Watching PSYCHO for the First Time! Movie Reaction and Discussion
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- Hope you enjoyed my reaction to Psycho
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
1:34 Reaction
35:05 Discussion
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#psycho #alfredhitchcock #moviereaction 
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Marion getting killed so early on is shocking. Not only is Janet Leigh the main protagonist, she was a huge movie star at the time and one of the reasons people went to see the film. It would be like going to a Tom Cruise film today and he dies within the first half of the movie.
Hitchcock was afraid of birds. Not only were there stuffed birds and pictures in the film, but bird references in the names, Crane & Phoenix. Anthony chose to eat candy corn like a bird as well. For a low budget film shot by a TV crew it outshines most films ever made. 🐦
So, this is a fowl movie?
is that what he's eating? I always thought it was sunflower seeds. I never thought about all the bird imagery, that's very cool.
@@billolsen4360😩😂
He was also afraid of cops, which is why he made him so menacing in the film. Groundbreaking for the time, because police were always the good guys. Always. People really trusted police officers then.
The scene where Norman sinks the car in the swamp is interesting.
Hitchcock had a hydraulic ramp buried just below the surface, so they could half sink the car, pause for a bit, then lower the ramp to fully sink the car.
But why go to all that trouble??
The answer is that Hitchcock loved playing with an audiences sense of morality.
He tricks you into siding with the bad guy , because you want the car to sink so Norman doesn't get caught
Love a Hitchcock reaction.
Rear Window, Vertigo, Dial M for Murder etc, all great storytelling.
I remember showing this film to my young nephew years ago. He dismissed it at first because it was in b&w, but quickly became mesmerized by it. When it was over, he was like "What a great movie!" Of course I had to laugh.
Many, if not all, of Hitchcock's films were experiments in filmmaking in one way or another.
In "Psycho," the killing of Marion, the protagonist, disorients the viewer by eliminating the protagonist the film spent some time investing itself in, disrupting the classical model of narration. The film sustains its momentum by transitioning the viewers' interest to Norman before settling on Lila and Sam.
The thematic elements present in Psycho are classic Hitchcock cinema: psychotic behavior, voyeurism and motherhood. These themes are also explored in Hitchcock's Rear Window, Notorious, Vertigo and Shadow of a Doubt. Indeed, "Shadow of a Doubt" may be regarded as a "Psycho" precursor. In "Psycho" these themes are explored in greater depth.
Hitchcock's studio, Paramount, refused to fund "Psycho" because it had no faith in the source material. The film was an experiment in production as well. "Psycho" is based on a 1959 novel by Robert Bloch of the same name. Today, both the novel and the film are considered masterpieces of the horror genre. Paramount also would not agree to distribute the film without major concessions from Hitchcock. These included Hitchcock personally financing the project himself while foregoing his usual director’s fee. For his part, Hitchcock retained 60% ownership of the film. Hitchcock mortgaged his own house to finance the film and shot it using his tv crew. Hitchcock had a popular weekly tv anthology series at the time. Clearly, he had a lot of confidence in his tv crew. This low-budget film quickly made millions and made Hitchcock a lot of money.
The music for "Psycho" was by Bernard Herrmann, regarded as one of the greatest composers for film.
Hitchcock was not only a master of suspense but also a master of visual plot reveals, such as the camera movement in Marion's bedroom in Phoenix. You get the idea she's running off with the money very quickly. Hitchcock learned that making silent films 100 years ago.
Marion Crane. Crane is also, as you all know, a bird. Birds are stuffed on the wall in Bates's office. Marion eats like a bird, he says. A small frame of a bird falls to the floor when Bates backs out of the bathroom after the murder. Birds were on the mind of Hitchcock for his next movie, The Birds. The word Birds also means girls in British English (American: Chick). Hitchcock was British and obsessed with beautiful, blonde girls in distress. Marion Crane was killed by Hitchcock just so that you could find Norman Bates. Marion was his most precious bird, naked and all.
