Psycho (1960)

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 $40,000 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. That night Marion gets killed in the shower of the hotel room, which is called the best scene ever shot, after that Norman the owner comes running in looking sad and angry at someone at this time the audience feels that it was his mother who had killed Marion because Norman wanted invite her into the house. But at the end we realize that Normans mother had died many years ago and he had a split personality and he was killing the women.

The main character dying so quick into the film is odd because traditionally the main character is normally ion the film for the whole film or most of it.

The money that Marion stolen was a Maguffin, a Maguffin is when something happens to carry the film forward. So the money she stolen helps carry the film forward because she ends up at the hotel where she dies because of the money she has stolen.

        This is the story board of the shower scene, this is classed as one of the best ever scenes shot, this is due to the editing, music and the suspense that is created while she was showering. 

        The editing was very good on this scene because it helps create tension and the inevitability that she is going to get hurt or that something is not right.

        The music when Marion gets stabbed is a perfect choice in music because it emphasizes the fact she is getting stabbed and it is out of the ordinary.

That scene was one of the many fast paced action in the film, other scenes are the scene where Norman is sinking the car in the swamp and it looks like it will not sink so it starts to get tense, the next is when the investigator gets killed on the stairs. These scenes are the type of scenes that are normally found in thrillers.

But unusually there is not a hero in thriller which is uncommon of a thriller movie, this makes Psycho stand out and make it a very good film. if you was going to say there is a hero, i would personally say that it was Marion's lover who saved her sister from Norman when he tries to kill her.

Throughout this movie Hitchcock used many cliffhangers, suspense, and red herrings. Just after Marion dies you expect it was Norman who killed her, then you think it is his mother when he runs in and cleans up the mess. Then finally at the end when Marion's sister finds the skeleton we realize it was Norman, acting as his mother, who killed her.