Psycho (1960)

Psychological Horror Movies

Source: IMDB.

Is Norman Bates insane, or is he possessed by the spirit of his dead mother? Or is there a third explanation? When Marion Crane gives Norman her real name and destination at the end of their dinner chat, he looks up the name and locale she wrote on the hotel register.

They are different.

I think that’s the point where Norman decides that it’s okay to kill her. His reasoning isn’t bad. Marion is running from something. Norman puts it out there when she’s eating dinner, and she as much as admits it. Which means that it’s likely nobody knows where she is.

Look at the questions he asks her. Who are you? Where are you going? Who knows you’re here? Think about it. Norman seems strange but sympathetic, especially when we hear his mother berating him. Maybe he’s just a lonely man making conversation. Or not.

Norman may stammer, but he’s not stupid. There is no way to connect him to Marion. That’s why serial killers are so hard to catch. If he gets rid of her body, which he does, his chances are excellent.

There are 20,000 murder shows on TV, and most of them get it wrong. The majority of murders are easy to solve, because they are committed by a person the victim knows. In most cases, there is a connection and a motive.

There is no connection in Psycho; as to motive, I would say that Norman is a predator. Is he a serial killer? The label fits. He murders six people; three are young women who in profiler terms are his ‘type.’

Psycho gives us hints as to Norman’s true nature. Exhibit #1 is the stuffed owl in his parlor. Owls are only birds, right? They are apex predators, just like bears and wolves. And people.

Norman may kill because of the mother persona, or he may kill because it is a panacea to sex. There’s evidence to support the latter possibility. Norman drills a hole in his office so he can watch women undress in the adjoining bathroom. This is the biggest red flag because it is a violation of boundaries.

He has a fine collection of pornography, bound in classy looking volumes. Incest with his mother is implied. Since this movie was made in 1960, they couldn’t come out and say that. If Hitchcock could have, he would have.

Marion Crane’s murder is highly sexualized. The death of Arbogast the private eye is not. Everyone talks about the shower scene, but Arbogast’s death is also a great scene. Watching him moonwalk backwards down those steps is awesome. Step aside, Dario Argento; Hitchcock is the king of staged murder scenes!

Is Norman aware of his actions? I don’t know. He does a pretty good job of cleaning up and covering his tracks. At one point Norman says, a son is a poor substitute for a lover. I view this as him referring to how he poisoned his mother’s lover, along with his mother. That would mean he is aware that he poisoned them.

Why won’t Norman eat dinner in Marion’s room? It’s not to put her at ease, because she seems oblivious. It’s to put him at ease. Doesn’t that prove that Norman is just awkward?

That’s one reading. The other is that the office also functions as Norman’s lair. It is his space. The house is his mother’s space. When Norman kills, he goes into the house first.

A few words about Marion Crane. She doesn’t deserve to die. Stealing $40,000 because she wants to get married is stupidity paired with wish-fulfillment, not evil. To me, it works because her character radiates a certain obliviousness that I find believable.

What’s more troubling is the fact that Norman gives off a bunch of warning signals, which Marion ignores. My guess is that she views him as strange and a little sad and thus no threat.

The ending of Psycho echoes the scene at the end of a murder mystery, where the pipe-smoking detective gathers everyone in the parlor and reveals whodunnit. Professor Plum killed Colonel Mustard in the den with a poker.

The explanation given is ludicrous. Norman is not schizophrenic. He doesn’t have dissociative identity disorder. I mean, come on. Psycho was written by a pulp writer and filmed by a sadist with a visual flair who liked to torment his female starlets. They give you the sizzle and not the steak.

Yeah, the explanation is stupid. Norman Bates is not stupid. And the subtext, which hints at something much more sinister, is not stupid. Maybe Norman Bates is sane. Maybe he kills because he likes killing. That’s much scarier than a dweeb possessed by his mom.

The truth is out there, rotting in the trunk of a white 1957 Ford Custom 300 4 door sedan, along with a dead body and $39,300, cash.