Yes, but you forgot to mention that Marion was from Phoenix, Arizona. 😂
He said "I am *Norma* Bates!" not "Norman" at the end. Great reaction
Classics weren’t made to stand up to today’s standards, they were thankfully made to stand up to their day’s standards, which weren’t better or worse than ours, just different. You either get and enjoy that for what it is or you don’t ✅
Great reaction, man! So cool to watch somebody who doesn’t know who the killer is until the end! You should check out Notorious, Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo, Frenzy, the Lary Vanishes… so excited for you!!!
One of the most unusual shots was when Norman goes up the stairs to his mother and WITHOUT A CUT the camera moves up and over the door frame to a shot looking straight down the staircase as Norman carries "mother". It is so skillfully done that you are tricked into not asking WHY you don't see the mother's face.
The brilliance of Alfred Hitchcock to set horror in an all-American setting like a motel. Motels were, in those days, considered a safe, economical alternative to hotels and were used by thousands and thousands of Americans on road trips and vacations (and the irony of the policeman chastising Marion for sleeping in her car on the side of the road when there are motels around where she'd be safer). Also, the shot in the shower of the camera spiraling out while focused on Marion's iris. The didn't have autofocus in those days, so the shot had to done while spiraling the camera out and constantly refocusing the lens to that it didn't go out of focus. Hitchcock knew what he wanted and found ways, with his crew, to do it. This movie was filmed using his television show crew on a budget of $800,000.
Hitchcock also played with the public during pre-production. He sent people out to buy up as many copies of the book "Psycho" that the movie is based (loosely) on, to keep the twist ending as secret as possible. There were publicity stills taken with director chairs with the cast names on them, including one for "mother". The voice of mother was done by having several actresses reading the lines and then blending them together, so it was never really identifiable. He announced casting calls for the role of mother but never had any intention of casting them. All to keep the public in the dark about the truth about mother. In the book, the character of Norman is a middle-aged, balding, overweight, unlikable character, which was changed for the movie. Hitchcock wanted Norman to be a sympathetic character, and cast Anthony Perkins in the role. Perkins was mostly known as a young leading man type, had been in stage productions and some movies - he was in the movie "The Matchmaker" as the romantic lead and had teen/heartthrob status. (The Matchmaker would later become the musical "Hello Dolly").
When "Psycho'" was originally released, Hitchcock made a demand of theater owners that absolutely no one would be admitted after the movie had started. This was an entirely new situation, as the movie going public was used to showing up at the movie theater whenever, sitting down even if the movie had already started, watching the movie and sitting through the next showing up to the point when they came in and leaving. Hitchcock wanted to avoid people walking in so late they miss Janet Leigh entirely and wonder where the hell she was, also, he wanted to have the audience attention focused on the movie, and not be distracted by late comers/early leavers.
There were also numerous things in the movie to unnerve the 1960s audience. The music score was a bit jarring, done solely by stringed instruments. The credits were unusual with being split and going off in different directions and coming back in again. The opening shot in the hotel room of two people who have just (obviously) had sex, or at least an intensely passionate make out session, then finding out they're not married. The lead, and best known, actress being killed off a third of the way through the movie. The $40,000 dollars being not the key to the movie but a misleading red herring, changing it from being more of a 'caper' movie and becoming a horror movie. Showing the toilet in the motel room and hearing it flush was put in deliberately to further unnerve the audience, because up until then toilets were never seen in movies at all. After Marion's death, the audience sympathy switched from her to Norman, a poor, bedeviled boy who was only trying to do the best he could, under his mother's eyes and her wrath. The final reveal of who the murderer really was would have left the audience confused, so they added in the whole ending monologue where the Simon Oakland character explains about how Mother has now taken over completely.
'Psycho II' (1983) is a MUST for you to react to now. It is a fantastic sequel that surprised everyone with how good it is. Set 22 years after the events if the original, it begins with Norman being released from the nuthouse...
The third is worth a watch as well. It’s not as good of a plot but Anthony Perkins directed it and some of the effects used were quite brilliant for someone who had never directed a film before. We still see some of them used today.
