Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho: The Story of Norman Bates Essay

The scene right after this one takes place from Norman’s point of view. Here we witness him peeping on Marion while she’s undressing through a hidden hole in the wall. It is made clear to the audience that Norman is sexually repressed and that he desires Marion. In her article, “Coveting the Feminine,” Diane Negra writes on Norman Bates’ psychology and how it is stemmed in his repressed sexuality and oedipal complex, “Psycho features a protagonist who manifest extreme behavior in a desperate attempt to circumvent cultural restrictions on the expression of forms of sexuality judged inimical to the status quo,” and, “Norman Bates takes on the personality of the mother he murdered out of jealousy, projects his jealousy onto her, and murders women he finds desirable in order to punish himself,” (Negra, 193-200). The bird imagery is again prevalent in this scene. While Marion is changing she is next to two framed portraits of these small helpless little birds. Norman watches her through the peephole like a predator stalking his prey. Clearly, Hitchcock heavily included birds in the films mise-en-scene as a visual representation of Norman’s relationships with women.

Since it’s infancy at the beginning of the eighteenth century, horror has followed certain conventions that results in an awakening of the senses, evoking intense emotions of fear and terror in the audience. Horror feeds off triggering the primal fears embedded within all of humankind, creating a sense of menace that is the very substance of this genre. Furthermore, the central menace of a piece tends to enlighten the human mind to the world of the paranormal and the enigmatic, dark side of the unknown. The movie “Psycho” directed by Alfred Hitchcock is a perfect example. Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre, “Psycho” was filmed with great tact, grace and art in regards to horror conventions.

In Stephen King's "Why we Crave Horror", the famous novelist argues for a rather depressing explanation of society's fixation with horror movies. He insinuates today's generation's obsession over gory and demonic storylines is a result of our internal need for violence that must be satisfied. Such claims may shock readers at first, however, King's use of diction, imagery and tone leave us no choice but to agree with his analysis of human behaviour. He uses these rhetorical tools to prove to the naive reader that we truly are "mentally ill".

Hitchcock’s Psycho is a great representative of horror and thriller genres. The director masterfully creates an atmosphere of suspense and creates tension. Hitchcock blends characteristics of a thriller with horror, making the audience terrified. The director creates situations that can happen to anybody of the viewers, and thus, makes such scenes even more scaring and disturbing. For instance, the scene of the murder in a shower impresses the audience to a

Hitchcock's Psycho Psycho first hit our screens in 1960 directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It faced major controversy, as it was different. Horror films before this were more unrealistic and gruesome. Psycho was a groundbreaking film of the horror genre. It was more realistic the events could happen in reality.

In 1960 one black and white movie shocked us all. This movie attacked our minds and our hearts in one of the most vulnerable places in what is considered to be one of the greatest and most epic scenes of all time. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho made women and even some men afraid take a shower. This movie was the first of its kind and gave birth to a whole new genre of movies, the slasher film. Without this movie Freddie Kruger, Jason, Michael, Leatherface, and all of the other psycho killers would cease to exist. All these killers, even Ghost Face from Scream owe Norman Bates a huge debt of gratitude. If it wasn’t for him these killers would not exist Norman Bates was the first of the masked psycho killers.

Alfred Hitchcock is arguably the greatest director of all time. Many of his films are considered standards of American cinema and inspired many of today’s directors. Even though Hitchcock is known as timeless director, he had an understanding of philosophy that was beyond his time. Hitchcock had a brilliant perception as to how the mind works and human reaction. Hitchcock’s understanding of philosophy can be seen in his film Vertigo and illustrates how many theories can be debilitating in everyday life.

going back to the other views to see where the policeman is and how is

Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock, was shocking for its time. Made in the 1960's when film censorship was very tight to today's standards, Hitchcock pushed the limits of what could be shown and did with psycho things that had never been done before. The cinematic art, symbolism and sub-conscious images in this film were brilliant for the time and still are now. Realised for this, psycho has been copied in many ways and the things that made it great have become very clichéd.

Entrails torn from the body with bare hands, eyes gouged out with razor blades, battery cables, rats borrowing inside the human body, power drills to the face, cannibalism, credit cards, business cards, Dorsia, Testoni, Armani, Wall Street; all of these things are Patrick Bateman’s world. The only difference between Bateman and anybody else is what is repulsive to Bateman and what is repulsive to the rest of the world. Bateman has great interest in the upper class life, fashions, and social existence, but at the same time he is, at times, sickened by the constant struggle to be one up on everybody else. On the other hand Bateman’s nightlife reveals a side of him never seen during the day. Bateman is relaxed, impulsive, and confident

The character I chose to analyze is Norman Bates. Norman Bates originated as the main character in Alfred Hitchcock's movie "Psycho". In the movie "Psycho", Norman is a middle-aged who runs a motel. He is a psychotic serial killer with many psychological issues. More recently Norman Bates became the main character in a television show called "Bates Motel." In the show, we see Norman in his teenage years. This is where we see Norman's psychological issues begin to develop. As a teenage Norman, we also get to see more of Norman's relationship with his mother.

Richard Gilmore in his article “The Existential Hitchcock” equates Hitchcock’s work to the anamorphic skull in Holbein’s painting signifying emptiness. For Pascal Bonitzer “The whole of Hitchcock’s oeuvre . . . is haunted by the anamorphic skull of the memento mori” (qtd in Gilmore n.pag). The suspense genre for which Hitchcock became famous itself suggests an abyss beneath, an emptiness over which one is suspended. Hitchcock’s McGuffin stands for nothing that drives his plots ahead. In North by Northwest when Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) asks Roger O.Thornhill about the “O” initial in the middle of his name, he says “Nothing.” There lies a funny, sad and tragic truth to this description of nothing at the centre of his own identity.

Sigmund Freud 's Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality Development states that there is a structural model of the psyche, which splits the human identity into three instances of Ego, Superego, and ID. In Psychoanalytic Stage of Development, there are five stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital. Even though Sigmund Freud never was writing about the movie _Psycho_, theories of Freud, have a great connection with the personality of Norman Bates. According to Oedipus complex, by Sigmund Freud, it introduced the term for a child 's libidinal attachment to the opposite sex parent, while experiencing jealousy and dislike of the same

One of the reasons that this film made the top ten films of all time

Alfred Hitchcock is widely considered one of the most essential directors of all time and has undeniably revolutionized the cinematic art form and horror genre movement. A key ingredient to his productions is the psychoanalysis of the movie’s villains and the deceivery at comes with deep psychosis. These elements are what have taken Hitchcock from a good director to a legend. Hitchcock layers his movies in ways in which every time one watches his films they can pick up on a new detail that deepens the meaning and effects of the storyline. This is exactly what he does in his 1960 film, Psycho. By layering Freudian psychoanalysis, creating a twist ending and suspense, and giving the villain of the story, Norman Bates, a deeply rich background story, Hitchcock creates phenomenon in the audience arguably scarier, then Norman’s murders. Through this use the psychoanalysis and backstory, the audience also feels sympathy for Norman. This duality is what makes Hitchcock a wonderful artist and Psycho, a piece of art.