MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > Any shots on this movie that ever stayed...

Any shots on this movie that ever stayed in your heads?

posted 8 years ago by chaveechi
6 replies | jump to latest

even temporarily?

Tell me the shot(s) and give me reasons(s)

For me it was that part in the brutal shower scene right after the naked and wet Marion Crane just started to lay there dead after "Mother" slaughtered her like an animal and we get closeups of her unmoving lifeless feet with her toes all bent and her spilt blood oozing past them into the darkness of the plughole , her lifeless eyes wide open and staring but not seeing a thing and with her mouth open the way it is, just her whole deceased face contorted into the look of pure fear and pain and
her stone dead terrified and pained looking face just laying there completely still and half flattened onto the cold wet floor. It wasn't this full section that stayed with me for a while after my first viewing, i have this weird problem where feet creep me out and as a result that shot of her blood flowing past her dead bare feet stayed with me for days after my first viewing of Psycho, its the only shot in the whole movie that ever had any affect on me, everything else including the full two murder scenes and the whole fruit cellar scene with the long-dead corpse of Norma Bates, had no affect on me whatsoever, but that one 6-second camera pan, something so simple, temporarily did... : O

[–] ecarle 8 years ago

There is certainly something creepy to seeing those feet as the blood flows past them. Its like a foot fetish gone terribly, terribly wrong.

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Many, many great shots in this movie, but I'm on record as loving this one the most:

Arbogast climbing the hill to the house, from the motel.

One single long shot, held for a very long time so that we can "drink in" the atmosphere of the scene. To me, Psycho is "defined" in this one shot alone: the Gothic mansion is the stuff of a Dracula movie, but the detective in his suit and hat gives us a sense of the "modern day" detective noir clashing with the Victorian traditions of horror. The shot is "special" in ways I STILL can't define: day for night? Some matte work on the skyline? I don't know. But it is not a "simple shot." The composition is strong(Hitchcock shows us the house and the motel in the same shot, very rare in the movie), but the visual mood is stronger. How it looks, how it FEELS...have stayed with me forever.

[–] greenbudgie 8 years ago

I always think of Marion peering through the windscreen as she drives her car through the rain. The windscreen wipers go frantically back and forwards in rhythm to Bernard Hermann's music at that point.

[–] SandyR (7600) a month ago

When he's cleaning up after the shower murder. Mostly because of the music, interestingly enough.

[–] [email protected] (5542) a month ago

All good examples. One moment that stays in my mind is a scene before the horror even begins. Marion has decided to run off with the money instead of depositing it in the bank. She's at a red light and sees her boss crossing the street right in front of her.

Earlier she said that she was going to spend the weekend in bed. Now here she was out and about. She looks so guilty in that one moment. She looks like she's been caught. And later when she wakes up in her car and the traffic cop stops to check on her, she looks so guilty again. It's such a contrast to Norman who shows no guilt over his crimes.

Those little moments stay with me.

[–] SandyR (7600) a month ago

Good point. Psycho teaches a great lesson about life and "fairness." Doesn't matter if you have more on a conscience than the next person over. Fate doesn't care.

[–] corey (745) a month ago

The close-up of Norman looking thru the peephole.