The other secretary that Marion talks to in the early scenes is Pat Hitchcock, Alfred's daughter.
Check out the film "Hitchcock" with Anthony Hopkins in the role of the film director. It's a cool dive into the making of "Psycho".
As Marion is clearly reacting to the voices in her head, they are imaginative rather than telepathically divined. Best. Mike.
Pretty clearly shown by the internal echoes and also her expressions as she imagines the conversations.
"I'm NORMA Bates!!" yelled by Norman.😊
My good friend Dorothy's father did the music for this film. She has wonderful stories to tell. Fantastic reaction!
Norman's mother never remarried. The man was just her lover.
Another tidbit: Janet Leighs daughter with actor Tony Curtis is Jamie Lee Curtis who starred in the Halloween horror movies. She just won an Oscar last year for best supporting actress in another movie.
It was Alfred Hitchcock's idea, to cast Janet Leigh in the role of Marion, because he felt that no one would be able to accept that her character was killed this early in the film, because Janet Leigh was already a big star back then!
Fun fact: before shooting the film, Hitchcock spread a rumor through the Hollywood press that he was thinking of casting different starlets to play Mrs. Bates.
Watching people try to figure out where a Hitchcock film will take them, will always be entertaining. You just never know. 😂.
Edit: May I suggest a Hitchcock Dark Comedy?
The Trouble with Harry.
A delightful film. It was Shirley MacLaine’s first film. It has a young Jerry Mathers. And a very dashing John Forsythe.
One of the main ideas of Hitchcock was to take a major film actress, make it obvious that she was the central character\ protagonist, and then kill her before the halfway point.
You simply didn't do that in films before this movie.
Hitchcock really was a genius
Although Robert Bloch's novel made that decision before Hitchcock. I think that just excited him about the project more.
I’m 72 and have drunk milk almost every day of my life. Milk has nothing to do with evil, but rather a wholesome outlook on life. It is also better at hydrating than water.
Milk's a wholesome thing to have for dinner, in contrast to how unwholesome the people are.
1. Marion Crane was played by Janet Leigh, who was a huge star at the time, so it was similar to knocking off Drew Barrymore.
2. "Psycho" is based on a novel of the same title that was famous for the shocking twist of the decoy protagonist getting offed in the middle of the story, but it suits the story, which is called "Psycho," after all, not "Office Thief." It is the brilliance of Hitchcock as the King of Suspense, that he can telegraph the story in the title, base it on a bestselling novel from which the twist was already known, and still manage to surprise his audiences with the reveal at the end. He even did a ridiculous promotional schtick with ads begging people not to spoil the ending for others and telling movie theaters not to let anyone in late, both tricks of cheapo Grade B fright flicks. Again, remember the novel was a bestseller. Thousands and thousands of people had already read it.
3. Hitchcock's movies often use seductive imagery to add to the discomfort and suspense of the situations by making them feel intrusively intimate. The extramarital relationship of Marion and Sam would have been risque to 1960 audiences. Likewise, Janet Leigh in her bra in two scenes. However, the nudity was actually subliminal. I laughed when I saw you had pixelated some bits in the shower scene. In reality, Janet Leigh was wearing a thin, beige body suit and the scene was slightly blurred. There really is no nudity, but the audience's imagination supplies it. Tricky, tricky, Mr. Hitchcock.
4. It was an artistic choice to do it in black and white, however, it was also practical. American movies were subject to censorship by the industry back then, and having a stabbing scene filmed in color would have been disapproved as too gory. So Hitchcock filmed in black and white to lessen the gore factor - and create the illusion of a bare body. It also helped them use the ideal material for the blood - chocolate syrup. Movie magic..
5. Also, I take issue with the popular idea that "Psycho" is a horror movie. Hitchcock didn't do horror movies. The closest he ever got to that genre was "The Birds," which I recommend for his style and artistry, but it's a very weird movie, because it's not his specialty. Hitchcock made crime movies and spy thrillers. Not horror movies. "Psycho" is a crime movie.
