Psycho

Storyline

Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 psychological horror thriller Psycho obliterated the conventions of American cinema, single-handedly inventing the modern slasher genre and grossing over $50 million on a shoestring $800,000 budget. Filmed in stark, high-contrast black-and-white with his television crew, the film shocks audiences by following Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who impulsively steals $40,000 from her employer to marry her indebted lover. Caught in a torrential rainstorm while driving to California, Marion checks into the desolate, off-highway Bates Motel, managed by the shy, bird-stuffing taxidermy enthusiast Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins in an immortal, deeply unnerving performance), who lives in an imposing gothic Victorian house with his domineering, jealous mother. In one of the most famous, revolutionary scenes in film history—the 78-piece, 45-second shower murder set to Bernard Herrmann's shrieking, jagged violin strings—Hitchcock kills off his leading lady in the first act. When Marion's sister Lila (Vera Miles) and private detective Arbogast investigate, the terrifying truth of Norman's fractured psyche and 'Mother' is unearthed, establishing Psycho as an immortal titan of terror.