Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Psycho” created a tremendous impact on 60’s American films. Hitchcock powerfully describes the murder scene of Marion, while taking a shower at Bates Motel. Viewers and critics of the film believe that it is unconventional and overly violent for young viewers eyes, but some analysts think that it is a form of deconstruction, a new structure of horror film that Hitchcock wants to share. Different perspectives and ideas emerge because of the murder scene in the film, but still, Psycho is viewed by millions of moviegoers who want to experience the morbid description of Hitchcock—for them to believe the critics and viewers’ negative reactions.

After leaving theaters, viewers and critics condemn, attack, and try to ban Hitchcock’s Psycho because they believe that the film presents “simple starkness, grotesque violence, and ugly, twisted humanity” (Kendrick 3). However, the main reason why the film is poorly tolerated by viewers is because it deconstructs the conformist thought of American society towards an “enjoyable film.” American viewers and critics are not prepared for this kind of movie—that is why they respond so negatively to Hitchcock’s motion picture. James Kendrick also states that “Psycho represents as much as possible a film that could cut across the various divides that were separating the “mass audience” into smaller, specialized audiences, which is what made it so effective in fundamentally shattering conventional expectations” (Kendrick 5). That is why people are not able to absorb the gruesome murder that exists in the shower scene of the film. However, it is believed that “Hitchcock forced the viewer right into the middle of the violence as both the person suffering and the person inflicting...

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Crowther, Rosley. “Screen: Sudden Shocks: Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ Bows at 2 Houses.” New York Times. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times. (2007): 37.

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Fitzgerald, Bill. “‘Psycho’ Analysis by Mail.” New York Times. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (2007): X4.

Kendrick, James. “Disturbing New Pathways: Psycho and the Priming of the Audience.” Journal of Popular Film and Television. 2-9.