6. Oh, and in reference to the disappearance of the concerned cop, the geography is one of the confusing parts of this movie to people not familiar with the locations. Marion lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Her boyfriend, Sam, lived in Fairvale, California, at least a two-day drive away, maybe three if you factor in the morning after the second night on the road. It was a long-distance relationship. The whole encounter with the cop and the car salesman happened in some unnamed town somewhere between Phoenix and Fairvale. So Marion is awakened by the cop, then drives into the town and goes to the car lot where the salesman greets her as the first customer of the day. So this happened early in the morning. Then she doesn't get to Bates Motel until after dark, so she has traveled a good many more miles from the car lot. Cops don't just wander across whole states. They have jurisdictions. There was neither cause nor authority for that cop to follow Marion or investigate what happened to her once she was out of his town.
Of course Arbogast came to track her down because he wasn't a cop authorized within a jurisdiction. He was a private investigator, and he could go wherever he liked. But he didn't need to meet up with the concerned cop or the car salesman, because he already had a lead for how to find Marion - her sister. Why bother to hunt on your own for the missing person, when you can just follow the close relative who is also looking for her and knows her better than you do? Arbogast just followed Lila around until she led him to Sam and the Fairvale area.
So why did we spend so much time on that cop if he wasn't really part of the story? Well, Hitchcock made crime suspense thrillers, and the concerned cop is what's known in that genre as a red herring. That whole part of the movie is designed to misdirect the audience and get us deeper into the suspense of Marion's theft arc. By the time she gets to the motel, we are fully invested in all the complications and pitfalls in her plot line. We're expecting that cop to show back up. We're even wondering if the psycho is Marion or the cop. Then whammo! We get slammed into a whole different main plot line when Marion runs into the realistically random violence of a deranged serial killer.
I recommend you do more Hitchcock. You could do all the Hitchcock movies and not regret it. My recommendations: Rear Window, North by Northwest, Strangers on a Train, and my personal favorite, the lesser known Shadow of a Doubt.
Welcome to the resplendent world of Alfred Hitchcock! Keep diving into Hitch’s catalogue, you’ll see his influence evvvvverywhere in cinema.🫶🎬👏
In 1960 40k was equal to 422,809 dollars in today's money.
Great reaction! I loved your expressions as the twist was revealed. Thanks for this!
Terrific film. A classic. Enjoyed your reaction.
Thumbs up my dear, especially for the treat of watching someone see this for the first time without previous info...lovely! Thanks much, luv...
I think that, in general, great movies are always going to be great, even after decades, but this is especially true of Hitchcock, His movies are never tied to current events or trends, and they don't depend on having seen other specific movies. Someone said once that you could watch every single Hitchcock movie and the only thing you'd know about the history of the 20th Century was that World War II happened.
Hoping you do more Hitchcock on the channel.
That's not true. You'd also know there was a Cold War, though you might be a bit fuzzy about who the antagonists were.
@@jenfries6417 Good point.
Mr. Cassidy got that money by cheating on his taxes!!!
I loved your review!
In an interview on RUclips, Janet Leigh explained the camera movements. Instead of blocking the actors' positions and movements in a scene, Hitchcock blocked the camera movements. The actors had to move with the camera instead of the other way around.
Good video. BTW, have you heard of a "Psycho 2" and "Psycho 3"? If not, then you should react to them, since they don't get as much attention as the first movie.
Another brilliant reaction/review! Thank you!
There's no Bonnie and Clyde to this. Sam has no idea she was doing this.
Hitchcock had an early idea to film only the shower scene in color, and with no music (He once used a flash of red during a gunshot scene in Spellbound). He later decided against shooting it in color because he thought it would be too gruesome, and it would mean spending extra money and time to get the color of blood just right. Bernard Herman thought the shower scene was better WITH music, and scored it anyway, leading Hitchcock to admit that it was indeed much better with the music. (I believe I've read that it was actually Saul Bass - who did the lined openings for PSYCHO) who storyboarded all the angles of the shower scene for Hitchcock.)
