Happy 50th Anniversary Psycho

June 16, 1960 - Fifty years ago today Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho opened and changed movies for ever. The film type cast Hitchcock as a maker of horror films rather than suspense or mystery. In explaining the reasons for Norman Bates murder spree it applied reason to evil behavior, in the past characters were just good or bad, without motivation. Audiences were astounded when the female lead was murdered within the first 45 minutes. This had never been done before. The film broke taboos with its open sexuality, scene of a toilet flushing, the cross-dressing Norman and the use of the word transvestite.

The shower scene is one of the most important in movie history, showing everything and showing nothing. Bernard Hermann wrote music that became synonymous with violence and Hitchcock did it all on a shoe string budget and successfully kept the films secrets hidden from the public, including a rule that no one would be admitted after the movie started (prior to Psycho it was common practice to arrive in while a movie was already playing, sit through it and then stay for the next showing to see what you missed. Theatres had a constant stream of people coming in and out.)

Every horror film and slasher pic that has come after owes its roots to Hitchcock's Psycho. After this film audiences knew that the rules had changed and anything can happen.

At the Movie House rating **** stars