{"id":1713,"date":"2018-10-28T21:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T01:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2018-10-28T20:12:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T00:12:46","slug":"psycho-an-ocf-classic-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/28\/psycho-an-ocf-classic-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Psycho \u2013 An OCF Classic Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Re-Posted from October 2017 in honor of Halloween.\u00a0 Boo!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In honor of Halloween I\u2019ve gone through the Universal Classic Monster Movies.\u00a0 Moving along let\u2019s look at the first modern horror movie.\u00a0 And let\u2019s start by defining what a modern horror movie is.\u00a0 Well, what it isn\u2019t is Frankenstein or Dracula or any make-believe monster.\u00a0 In fact, it isn\u2019t even a more contemporary monster like a zombie in \u201cNight of the Living Dead.\u201d\u00a0 The generation that had lived through World War II and the Korean War and was living under the threat of nuclear annihilation probably couldn\u2019t pretend to be afraid of rubber-masked monsters.\u00a0 What they could fear was the monster that might be living behind the eyes of the boy next door.\u00a0 Insanity was a monster that they knew had broken free before and once loose inflicted real horror on all in its path.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the modern horror movie monster, a homicidal maniac.\u00a0 And before there was the Red Dragon, or Hannibal Lector or Saw there was Norman Bates.<\/p>\n

Psycho was based on a novel by Robert Bloch, who wrote genre fiction in Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Mystery categories.\u00a0 It was inspired in part by a truly depraved serial killer named Ed Gein but the details of the story mostly came out of Bloch\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n

But the reason Psycho is the subject of this review is that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make that movie.\u00a0 Always an innovator and aware of the need to push the boundaries of what was allowable on screen, he produced a film that fit its time.\u00a0 The sexual nature of the relationship between Marion Crane and Sam Loomis is highlighted.\u00a0 The murder scenes although tame by today\u2019s standards are truly frightening.\u00a0 For audiences of that time (1960) some of the scenes would have been shocking.<\/p>\n

But Hitchcock didn\u2019t make just a scream fest.\u00a0 The movie is a complete story.\u00a0 Each of the main characters and many of the smaller parts are skillfully crafted with loving detail and come to life on the screen.\u00a0 And one character who has been dead for ten years and only survives inside the tortured brain of a madman gets several good lines including the closing soliloquy.<\/p>\n

And here is one of the strangest twists of the movie.\u00a0 The monster gets to tell his side of the story.\u00a0 In the scene where Norman Bates brings Marion a meal, he tells his side of the story and even gives his mother\u2019s side too.\u00a0 Obviously, it\u2019s couched in self-delusion and the confusion associated with a split personality but he describes his life as being in a self-inflicted trap that he no longer even tried to escape.\u00a0 And he admitted that he depended on his mother as much as she depended on him.\u00a0 And the portrait we see is personable, sympathetic and pitiable.\u00a0 Of course, this just sets us up for what follows.<\/p>\n

Norman\u2019s sexual frustration is illustrated in the voyeurism we are shown and of course the maniacal rage is on display in each of the murders and the attempted murder.\u00a0 When the psychiatrist comes on at the end as a deus-ex-machina, he not only explains the origins of Norman\u2019s psychosis but also reveals that there have been additional women victims of \u201cNorman\u2019s mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

And finally, in the soliloquy that ends the dialog, we really get to meet the monster.\u00a0 Mother tells us how sad it is that Norman must be punished and how innocent she is of all the blood.\u00a0 But the dishonesty and the cruelty are on display and at the very last image of \u201cher\u201d we see the monster showing.\u00a0 And the very last image we get is Marion\u2019s car being winched out of the swamp (her coffin being exhumed from her grave).<\/p>\n

What do I like about this movie?\u00a0 Everything.\u00a0 The actors are excellent.\u00a0 The dialog is perfect.\u00a0 Even the music and sound effects reinforce the action on the screen.\u00a0 I don\u2019t watch this movie often because I don\u2019t want to wear it out.\u00a0 But it\u2019s the perfect adult horror movie.\u00a0 The only thing that gives it competition is Silence of the Lambs.\u00a0 I find it to be the perfect embodiment of the modern monster.\u00a0 Man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Re-Posted from October 2017 in honor of Halloween.\u00a0 Boo! In honor of Halloween I\u2019ve gone through the Universal Classic Monster Movies.\u00a0 Moving along let\u2019s look<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[494,354,43,495,191,497,496],"class_list":["post-1713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-alfred-hitchcock","tag-horror","tag-movie-review","tag-norman-bates","tag-ocf-classic-movie-review","tag-saw","tag-silence-of-the-lambs"],"yoast_head":"\nPsycho \u2013 An OCF Classic Movie Review - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/28\/psycho-an-ocf-classic-movie-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Psycho \u2013 An OCF Classic Movie Review - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Re-Posted from October 2017 in honor of Halloween.\u00a0 Boo! 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