Yeah, can't really call it the Kubrick stare when this Hitchcock film was made nearly a dozen years before A Clockwork Orange.
Both awesome films though.
Yeah I realised the other day thinking back on the reaction I had messed that up and got it confused and probably look stupid XD
Many organizations considered it pornography and rallied against it. Hitch would reply with, "It's only a movie."
Hope you watch more Hitchcock! Rear Window and Vertigo would be great choices
It is more suspense thriller than horror. Horror generally has a heckuva lot more gore. But good luck in your journey watching the classics!
19:30 This is a shot at dark humor which is still present in today's horror movies. It also isn't so much about how easy the car/body evidence can be found but more about that the Norman's cover up can't be reversed or get it through to completion before sunrise 😂.
Janet Leigh, is the mother of actressJamie Liegh Curtis of Halloween fame.
While you were busy jabbering about the Kubrick stare, you missed something.
what did I miss?
Yours is a great review of perhaps Hitchcock's best and most frightening movies!
I love a good cold glass of milk 🤷🏻♀️❤️
No Country for Old Men does the Milk thing as well.
There's also an Apple thing. If you watch Cinema Sins, they always point out, "Eating an apple to show you're an a$$hole" trope.
If you have an interest in visual film making ...
This isn't a reaction request but something to see just from a cinematic view.
It's a music video in Japanese, so you get the show don't tell, but the lyrics are the same as the visual story.
Aldious Lose Control music video.
Pay close attention to blocking in the shots, and musically how the song plays out.
That cop never interacted with anyone other than Marion. I think he was all in her imagination/paranoia.
Psych II is fun, and also the series Bates Motel.😊😊
I think you misinterpreted the cop's role in this. He wasn't doing anything unusual, just asking why she was sleeping in the car, but her guilt was starting to overwhelm her, resulting in her to act suspicious in front of him, which made him take a second look. Decided there wasn't an issue and went off to continue his job, but by then her guilt was overtaking all her thoughts.
Good Lord!!
Where have you been???
I really enjoyed your reaction to this great movie. I highly recommend you react to The Sixth Sense.
Just noticed you did. I also recommend reacting to Unbreakable.
Psycho I'd considered the first Slasher film.
Thanks, Will! 🩸 Many RUclipsrs react to PSYCHO (1960), but very few watch PSYCHO II (1983). I strongly urge you to react to it... it's so fun, develops old characters and adds to the lore! ෴ There are plenty of great Hitchcock movies. One of my favorites is his dark comedy THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1955). I hope you'll see and enjoy it. ෴ If you'd like to see a movie heavily influenced by PSYCHO, be sure to watch Brian De Palma's DRESSED TO KILL (1980).
$40,000 = $400,000 today
a new average house was about $20,000 then
but about $300,000 today
The average cost of a house in 1960 was approximately $12,000 not $20,000. You could get a very luxurious house for $40,000.
6:29 did the policeman just cross state lines? Isn't that illegal?
Hitchcock is my fav director
$40,000 in 1960 would be about $450,000 today.
hello! please do Rear Window, my personal favourite.
The "this movie has no themes" guy is just dumb.
The film is all about voyeurism. We find Norman creepy and maladjusted for his behaviour towards Marion, but Hitchcock (and every filmmaker) is making the audience into creepy voyeurs. We're spying unseen and unnoticed on all the characters, even to the extent of getting us to root for a murderer.
It's also about identity. Is a person who they believe themselves to be? Or are we defined by how others react to us? Or is a person defined solely by how they behave? Norman was a serial murderer, but he didn't believe himself to be. Marion was a good person who was woefully bad at being a criminal. Do their actions define their identities?
Yeah you're 100% right, I struggled to articulate it in the moment off the top of my head, well said
The stupid way you laugh all of the time. You've seen this movie at least three times before.
You're reaction is so fake.
*Your
You’re is a shortened version of you are.
6,666.666 x 6 = $40,000.00❗