that combines suspense, horror and an ever-intensifying plot, with a wide range of different film techniques and a powerful string orchestra-based soundtrack by Bernard Hermann. Hitchcock uses deception cleverly, in a way in which we think that, throughout the film, the ‘old lady in the house’ (Bates’ mother) is one who has committed the crimes. This is because we only see her in silhouette form, and a lot of mystery surrounds her reluctance to be outside. The horrifying ending provides an unexpected twist to the plot, and the way the various stories are cleverly resolved at the end make for a satisfying conclusion. The real magic, however, is the way in which Hitchcock creates the real horror of the film in the mind of the reader. There are only two incidences of violent death, those of Marion and Arbogast, the real terror is in the viewer not knowing what will occur next, and who else may be murdered. In this way great suspense is created, and Hitchcock tells of how he attempted to “Manipulate the minds of the audience, and make them think they’ve seen something which has only been suggested”. He plays with the audience’s emotions, drawing them into the film, and progressively asking them to identify and sympathise with different characters as the story progresses.
Psycho was based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, based on a real-life psychotic killer, Edward Gein. During filming, Psycho was known as ‘Production 9401’, and due to a lack of funds, Hitchcock used his own television crew; saving him time any money. The result was a scheduled 30-day shoot costing between $800,000 and $900,000. To date the film has grossed over $40 million. It broke all film conventions by displaying its leading female character in revealing clothing in the first scene, by showing a toilet bowl in a bathroom, and then, quite literally ‘killing off’ his lead role, less than half-way into the film. Hitchcock also believed that making his film monochrome (he had the means to create a colour film) would add to the dramatic effect, as colour would draw the viewer from the focus of the film.
As a publicity stunt to promote the film, Hitchcock insisted that no-one would be admitted to the cinema after the film had begun; a tradion that stands to this day. Audiences were curious, and this lured them to the theatres, assuming that something horrible would happen in the first few minutes.
Alfred Hitchcock was a director who was meticulous in the amounts of detail in every sequence. He carefully thought out the storyboarding and eventua; production of Psycho, helping to enable his vision become a reality.
. His carefully thought out storyboarding and eventual production of Psycho, enabled his audience to see the dark potentialities that exists for them all, he gave them a view of eternal damnation. However in producing these effects cinematically or visually he provided a release for them all; Hitchcock set them free from the intolerable finality of damnation. It is interesting to note that while Hitchcock had the cinematic freedom to produce a movie where sympathetic characters pay a fearful price, he was still under the 'knife' of the big studio producers and censors. Asked why he did not shoot this movie in color (as was then available), he replied, "The reason I didn't do Psycho in color was because of the blood. That was the only reason. With all the blood in that bathtub, I knew very well I'd have had the whole sequence cut out - if it had been filmed in color" (Hitchcock 311).
Sam and Lila arrive at the motel and find evidence that Marion was there. When Lila explores the house, she finds Mrs. Bates's skeleton in the fruit cellar. As a response to her screams, Norman rushes in, dressed as his mother and wielding a knife, but is detained by Sam.
In the courthouse, a psychiatrist explains that Norman incorporated his mother’s personality into his own after murdering her and her lover. Norman, meanwhile, sits in a straightjacket, his mother’s personality completely overtaking his own.
"Psycho," starts off from the point-of-view of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a young banker who, on her lunch breaks, often meets her long-time boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), in a hotel room. Desperate to break free and be with him, she steals $40,000 in cash and goes on the lam, only to stop at the backwoods Bates Motel for the night, where, as everyone knows, she meets her ill-fated demise by being stabbed to death in the shower by a mysterious female figure. When the motel manager, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), whose invalid mother is always looking out the bedroom window of the house overlooking the motel, discovers Marion, he desperately disposes of the body by putting her in the trunk of her car and driving it into a nearby swamp. After missing for a week, Marion's older sister, Lila (Vera Miles), grows concerned and enlists the aid of both Sam and the police detective, Arbogast (Martin Balsam), to investigate the disappearance
‘Juxtaposed’
