John's Horror Banana-nanza Episode Fifty-Two : Psycho

Psycho is the top of the top in slashers. It created the genre, was the first to show an actual
stabbing, and probably influenced the "Giallo" as well, as it is a mystery that leaves you guessing until the end, unless you've already heard the ending, which most people have. Nonetheless, I won't spoil it.

The movie starts with Jamie Lee Curtis's mother, Janet Leigh, stealing money from the bank she works at. She decides to go on the run, and buys a new car, evading a police officer that follows her all around.

Eventually she ends up at a hotel late at night, the Bates Motel. She meets the manager, Norman, who seems friendly but just slightly off. He makes her food, then shows her to her room and leaves. She takes a shower, but is killed while in the shower.

So some investigator shows up at the hotel, looking for the woman who stole the money, Norman is helpful but his story is a mess. So the investigator goes up to the house on the hill, but is killed on the staircase.

So more people start showing up, similar to what happens to Leatherface in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and soon we see exactly who the killer is, and what their motive is.

This movie produced three sequels and a remake,and the remake is a scene for scene copy. Vince Vaughn can't even begin to touch Anthony Perkins as the crazy Norman Bates. While this isn't the best Hitchcock movie, it's probably the most famous, and for good reason. It basically had all the conventions that would explode in the slasher decade of the 80's, a decade in which two of the three sequels were made.