Why was psycho groundbreaking

Why was psycho so groundbreaking? Was Psycho a successful movie? Is Psycho worth watching? What rating is psycho? Why is psycho in black and white? Is Psycho based on true story? Is there a color version of Psycho? What mental illness does Norman Bates have? Is Norman Bates a real serial killer? Does Emma like Norman? Is Ray in love with Emma?

Did Ray have a crush on Norman? Is Norman dead? Who is smarter ray or Norman? Is Norman Dead promised Neverland? The movies, it turned out, could only kill God once. If not, what is? Slideshow: The best horror films of the last 20 years. Final exam: Take a stab at our horror film trivia quiz. Home Article 'Psycho': The horror movie that changed the genre. Save FB Tweet More. Credit: Everett Collection. See all EW University courses. All rights reserved. But he was canny enough to use charm and evasion as his weapons.

Hitchcock actively courted Geoffrey Sherlock, the chief U. Sherlock loved to socialize with filmmakers so did his British counterpart John Trevelyan and he was not immune to the lubricating affects of alcohol. Hitchcock's use of black-and-white film for Psycho allowed him to show blood going down the drain in the shower scene, something that would never have been tolerated in colour.

I also think he wanted to make a lot of money Psycho earned more than Rear Window and North by Northwest combined. And I think he was becoming increasingly interested in disturbed psychology. All of those things came into play with this.

What might Hitchcock made of today's torture porn movies like the Saw and Hostel franchises, where death and dismemberment are graphic and constant? In many ways, these films are the spawn of Psycho. I think it would have dug deep into him. Because I think there's a lot of that in him already.

Due to his reputation, he managed to get actresses and actors for much less than their usual fees. The legend has it Janet Leigh agreed to make the picture without even inquiring about her potential salary.

Leigh, along with Anthony Perkins, was a proven box-office draw and practically secured a wide audience for the movie. The legendary artist was hired to design the title sequence, but allegedly had a vital role in the most famous of all Hitchcock scenes: the shower murder.

The impact Psycho made on the filmmaking and filmgoing world of the sixties should be a topic for a completely separate article. In short, the most direct consequences would be the following. Hitchcock, on the other hand, suddenly became known as a masterful horror director, even though Psycho was practically his first true effort in the genre. NOTE: For educational and research purposes only. Absolutely our highest recommendation. Reload document Open in new tab Joseph Stefano has a long list of credits of various shapes and sizes including his work as a songwriter , but he will always be fondly remembered by genre fans for two outstanding projects: he produced and wrote many episodes of the original version of the television show The Outer Limits , and he adapted the screenplay for the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho from the novel by Robert Bloch.

Some of them start out with an act of violence; others simply indicate the locale. It all depends on what the purpose is. You show the city, then a building in the city, a room in that building. In the opening of Psycho I wanted to say that we were in Phoenix, and we even spelled out the day and the time, but I only did that to lead up to a very important fact: that it was two-forty-three in the afternoon and this is the only time the poor girl has to go to bed with her lover.

It also allows the viewer to become a Peeping Tom. Jean Douchet, a French film critic, made a witty comment on that scene. He wrote that since John Gavin is stripped to his waist, but Janet Leigh wears a brassiere, the scene is only satisfying to one half of the audience. In truth, Janet Leigh should not have been wearing a brassiere.

The sex angle was raised so that later on the audience would think that Anthony Perkins is merely a voyeur. Well, one of the reasons for which I wanted to do the scene in that way was that the audiences are changing.

I know that they themselves behave as John Gavin and Janet Leigh did. I think that nowadays you have to show them the way they themselves behave most of the time. Yes, it occurred to me that Psycho was oriented toward a new generation of filmgoers.

What was it that attracted you to the novel? I think that the thing that appealed to me and made me decide to do the picture was the suddenness of the murder in the shower, coming, as it were, out of the blue. That was about all. The killing is pretty much like a rape. I believe the novel was based on a newspaper story.

The mysterious atmosphere is, to some extent, quite accidental. In fact, the first part of the story was a red herring. We purposely made that beginning on the long side, with the bit about the theft and her escape, in order to get the audience absorbed with the question of whether she would or would not be caught. So you deliberately play upon this fact to control their thoughts. In the average production, Janet Leigh would have been given the other role.

I purposely killed the star so as to make the killing even more unexpected. Psycho has a very interesting construction and that game with the audience was fascinating. I was directing the viewers. You might say I was playing them, like an organ.